North Coast alternative rock band Latex Nightmare has recently returned to Prince Rupert after a two-week journey around the province where the boys played multiple shows and recorded material for their first album.
Latex Nightmare is made up of Liam Cullen, who is the vocalist and guitarist, Robert Rushton on bass and Jared Lund on drums. Latex Nightmare formed over two years ago and since then they’ve laid down an impressive amount of concrete on the road to a successful music career, one of the most notable being that they opened for bands such as Chilliwack and Nazareth at Grizzfest 2010 after winning the music festival’s battle of the bands competition.
Another perk of winning battle of the bands was that the boys received six free hours of recording time at Solar Peace Productions, located in Dawson Creek. Latex Nightmare raised money by holding a number of live shows at the Underground in order to purchase more time at the studio.
When the Prince Rupert Northern View asked band members how the recording session went, Rushton quickly answered “nothing went as planned, and everything went better than expected.”
The boys had three days to record; about six hours a day to complete as many songs as they could, and they got eight done. During that time, Latex Nightmare worked closely with the owner and producer of Solar Peace Productions, Bert Goulet.
“Bert Goulet was so professional. Exactly how you would imagine a real recording studio to be,” commented Cullen.
“We encourage anyone who wants to record music to go there,” added Lund.
Now that the recording is complete, the band must raise enough money to have the album pressed, as well as work on all the finishing details including creating art for the album.
“Right now we have a bottle fund going [to help raise funds needed to release the album]. So it just depends on how fast we can drink, really,” joked Rushton.
Additionally, while up north the band visited Fort St. John to play a planned gig with old-time rock and roll band, Unresolved, a group the boys have previously played with on a number of different occasions. The Latex guys also played three spontaneous shows.
“It’s hustle and bustle up there,” said Rushton.
Latex Nightmare then traveled to Vancouver to play at a small venue called “At the Gates” located near Hastings Street. The opportunity for this show came about after Rushton had seen Trophy Wife; an indie band based out of Vancouver, and instantly grew fond of the band.
After attending a few shows, Rushton brought Cullen to see Trophy Wife and the two ended up hanging out with the band. During this time, Trophy Wife invited Latex Nightmare to play a show with them.
Although the venue was small, there were a lot of people in attendance with a large number of them originating from Prince Rupert. Latex Nightmare played for over an hour.
“By the end of it, we were all drenched in sweat. It was the best show,” said Cullen.
In terms of future shows, Latex Nightmare will be keeping it low-key until the middle of June when they have two live performances lined up, the first being a benefit show taking place at the Underground on Friday, June 17. The show will be benefiting the My Mountain Co-op group, who hope to purchase Shames Mountain Ski Area.
“[Snowboarding] is a passionate thing for Liam and me,” explained Rushton.
“We want to help in any way we can, and playing a show is how we can do that.”
Later in June, the boys will hit the stage for the Seafest “Battle of the Bands” competition.
To listen to Latex Nightmare songs, go to www.myspace.com/latexnightmare, or check out the band’s Facebook group.