Nashville cousins Jonathan Capeci and Joey Beretta--together Nightly--began playing music together at age 17. Inspired, they voyaged to Los Angeles where they wrote and recorded six songs. Capeci placed four of those tunes on SoundCloud, then forwarded the private link to two music industry people, one a manager and the other a booking agent. “Within a month, those songs got over 2,000 plays,” marvels the vocalist.
Then the alt-pop duo released their catchy burner, “xo,” independently. Spotify began featuring the tune on playlists, helping it rack up more than two million listens. Radio play followed.
"We wanted a team that was going to partner with us and be part of the developmental process."
For three weeks, major labels came to hear Nightly jam in the act’s garage. “That’s when we fell in love with the team at Interscope,” gushes Capeci. “They understood our vision, what we want to do and where we want to go.” That vision includes developing a newsletter, something Interscope helped facilitate. “We’re able to focus more than ever on the creative stuff,” Capeci claims.
Attention to details, like programming their own lights, convinced the label to make the deal official. As Capeci puts it, “We know what it’s like to fall in love with bands. We want to create our own universe and bring audiences there.”
With the aid of a “badass” lawyer, the final component was the desire for a true ally. “We wanted a team that was going to partner with us and be part of the developmental process. We made it so it was a long-term partnership between the band and label. There’s room for lots of growth.”
Nightly’s EP, Honest, was released on Oct. 21. Their full-length album will be released in 2017.
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