The Nilz is a really good irish punkband which
have done a new 5-track LP. They answered very
fast on my interview. September 2026
You have been playing since 2016? is it still
fun to do this as it was in the beginning?
-Yeah, it’s different though to be honest, at
the start it was like a rebirth as I’d taken
some time away from music and The Nilz was a
sort of comeback at the time & now it’s very
much a part of me & almost more about the music
now than it was back then, 10yrs ago it kinda
felt a wild showman kinda band was missing from
our scene, where as now I think much more
appreciated for our sound as well as the antics
What´s the biggest difference if you compare
when you started, with concerts, the way you do
music etc?
-Very little has changed, we’ve never thought of
ourselves as anything other than who we are,
venues & crowds got bigger for a while when we
were working with a booking agent but even then
we still played small DIY venues & played
support to up & comers, big venues are fine for
good sound but there’s a real disconnect I find
with audience who’s back behind a crash barrier,
I much prefer to feel the crowds sweat on my
face
Have it been the same members allt the time?
Please tell me a little about everone, name,
age, instruments and bands on the side or before
The Nilz?
- No we’ve had a few changes over the years, I’m
the only original member left, attitude
problems, political differences & lack of
talent, not everyone gets to be in The Nilz.
We do have a solid lineup now though for the
past couple of years
Gaz Derelict on Drums
Chris Dahmner on Bass
Andy (Big Red) Byrne Rythm guitar
Grenade Lead guitar (Don’t pull his pin)
To play this sort of music in Ireland, how is
that?
- It’s great there’s a much younger crowd coming
to gigs now after COVID and they’re now
beginning to organise gigs themselves & are all
involved in activism it’s brilliant to see
Is it many places to play in Ireland?
- It fluctuates unfortunately there are some
long established spots and some more DIY spaces
& squats that pop up & down
To play this sort of punk, was it obviously from
the beginning?
- Our style has always been a mix of Hardcore,
Pop Punk & elements of Glam rock they’re the
genres I’ve always been interested in, with
Refused being a major influence of ours.
You are never tired of the musicstyle?
- No I live & breathe punk music, there are
other bands & genres I like as well, you should
never be dismissive of opening yourself to
anything really, that’s what I think anyway,
life is a totality of experience
Other good bands in Ireland in the same style?
- Yeah we’re very lucky to have a gick load of
really good bands, Rant, Easy Company, MART,
Eyecum, Uptight Dad, Survival Horror, Nichts,
Numbskull Narrative & that’s just the tip! Way
too many to mention & loads that I haven’t seen
yet, our scene is really talented for how small
it is
You did a record split with swedish Existenz,
how come?
-We had a friend living in Copenhagen who asked
us to come over & play but he didn’t realise
what that entailed, so I decided to reach to
Erik from Zooparty who I’d put on in Dublin &
Belfast & they’d stayed in my house & that so
they put us in touch with ExistenZ and from
there we gigswapped for a couple of years
between Sweden & Ireland then I think a label
they were on, Hepcat records, offered to put out
a split with us & ExistenZ and an Irish label
called Deadlamb got involved, it was the first
vinyl that wasn’t a pure compilation that we
were released it was exciting but we didn’t
realise there’s a different mastering technique
for vinyl so the masters we gave them were very
wrong, that’s why our side of that split skips
the whole time, listen up kids! Get your masters
correct
What does the word punk mean to you, is it only
a word, a musicstyle or is it a lifestyle?
-It´s all of the above it’s also a style, an
ethos, an anchor, a mindset, a curse, an
hypocrisy, one the best things to ever happen to
me & also I don’t give a fuck about it as a word
or a description of someone it can be very
duplicitous
You release your new record Ambivert, are you
satsified how it came out?
-Yeah I’m very happy with it, it was a little
rushed as it wasn’t planned, we got an offer
from FOAD Musick who are a great Irish DIY label
so we couldn’t pass it up, I really like the
songs on it one of which was written by a good
friend of ours Tommy O’Sullivan from
Deepinthewoods66 who asked me to put lyrics & a
melody to it which I had loads of fun doing
I have only the Ambivert record and the split
with Existenz, since before, what other records
have you released and how can I get them?
-We’ve an album called “Unicorn Hardsports” it’s
available on our Bandcamp along with our digital
back catalogue
When you play live are you playing songs from
every record?
-Yeah we like to take songs from our early EP’s
and mix them up with tunes off our album and new
songs as of yet unreleased
Please tell me a little about following songs+
Turn my gas off
Food for THOT
Three way kiss
-Turn my gas off is about my love of Auto erotic
asphyxia! I love to have my “gas” turned off
during sex or while masturbating
-Food for THOT was inspired by a photo sent to
me by a fan of ours with that tagline, I asked
them if I could use it to write a song, they
were delight, we used the photo then as the
cover for the single of the Remix of the song
-Three Way Kiss is pretty personal one about a
threesome I shared with my wife & a girl she
brought home from the boozer one Friday night.
Good Times!!
What does inspire you to write lyrics?
-Everything & anything really, conversations,
literature, the state of the world, romantic
encounters, the usual shit
Is it any chance for us to hear politics in The
Nilz lyrics, whcih is your most political song?
Or doesn´t music and politics suits together?
-Yeah we’ve a couple of political songs like
“Class War” “OMGFT” generally we write mostly
about social issues like the rampant
paedophillia in the Catholic Church, the casual
homophobia & transphobia inherent in society
today, I write in a kind of abstract form so
some songs are petty ditties aimed people I know
that I don’t particular like, I’m not exactly
the nicest person
10 favorite records all time?
-
Refused: Shape of punk to come
Moutpiece: S/T
Paramore: This is Why
The Bronx: The Bronx 1
Stiff Richards: Dig
To live in Ireland right now, how is it? Is it
many problems there?
-Yeah we’ve a huge homeless problem which our
government has ignored for years now and is
quite out of hand, groups of feral youths took
over the city during COVID & have been let run
rampant, theres a growing right wing movement as
well at the moment which is astonishing to me as
we have always been a socialist republic due to
being occupied by the British for so long,
Fucking Weirdos
I can imagine that a concert with The Nilz is
sweaty, what´s the best of playing live?
-We get a lot of energetic kids jumping around
at our gigs, their reactions literally make us
play better & harder for them, that’s the best
part of it.. and the free drugs sometimes
Which type of people comes to your concerts?
-All sorts we’ve always had an open arms policy
What is the most chaotic thing which ever have
happened during a The Nilz-concert?
-We had a friend of ours fall off a
balcony beside where we were playing, we
stopped, thinking he was dead, then he climbed
back up into site and the crowd gave a
thunderous cheer, that was scary & then funny
due to the relief that he was ok
I climbed up a set of pipes during a gig in a
squat in Budapest with a lit firework in my ass
and the guitarist from Breakout lit his
cigarette off it that was cool but it’s all
good, come to a gig do what you want once I’m
the only one getting hurt
Which is your favoritesong to play live? And
which is the song is most popular in the
audience?
-I love playing Bump & Food for THOT but I think
Get in the Van or maybe Durkheim go down the
best live
Do you do any covers live if you do , which
songs?
-Yeah we do GayBar by Electric 6, Goodhead by
Turbonegro & Dammit by Blink 182
Why the name The Nilz, any history about it
-I seem to remember 10yrs or so ago the 99% &
the 1% as in the wealthy & the rich was a whole
thing everyone had on the tip of their tongue
but we’ve never fit in anywhere so I thought
we’re the zero % don’t think it makes sense but
sounds good
What happens now, is it a tour with the new
record?
-We’re gigging locally continuously & working on
our 2nd album at the moment when that’s finished
we’ll think about touring further afield so any
tour bookers or promoters out there get in touch
Futureplans for yourself?
-I’ve
planned to collaborate some more with a good
friend of mine Glen Brady from the band Def
Nettle, we’ve talked about writing and producing
an electro pop album
Many bands do their own beer, is it anything you
have done? And if you would do that which type
of beer would it be and what is going to be
named?
-No! No plans! If someone wants to drink
something with my name on it they can suck it
out of me
Wisdomword?
-You’re a temporary pattern
Atoms just having fun for a finite time, don’t
take things too serious
Something to add?
-Go listen to The Nilz! We’d bring a tear to a
glass eye