We sat down with the band on the eve of the release of their new album 'portals//polarities'.
Photos: Marii Kiisk | Words: Isabel Kilevold
Clothes, books, and wires spill out of open bags scattered across the floor and draped over chairs in Night Tapes' dressing room. It is a Saturday evening in Oslo, just after sunset, when Iiris Vesik walks in. Her striped hair is slightly tangled from the breeze outside. There's something almost otherworldly about her presence, both delicate and grounded at once, like a fairy who's just wandered in from the woods. She talks with her hands, laughs easily, and exudes a warm energy that fills the room. Despite the chaos, there's clearly some method to the madness. She quickly locates a notebook in one of the bags. Kicking off her shoes, she drops into a chair and flips it open. Handwritten song lyrics flick past as she searches for a blank page.
"I need to write down the title of a book before I forget it", she says.
The London-based three-piece dream-pop outfit are in Norway to play a festival, ahead of the release of their debut album and an extensive EU/UK/US tour kicking off this autumn.
"The trees are taller in Norway than in Estonia", Vesik observes.
Originally from Estonia, Vesik moved to London seven years ago, where she met Max Doohan at university. After graduating, the two moved into a house with Sam 'Richie' Richards, a childhood friend of Doohan's. Each of them were working on different musical projects in their own rooms: Doohan was playing in a band, Richie was making house music, and Vesik was dividing her time between her electronic solo project and a riot grrrl punk band.
Their first experiments as a trio felt more like play than serious production, but even in early tracks like 'Forever' and 'Dreams', there's a distinct sonic identity: layered synths, reverb-heavy guitar lines, and eerie vocals that float between reality and dream.
"I don't know, it was a very organic, gradual thing that we started making music together", Vesik says of how Night Tapes came into existence. For the trio, music grows out of connection and joy more than anything. They have created an environment where songwriting and producing feels more like hanging out than work.
"We set an axiom for the day to have a lovely time, and then music usually comes out of it", she explains.
Their musical and social lives are deeply intertwined, but never in a way that feels forced.
"I can still make music by myself, but it's so much more fun with other people, without the stress of everything resting on my shoulders", Vesik says. Asked what her writing process is like, she laughs, "I mean, the most infuriating response would be: 'every time is different'".
While they still write independently, the trio often come together with ideas and shape them as a group. There is a spontaneity and playfulness to their process, where each member's voice shines through in the collaborative mix.
Night Tapes blend lush, psychedelic pop with dreamlike shoegaze textures, ethereal synths, and subtle traces of indie and electronic. The result is both expansive and intimate, captured on debut album 'portals//polarities', which released last Friday via Nettwerk Music Group. The trio have been releasing music together since 2019, but this marks their first full-length project.
"It has been quite a different way of working, a bit of a challenge, because we are used to popping out EPs and singles like mushrooms in the forest", Vesik says, making popping sounds with her mouth and illustrating with her hands.
Their earlier releases came together in a spontaneous and organic way, everything written, recorded and produced in their living room. But crafting a longer body of work required a different kind of focus and pacing. This time, working from home just didn't click.
It was while on tour that things finally started to fall into place, and 'portals//polarities' began to take shape. The London band were playing a festival in Mexico when they decided to book an Airbnb in the mountains of Tepotzotlán.
"We used to sit at home making music, saying: 'Ahh, we wish we could see America right now' — and now we were actually there", Vesik says, her eyes bright with light.
The upcoming debut album was recorded across a range of locations: Tepotzotlán, Chicago, Los Angeles and Tallinn."Our environments really affect us", Vesik says, "and in some ways, recording music is like capturing the vibe of different places".
As they tour the world, the band continues to record on their phones, capturing the energy of the places they pass through. A tape dictaphone is also tucked inside one of their bags, a nod to the project's origins. The sound of Night Tapes was born from the hiss and warmth of cassette recordings.
"That's why we called ourselves Night Tapes, because we were literally recording on cassettes at night", Vesik explains.
Reflecting further on the album title, 'portals//polarities', she elaborates, "We live in a time where we can go to so many extreme places. With technology, or just even the fact that you can take a plane and fly to Mexico, or that we can be in this room in Norway right now. And then there are also inner worlds we can travel to. It feels as if you make a focused portal, you can really be there."
Wherever the band travels, they aim to be present, to actually experience the place, not just pass through it. During their visit to Norway, they went swimming and spent time in a sauna. These moments of intentional presence help them tune into the atmosphere of a place, which often finds its way into their music.
"But it's hard to do, most of the time I don't feel fully present", Vesik admits.
"There's this idea about self-referential reality tunnels," she continues, her hands moving gently while she looks for the right words. "Every mind is a separate reality, its own realm. Each individual experiences the same world differently. The question is, what informs that tunnel? How much of that tunnel is given to us? And how much of that tunnel is made by the things we choose?" Vesik lets the questions hang in the air for a moment, the way someone might pause before stepping through a portal of their own making, then adds: "So in that sense, our focus becomes a portal".
This is where the polarities come in, a way to expand consciousness beyond the tunnel.
"We live in a time where we have to be able to hold things that are in paradox with each other", Vesik says.
The term 'polarities' expresses the idea of being able to hold two conflicting beliefs at once, to argue for both, to make space for both, and to allow them to coexist, knowing that one is not more real or truer than the other. "That's how we know we are not disillusioned," she agrees.
The same layered perception runs through songs like 'television' and 'pacifico', tracks that explore the blur between outer experience and inner world. The lyrics are often fragmentary, the vocals soft and submerged: "Letting yourself go / When complexity is comfort" Vesik sings on 'pacifico' over an electronic drum beat and shimmering synth.
I ask if the band every worry that this style of lyric-writing leaves the songs open to misinterpretation, to which Vesik smiles. "What is meant for you will not pass you by".
Expanding upon what is intended for the band's audience on this record, she continues, "I hope they can make a lovely space for themselves. I hope that they can take themselves out on a nice walk, and that they take with them this sense of adventure".
Night Tapes is working towards creating an environment where people can dance if they feel like dancing, step outside of themselves, and embrace a sense of freedom, where the music itself becomes a portal. "It might sound like a fridge magnet, but you know, we just want good vibes".
Not only is the London-based trio inviting listeners on an inner journey, they're also bringing their debut record on an extensive tour across the US, Canada, Europe and the UK.
"It's our biggest tour yet", Vesik says. "It feels like a pretty athletic undertaking". Her only concern? Whether people will have enough space to dance, and whether they feel free enough to do it.
"I love to dance, because again, our body is a portal. A lot of the time we treat our bodies as just vessels for the mind, but there's a sanctity in stepping into your body and out of your mind".
Built on friendship, the band's goal was never commercial success, it was simply to create something together. The fact that they ended up releasing their first single, 'Forever', in 2019 was almost an accident. But maybe that's part of what gives their music its sense of openness and freedom.
"In that sense, Night Tapes started as a form of escape", Vesik says.
Being able to share their most vulnerable and authentic selves in a space where friends are just having fun together lends their music an atmosphere of ease and honesty, a kind of sonic intimacy that invites others in.
There is a softness to their sound that mirrors the way they move through the world: lush synths, echo-laced vocals, and guitar lines that shimmer like heat waves. Their sound is both vulnerable and unreserved, melancholic but curious. Even the tracks carry this sense of polarity as music becomes the portal through time and space.
Indeed, the band see the release of the album itself as something of a beginning for these songs. "It is very exciting, but I don't think the album will actually be ready until a year from now… I think the lyrics and sound will change in time. The live version will be an expansion of what we've created now".
Songs like 'helix' seem built for that kind of evolution, a track that loop and build like spirals, shifting shape with each listen. 'portals//polarities' is a fluid project, one that will continue to evolve as the band travels across North America and Europe. Like Vesik herself, radiant, thoughtful, and a little otherworldly, the album seems less like a destination and more like an invitation: to explore, to dance, and to step through whatever portals you might find along the way.
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