I had a feeling that Tyler Marenyi — the 27-year-old trap phenom behind NGHTMRE — would take a rain check on our afternoon call scheduled for mid-May. We were supposed to talk a few hours after he touched back down in the States following a late flight home following a spring tour with Slander. That trek sent Marenyi across parts of Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Such is life for a now globally in-demand act like NGHTMRE, whose popularity in 2018 has earned him spots at the main stages of EDC Orlando, Tokyo, and Las Vegas.
While he’s been playing as NGHTMRE since 2014, the last year has seen the former Icon Collective Music Production School pupil transform from a hot festival prospect boasting a viral Soundcloud catalog into one of the more exciting young producers in the trap genre. Last year he produced tracks for Wiz Khalifa and Fat Joe, collaborated with fellow Mad Decent star Dillon Francis (“Another Dimension") and created ear-catching remixes for “Blame” by Zhu and Ekali.
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NGHTMRE always had headlining potential and has twice found himself on CL festival lineup previews as an undercard act. It’s not until recently, however, that his his name has rightfully found its way to the top spots of lineups and headlining shows. His aforementioned Gud Vibrations parties with Slander have gone from one-off events to ones warranting their own national tours. The boys even have their own "Trapfest" booked for Red Rocks in the fall.
Still, those aren’t the biggest joint performances he has booked this year. NGHTMRE may also be EDM's most exciting B2B performer, and his scheduled joint set with hardstyle icon Excision at Bass Canyon Festival could go a long way in confirming that theory. NGHTMRE doesn’t have an official album release to his credit yet, but he’s working on it. He said so when he called me earlier this week while still recovering from his long tour and two EDC Las Vegas sets.
See our full Q&A below. Catch him this weekend when NGHTMRE hits the Sunset main stage at 8:55 p.m. on Saturday, May 26.
Sunset Music Festival
Fri.-Sat., May 26-27. $194 & up.
Raymond James Stadium (North Lot)
4201 N Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33607, USA
More info: smftampa.com
Reviews are coming in from your EDC set this past weekend, and it seemed like people were loving it. How did you think it went?
It was amazing, man. That was my first time doing the main stage. It was cool — it was such a ridiculous amount of people. I knew the EDC crowd always loves to go super hard, so I played even heavier than I usually have. I felt like it got a really good reaction.
What’s EDC Las Vegas like?
It really is kind of hard to describe. It’s in a giant motor speedway and you can’t really imagine how big it is until you get there. Each stage feels like the main stage, like it could be a main stage anywhere because it’s all so big and all so awesome. It’s kind of hard to have a bad time walking around in terms of visuals and from an artist’s standpoint, it’s really amazing, too, because you just know the show is going to look good and there are lots of lights, lasers, fire and all that. At main stage, I almost felt a little more disconnected from the fans because I was so far away, like the nearest people were probably 50 yards away from me, but I could definitely still tell that the more energy I had the more energy I was getting back from them. It was cool.
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We were supposed to chat last week but moved the date since you were just flying back in from your tour of Asia and Australia with Slander — a stretch called the Gud Vibrations tour. What was it like getting to tour abroad with those guys?
It was amazing. We got to go to some of our favorite places. Tokyo is the place I always love playing shows, but I haven’t ever really been able to chill there. I’ve played two shows there and every time I’ve been there, I basically flew in late at like 6 p.m., ate ramen and some sushi, then played a show and left first thing in the morning. So, it was really awesome to actually have a good time when we went there. We went like five days before EDC Japan and got to film a music video; my brother’s a producer for TV and film commercials and that kind of stuff, so he came out and helped produce the video with my videographer. We also filmed a TV show pilot. We did so much awesome stuff and got to explore, go get delicious fish and sushi and all the awesome Tokyo and Japan stuff. It was really amazing. Australia is always amazing. It’s summer here and fall there. It’s opposite seasons for them right now, so the weather was super nice. I usually go down there in January, which is peak summer for them, and it was so hot usually. This year was just good and beautiful with awesome fans. The fact that we get to travel with the Slander guys makes traveling a lot better when it comes to hanging out and everything.
I know that’s a friendship you’ve had for awhile. How did you all meet?
We both met at this music production school in LA called the Icon Collective. I was from North Carolina, grew up there and went to college there and graduated. Maybe a couple months before I graduated, I found out about the school and was like, "OK, this is what I need to go do.” It’s like a nine month program — not like a full university or anything, more like digital music production classes. It’s this really cool community; it’s really small and tight-knit. Everyone is really creative and has similar goals. Me and Derek were in the same class together. With every class you take, you take a bunch of different courses, but you’re all with the same group of people, so you all get really close to each other. And yeah, it was really cool to meet them. We learned a lot. Me and Derek kind of had a lot of similar tastes right off the bat. We knew we were both into that trap, heavy dubstep-y, like more bass music. So yeah, we just got along and went from there.
When did you guys start performing under the Gud Vibrations label?
Well, we just started making music together, and we made the EP together. The song that was the best and biggest song from that was "Gud Vibrations." We were trying to think of the name for a party that we were going to be hosting at Miami Music Week for Ultra, and at some point it just came out. We were like “this is our biggest song," what the fans already know, and it’s a perfect name for the type of brand we want to build and the idea we have behind our parties. So we decided that Gud Vibrations was the name and made the first flyer. Since then, whenever we do a back-to-back together, we kind of just make it a Gud Vibrations party.
Another scheduled festival collaboration that we’re dying to see is your B2B with Excision at Bass Canyon. How did this collab come to life?
Me and Excision work with the same agency Circle, who is now United Talent. I know that he’s been wanting to, and we’ve talked about doing music together and we’re working on some stuff too. Honestly, that all kind of culminated all at once and we’ll be able to come together for the set. I was definitely very honored to be asked to join in on that, he’s obviously a big legend and someone I’ve looked up to for a long time so it’s cool to be able to be able to play a show with him.
Both Slander and Excision are on the SMF lineup as well. Any plans to jump in on somebody’s set?
We’re not doing anything for Sunset in terms of like a back-to-back or anything like that, but we both have music that we’re working on, so there’s tons and tons of new music that we’re going to be playing. I know the Slander guys premiered like seven or eight songs at EDC that day. So yeah, we’ve got some surprises in terms of music. I don’t know about special guests yet, I just finished EDC so I haven’t even thought about it.
Last year you dropped several singles, but they haven’t amounted to an album release yet. Do you have plans to drop an album soon? How has deviating from solely Soundcloud releases to full on commercial releases changed your work?
I do want to do an album eventually. I kind of always just write tons of music. I’m just writing ideas whenever I’m on the road, and when I’m at home, I’m writing music. It usually gets to a point where I’m like, "OK, maybe I should put out this project. I’ll put out an EP. Of these 20 ideas I have, which four of these make the most sense together? Which four would be realistic to be done after a time?”
Right now, most of the things I have are singles. I have a lot of collaborations with people; four collaborations with some smaller guys, bass guys, and guys who I think could be really talented. I want to shine a light on them. Then there's four other [singles] I have with kind of bigger names, like main stage ones. I just played a new one that’s coming out with the Chainsmokers and one with A$AP Ferg at EDC, and I have another one that’s going to be really cool, too. That’s the point where I’m at. I can’t really get away with throwing a song on Soundcloud and letting it live there anymore. I used to be able to throw a song up and then hope it does really well and if not, whatever. Now it’s like, "OK, well, let’s get the whole media team on this and PR on and interviews. It turns into this huge epic release that forces me to think more about what I actually want to put out and what I think will do the best. I definitely have a million little fun songs sitting around that I’ll probably put out eventually, or maybe that’s what the album will be for. We’ll see, I’m just always making music and trying to put out as much as I can. It doesn’t make sense to push out songs too fast because the way music trends operate these days. A lot of it, as soon as you put something out, I have five more tweets that are like, “What’s the next thing coming out?!” It’s like, “I just put this song out today! Listen to that one!” So it’s great, but I’m thinking about an album probably next year.
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