Today we’d like to introduce you to Domino Monet.
Hi Domino, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Nyx Division is a 4 piece post-punk/goth/rock n roll band that started as a covid project, meaning that we all started making music together to survive the dreadful uncertainty of those early pandemic years without any promise of ever being able to play live. The pandemic had created a unique confluence of both opportunities and hardship, which led a lot of musicians and artists in particular, to move to states that were more affordable. If we were going to be spending 80-90% of our lives locked down in our houses, we might as well be paying an affordable rate for that housing, ya know? Anyway, the pandemic ultimately brought the band, in its original iteration, together from Texas, California, and Idaho– so it was this sort of “right place, wrong time, but with the right people” kind of situation that allowed us all to create, connect, and have something to look forward to during an exceptionally difficult time in all of our lives.
Eventually, as all who survived the pandemic know, the world of performance and live shows re-emerged, and we were able to take our music to the stage. That first show we played– I don’t even have words for it. How do you describe what it feels like to be thrust back into something you were certain you would never be able to experience again? I don’t know that words can do the profundity of it justice. I think musicians and performers reading this will know, but for those who don’t: imagine drowning without dying for months and months, dreaming of fresh air, then finally breaking through the surface and inhaling until your whole body feels full. That’s kinda what it was like. So, of course we had to chase that feeling.
We’ve weathered quite a bit as a band since then–significant illness and accidents, out-of-state moves, grad school, the toil of all of our full time jobs, band turn over– but through it all we’ve manage to keep playing shows, writing songs, and doing all the other things that come along with DIY musicianship. Our current line up is, in the most sincere sense of the word, a family; and more than anything that bond is what’s gotten us to where we are today and what keeps us going.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We kind of touched on this in the previous question (re: pandemic), but to answer succinctly: No, the road to rock n roll is far from smooth.
We do this because we love it and because it gives us an enormous sense of purpose, connectedness, and meaning; but that doesn’t mean it comes without struggle. If you want to be a musician who performs, writes, records, and contributes to a larger scene these days and you’re *not* independently wealthy or coming from a pool of generational wealth and access you’re already swimming upstream in a wild and unrelenting current. The pressures DIY musicians face these days are truly insane: write original music, be a full-time video editor, an influencer, a social media manager, a tour manager, a booking agent, a creative director, a graphic designer, a choreographer, a copy editor, a publicist, and a merch manager (just to name a few) all while up against massive algorithmic disadvantages that leave human artists competing against highly optimized, AI generated slop, horrific fractional payouts from streaming platforms designed with shareholder interest in mind and pro-centric royalty models, inflationary pressures of cost of gas, vehicle rentals, plane tickets, merch costs, and the cost of instruments themselves, booking monoplolies that totally gut vital community-run venues and performance spaces, and of course, the artistic burnout that comes as a result of doing the damn thing anyway. These have been, and continue to be, the struggles that we and millions of others are up against.
The craziest and most important part is that we do it anyway (aside from being full-time video editors and “influencers”). That big, overwhelming list of jobs and responsibilities– we do all of that and more for the love of music and the love of our community that supports us.
Not only do we do it all, but we do it for while working full time jobs and barely being able to make rent, while trying to get ourselves through school, while our access to healthcare, food, and various human rights are taken away. That’s the side of being a musician that people don’t often see. They see 30 seconds of a killer performance from your last show on Instagram, but what they don’t see are the 4 doubles you worked in a row so you could get that night off, or the empty fridge you’re coming home to because you didn’t have time to buy food between work and band practice, or the lifetime of practice that went into getting to the point where you have 30 seconds of performance to be proud of in the first place.
For the overwhelming majority of us, it’s not a profitable passion. If you come out at $0 these days after all your expenses, you can consider yourself blessed. So you have to do it for love.
Is it worth it? Yes. We can’t imagine this life any other way.
Is the music/streaming industry becoming increasingly hostile to independent artists, venues, and engineers day by day? Also yes.
At the end of the day, music is a birthright for the people by the people. The obstacles and challenges are real, no doubt, but there is no obstacle or challenge so big that it can effectively suffocate a thing as vital, as primal, as human as music.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
What we’re most proud of is the community we belong to. We’re part of a raw, vital, living, DIY Porltand punk and metal ethos and scene that dates back to 1977. Peforming artists are nothing without their audience, and we’ve all taken turns being kids in the audience at punk and metal shows, getting our mind’s blown and our lives changes by the jolt of energy that comes from finding a place where you belong, where you can be a freak and be loved for it. Those early experiences shaped us and carried us to where we are now. We get to be the band on stage not just telling but showing kids in the audience that there’s a world not so far from their own where they can be themselves, where they don’t have to be ashamed of being different, defiant, and full of rage. The Portland punk and metal scene has been a place where people go to write a new chapter in their life story that actually includes them as a character with value, insight, creativity, purpose, and belonging for decades. What sets us apart from others, paradoxically, are the ways in which we are inextricably connected — to that history and to each other.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
We all have variances in our answers to these questions based on personal preferences (particularly regarding the weather) but something we can absolutely agree on is that the rent is too damn high– but that can be said of nearly every city in the USA right now. There’s a lot to loathe but even more to love, and we could all benefit from some extra focus on love these days, so we’ll direct our answers to that side of the coin:
Portland’s punk, metal, and goth scene is absolutely stellar. I don’t know of many cities in the USA where you regularly have multiple punk, metal, and goth shows happening all over the city on the same night, damn near every night of the week. This city has kept the heartbeat of the independent music scene beating, and that rules. And it’s not just punk, metal, and goth stuff– it’s a great music city in general. You can go see jazz, traditional kora music, opera, singer songwriters, harsh noise, EBM, and a killer bollywood dj in one week here if you stack your cards right.
And of course, we love nature (that might as well be a PNW prerequisite) so everything the city has to offer in the way of parks, rivers, bike trails, hiking trails, farms, and wildlife preserves is a favorite. No matter how hard you’re working and rock & rolling, you’ve gotta make time to touch grass, as they say. Portland makes that easy.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nyxdivision/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nyxdivision
- Other: https://nyxdivision.bandcamp.com/music
