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Aug 17, 2015 Web Exclusive By Aimee Nash

With The Door Behind the Door, The Black Ryder, the Los Angeles-via-Australia-based duo of Aimee Nash and Scott Von Ryper, has released one of the best psychedelic/shoegaze albums of the year. The band has already played the U.K. and U.S., headlining in the U.K. and supporting The Jesus & Mary Chain throughout much of the U.S., and it has just last week resumed for a second leg with JAMC. Nash took some time to fill us in on the first leg, chronicling the tour with some words and pictures which you’ll find below.

SUNDAY 3RD MAY - DETROIT

Today is the first day of our North American Tour with The Jesus & Mary Chain.

The Jesus & Mary Chain have always been one of my favorite bands so to say this tour is something special would be an understatement.

We flew in the night before from Los Angeles to Detroit. This is our second time in Detroit, the last time was when we played with The Cult in 2010. Tonight we’re playing at Saint Andrews. When we were loading our gear in there was a man at the front of the venue who greeted me like an old friend. He told me his name was Papa Smurf & that we’d met before (we hadn’t). He told me how good I looked and asked how I managed to keep looking so good since he last saw me (he was a very good salesman). He reached into his coat & presented me with a bag of ‘buttons’ he’d made, which was a bag of safety pins with beads on them. He told me they were magic & if I wore it then it would bring me good luck. I gave him $5.

The show was sold out so we played to a full room & also a great crowd. We met a lot of nice people after the show & signed some albums.

Detroit, you were friendly & lovely & I hope we can come back again soon.

After the show we had some late night schwarma then back on the road & en route to Chicago.

WEDNESDAY 6TH MAY - CHICAGO

Last night we played at the Riviera Theater in Chicago, which is a big beautiful theater & another sold out show.

At soundcheck we had the pleasure of meeting the legendary John Cooper Clarke who was there to catch up with JAMC. He very kindly complimented us on how great we looked, gave me a kiss & told me that he could tell we’d be amazing because we looked so great. He was very sweet. He was also playing later that night at the same time as the show, which was a shame as I would have loved to see him.

The Jesus & Mary Chain were amazing. Tonight was the first of quite a few times on this tour that I joined them onstage to sing ‘Just Like Honey’, which was quite surreal. It’s not every day you get to sing with one of your favorite bands & heroes, so that was a true honor.

Again we felt like we got some love from the crowd tonight. A huge relief after a very long time of making music & also putting in a lot of time rehearsing, it feels good when you know it’s coming together.

We had a day off in Memphis today. Scott + I stayed on the bus all day working on our schedule for Austin Psych Fest which is coming up this weekend. Getting lots of interview requests, which is a positive sign & we’re appreciative that people seem interested in wanting to talk about our music. These things take time to work out and we’re starting to run out of time. Nikki, Graham + Chris (our bass + vox, drums + our tour manager / sound engineer) went to the very famous Sun Studios & did some sightseeing.

Scott & I had a quiet dinner & then back on the bus. I’m enjoying life on the bus. Going to sleep in my bunk & waking up somewhere new every day & playing shows is pretty awesome.

SUNDAY 10TH MAY 2015 - LEVITATION - AUSTIN PSYCH FESTIVAL

Huge props & thanks to The Black Angels + Austin Psych Fest for knowing how to put on a seriously amazing festival.

Saturday we had a full day of interviews which all went well, although it was a shame we missed some really cool bands playing. By the time our show came around it felt like a really great time to be playing a show. The atmosphere in the tent was electric. Visuals projected everywhere with a backdrop of TV sets that were playing our projections by our beloved friend + artist Suzy Poling. Suzy also created our album cover artwork & she is an amazing artist & made us some really awesome films for projections for our shows, it really did look incredible.

Highlights of the night were seeing Primal Scream, who were amazing as always. Also watched some of The Jesus & Mary Chain & saw one of my dear friends Simone Marie Butler from Primal Scream accompany JAMC to sing ‘Just Like Honey’. After that we headed over to see our good friend Tamaryn play, which was a perfect way to finish of the night. Simone & I had some fun dancing in the mud with a guy wearing a silver turban who we named the acid king. He was flying & was a lot of fun to dance with.

Thanks to everyone who was apart of making it such an epic time for all. So many good memories, so many happy people & an insanely fantastic line up of bands.

MONDAY 11TH MAY - DENVER

Another amazing show. Having gone through the very long process of recording this album ourselves then releasing it on our own label came with a huge amount of challenges, so to be here in this moment playing with one of our favorite bands to such wonderful audiences each night certainly does make all the hard bits seem worthwhile. Feeling immensely grateful to be here right now.

FRIDAY 15TH May - SEATTLE TO SAN FRANCISCO

A whirlwind few days… A long two-day drive to Vancouver! We had to cross the boarder into Canada and we’d heard some worrying stories of bands being held for hours while they go through all their gear or try to tax gear and merchandise, but thankfully this was fairly quick + painless. Having all your paperwork in order helps! The Vancouver folks and show was amazing again.

The show in Seattle the next night was one of my favorites so far. The venue was a little different tonight in that the bands were much closer to the audience so it felt like there was more of an intimate connection. Sang ‘Just Like Honey’ again tonight, still pinching myself with being on this tour let alone standing on a stage with JAMC. These are some special times.

Long drive ahead with over 24 hrs on the bus.

MONDAY 18TH MAY - SAN FRANCISCO TO LA

We played our last 2 shows of the tour in San Francisco at the Warfield. It’s been a whirlwind & it’s quite a strange mix of emotions now being at the end of our journey together. Anticipating some post-tour blues coming up shortly, although we are relieved that it’s all gone so well & we’ll be taking some of the best kind of memories with us after this tour.

We had our first in-store performance at Amoeba Music & we were quite stunned when Jim Reid & members + crew of The Jesus & Mary Chain turned up. It was like some strange & awesome dream, it really meant a lot to us that they were there. Although it was a little intimidating playing in broad daylight in a very bright setting with some of your heroes in front of you we were pleasantly surprised by how it all went. We played more of a stripped back set, no live drums & not quite as loud as usual, it was actually really nice to hear the songs played in a more intimate & delicate way.

We were grateful for the nice show of support from those who came along & it was really lovely getting to meet with people who felt connected to our music. We had some chats & signed some records. Being our first in-store we really weren’t sure how this would turn out but this was one of the highlights of the tour for us. Everyone at Amoeba was very cool with us & we all got to take home some treats, which was very sweet of them. Thank you Amoeba!!

Jim Reid very kindly bought a CD & had us sign it, which was very kind & generous of him & was one of those ‘is this really happening?’ moments.

I don’t know that this tour could have gone any better, unless it was longer. Very grateful for the experience, to The Jesus & Mary Chain & crew for having us along & being so awesome with us, and to the audiences for being so open & lovely with us too.

Aimee X

The Black Ryder continues the second leg of its tour with dates as follows:

August

18 - Mississippi Studios, Portland

19 - Barboza, Seattle

21 - The Independent, San Francisco

28 - The Roxy Theatre, Los Angeles

September

22 - Union Transfer, Philadelphia (w/ JAMC)

24 - Terminal 5, New York (w/ JAMC)

25 - Terminal 5, New York (w/ JAMC)

27 - 9:30 Club, Washington (w/ JAMC)

29 - House of Blues, Boston (w/ JAMC)

30 - College Street Music Hall, New Haven (w/ JAMC)

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