Interview by Sketchy Hubris
“And the band played on as the helicopters whirred.
Drunk on the lawn in a nuclear dawn, my senses finally blurred.”
— Moxy Fruvous
Nymbis is a Capital Region band with Chuck Valentine on vocals and lead guitar, Brandon Waylett on drums, Austin Nicholsen on bass, Frankie McKinney on vocals and percussion, and Liz Conant on keyboards.
RRX: So, where does the name Nymbis come from? I know it’s a nocturnal moth, but what is your connection?
CV: So it took us a while to find a name … you want to get a name where you can get a website and social media, so you’ve got to pick a name that another band has not already used yet, you know? A lot of back and forth, a lot of like, “OK, we’ll do it, this will be the name,” and then you Google it and there’s already another band with that. We were looking at Nimbus, like a nimbus cloud; we’re thinking that’s cool. And of course, there are already several bands with that name; like heavy metal bands and stuff. So we explored spelling options. Nymbis is also a genus of moth, and it tied in – we’d already recorded most of the “Moon Moth” album. The song “Moon Moth” was already written. I already had inspiration from a moth: a moth had landed on my face, a big green one. We were at a party in Schodack, and I walk into this porch and this thing landed on my face. Everybody’s running around. I don’t move or do anything; this is a big Luna moth. And it stayed on the side of my face for, like, half an hour. And I was like trying to be very still and stuff, so that did kind of inspire the “Moon Moth” song and the name.
RRX: So, Brendan – or Brandon – (I always have this problem with some names), you and Chuck met in college at Fredonia?
BW: With an A, Brandon. Yeah, and you were already living off campus. I was a freshman, and my roommate was from Bethlehem. He hooked me up with Austin and Chuck, and they had jams in their basement at 66 Cleveland in Fredonia. We all had bands going in college, but we weren’t in each other’s. I did my thing and moved back to Albany in 2003. Around 2014 or something like that, I went down to McGeary’s to see Chuck in the Lucky Valentines. I think that year I played a Saint Patrick’s Day thing with you.
RRX: Now, I want to find out how the other people in the band came to be in the current iteration.
AN: I had just moved back to town, and Kevin Carol (the original Nymbis bassist) had to take time away from the project to spend time with his loving family. Chuck and I first started playing together and learning our instruments 30 years ago while in high school.
LC: I heard Chuck on a gig. I had been searching for a musical family for the last 10 years. I remember leaving the place going, “God, I got to find that guitar, who was he?” But I knew the bass player, so I got in touch with Kevin and he’s like, “Oh cool.” Then he told me the name of the band, and then I listened on Spotify and was like, I actually really like this band.
RRX: How long ago was that?
LC: My first gig was in September 2024, so I still feel kind of new. It’s something that I think is important for building chemistry – getting to know people to be able to commit to something like this every week is hard to find. Also, you don’t find a sense of humor present in most, there’s a great sense of humor in this.
RRX: Frankie, you joined before Liz.
FK: Yes, I met Chuck at Quarters in Saratoga. I decided I wanted to get myself out there in the music world, so I did a couple of a capella songs at the open mic, and then Chuck came up to me after and said that they used to have a female singer in their band, so these are a couple of songs that they did, and he’s like “Will you learn them maybe next time? We can do them at the open mic together.” So I learned them to the best of my ability, and then basically from there kind of kept doing shows, like doing the open mics with them … I did one show with them at Quarters and then last summer … I started playing out with them actually and … joined the band basically.
RRX: So, Frankie and Liz are not on any of the first two albums. Is there something coming?
CV: Yeah, we’re working on the third album; been in the works for a little while. “66 Cleveland” may be the title of that one, so keep your eye out.
RRX: OK, so I have to do a joke here. I write under the name Sketchy Hubris; it’s my fictitious band I primarily play saxophone in. So the joke is in everything I’ve done since I started doing these musician profiles. Have you ever heard of the band Otobo, and what do you think of them?
CV: I thought I’ve seen them on Instagram. My official reaction <laugh> highly offensive.
RRX: Well, check them out sometime <laugh>. So, I usually ask weird questions to end it, but I wanted to know: do you have something that you wanted to be asked?
BW: I assume you’re going to ask our influences because that seems to be what some would ask?
RRX: Let’s put that one aside and let me know what each of you has been listening to of late.
BW: One thing that I come back to a lot is Percy Hill … they’re out of the University of New Hampshire in the late ’90s.
CV: Oh, an album I keep coming back to. Well, I’ve got a large collection I’m filling in from tapes to vinyl. So, a recent one I just got was Europe’s “The Final Countdown.” Yes, it’s ridiculous. I’ll go with that … it was the first tape I bought as a kid, and now I own the record, and I still know every song from having it when I was 10. Very cheesy rock. I love it. I do.
LC: Well, I have one, but it’s not that old. Young Gun Silver Fox is a duo; they’re from the UK and sort of got this combination of Steely Dan/Hall and Oates feel.
FM: I’m learning a lot of covers, so I bounce from album to album. I really like the band The Big Takeover and their album called “Spilling Water.” I saw them at Putnam Place last year. It’s a group I’ve been wanting to catch again; they’re a kind of reggae band based out of the Hudson Valley. They’re newer, so I really enjoy them.
AN: All kinds of music from all over the world. There is so much music in the world, and we’ll never hear it all. I really enjoy listening to music I’ve never heard before.
Nymbis plays Ophelia’s on May 2 in Albany and will also be playing at Belmont on Broadway in Saratoga on June 4.
