I’ve been following Night Riots’ music for a while now and I think they’re awesome. I had the opportunity to ask them a couple of questions regarding their new music, their tour life, hobbies, as well as their favorite artists. They also recently released a new song “On The Line” which I personally love specifically because of its lyrics. It’s such a good and catchy song, so I obviously wanted to know more about it and what inspired them to create it.

“I went to a party out in the country where we live in California. It’s a ranch with two trailers on a hill and there is a tribe of girls who live there. They’re girls who shoot shotguns, ride horses and listen to Kendrick. In one of the bedrooms there was a group of 5 or 6 of them cast out on the bed like modern day Marie Antoinettes. They were laughing and passing around a blunt,” says Night Riots.

“It struck me because it wasn’t a performance, it wasn’t overtly sexual. There were no boys around so it wasn’t them trying to stand out or trying to impress. They were just being themselves.  There was a lawlessness and a realness that struck me. This is the modern youth, I believe this is the majority of people, not the sensationalized thing we see in entertainment right now where everything needs to be shocking and full octane. In these times you can shut the real you out because you feel like you need to put on a show to stand out. To me putting it all on the line is reconciling with who you are and putting it out to the world. That’s where the idea for the song came from initially.”

It’s definitely an interesting story behind their new song, which they’re currently performing on tour. If you’re keeping up with their social media you’ve probably noticed that they’re often on the road. So I was curious to know what their go-to activities are when traveling, such as reading books, listening to a specific playlist, etc.

“Tour life is a roller coaster. It’s a series of highs and lows… it can be exhausting but you also get chances to see some of the weirdest and coolest things that most people never get to. We listen to a lot of books on tape. Currently we are all blasting through the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. We all have Nintendo Switches so that always helps to kill some time,” says Night Riots

Being on tour also means they get to visit a lot of cool places and play in historical venues.  “Every city has its own charm. We always love going through Denver. The Troubadour in LA is one of our favorite venues to play. It just feels really good and there’s so much history in that place. Touring the UK and Europe was pretty surreal. I really like Scotland” says Night Riots. However, there are still a couple of places they haven’t played at that they hope to do so someday, like UK festivals such as Glastonbury.

So, how did Night Riots come about? What inspired them to start a band and who are they’re musical influences? “As we started playing we got into bands like U2, Depeche Mode and the Cure. We are really diverse though now in what we listen to. We’ve been into a lot of hip hop like J.Cole, Kid Cudi, and Logic.”

Night Riots are continuing to make new music, which will hopefully be released soon in a new album. “We have been working on new music whenever we aren’t on the road.  We’ve put out a couple new songs from these sessions and hopefully will compile it all into an album later this year. I think fans can expect it to be a distilled better version of what we’ve always been.”

For those here in LA, Night Riots will be performing at El Rey Theatre in two weekends (June 30th). It will definitely be a fun show, so make sure to get your tix before they sell out!

One of my top favorite Night Riot songs (oldie but goodie):