The pairing of rapper NF and alt-pop duo, Nightly is a weird one, but it works.
Currently, in the middle of NF’s Perception Tour, which closes out at the start of November, Nightly member John Capeci says he doesn’t know why he and his cousin were chosen to tour with the "Let You Down" artist, but so far the fans have been accepting of their diverging music.
Perception stopped at Stage AE a few weeks ago, and CP recently chatted with Capeci about the performance, the tour, and NF.
So you guys were in Pittsburgh last week. What did you think of Stage AE?
It was great. It was cool. That was our first time playing there, but it was fun. There was a really good crowd, really great show. I think that was the second show of the tour, so we’re still working some kinks out, but it was definitely a lot of fun. Also, we didn’t know that stood for American Eagle.
Well, I didn’t realize that until I lived here for a year, so you’re ahead of me.
(Laughs) But yeah, it was great though. We have some friends that live in Pittsburgh, so we've been there a couple of times. We love that city. We didn’t get to see some of the stuff that we usually like to go see with our tight schedule, but it was great.
What did you get to do while you were here?
Pretty much nothing. Just because of the schedule, we didn’t really get to do anything except for be at the venue.
That’s a bummer. But you are from Philly, correct?
Yeah, I grew up outside of Philly, so did Joey. He grew up on the Jersey side.
Where outside of Philly if you don’t mind me asking?
Like the Valley Forge Area.
Wait, where in Valley Forge?
So, they kind of moved all over, my parents, but I lived in Phoenixville for a while…
Wow, hold on. That’s crazy I’m actually from Phoenixville!
No way. You’re from Phoenixville?
Yeah, I grew up there, went to high school there. Wow.
That’s crazy! I went to Spring-Ford and my brother went to Phoenixville for a while. All my family still lives up there. I know that area well, that’s where I grew up.
It really is a small world.
I know, that’s actually insane.
Really though. So, anyway, what’s it like opening for NF?
It’s great. We’ve become pretty close with him and the whole team. The music is very different from ours but the fans are super accepting of the music, and it has been a really amazing tour. We toured with him a bunch this year. We did the full U.S. at the beginning of the year then we went to the UK. Now, we’re getting to do this one with him again.
How did you get connected with NF?
We have the same booking agent, and when he was looking for openers and just taking submissions. He ended up picking us out of all the submissions. I honestly don’t even know why he picked us, but he did.
What's it like touring with your cousin?
I think it's great. I don't really know anything else. I've only ever done it with him. People ask me that, and I'm like, "I don't know, seems great to me." We love it, we get along, so its super fun. We were best friends before even this, so it's definitely easy. It's not like some distant cousin thing where you don't really know them.
What made you decide to start making music?
We honestly have just been doing it together since we were kids. We both bought guitars when we were like 11-years-old and have just been making music for a long time for fun. Then we ended up doing it more full-time, and it's pretty natural. It wasn't something that we had to force ourselves to do.
When you guys are on tour, what's one of your favorite songs to perform?
It kind of changes. It's just sort of whatever people like to listen to the most at the time. It's always been fun to play "XO" because everybody knows that one. Now, "Holding On" people really seem to like live. So right now, probably "Holding On" for me is one of my favorites to perform. Also, the song "Miss You Like Hell" is just really upbeat and energetic. They're all fun to be honest. But I think those are some of my favorites right now.
Has there been a song that's gotten a reaction that you weren't expecting?
Yeah, I mean the first time we played "Holding On" was in LA for a show we did with this band called Coloring. Kind of like a co-headline three show thing, and when we played "Holding On" for the first time it got this crazy reaction. Like everybody was singing so loud, and it honestly surprised us how loud people were singing because that was the first time we had played it. We had only released it like maybe only two weeks before that and were not from LA or anything like that so to get that reaction somewhere that's not your home is a bizarre, amazing feeling.
Oh, I'm sure. Did you do anything to celebrate after that?
Not really. There were some people from our label that came to the show, so we hung with them, but we had a show that next day so, kind of just how it goes. We don't really have a lot of time in each city. We'll get maybe one day off per week, but usually, we're so tired at the point that we just sleep in and do laundry ... boring stuff. Every now and then we'll get to explore, which is always fun because I love exploring and eating at some local place that we can't normally eat at. But yeah, that night we didn't celebrate because we didn't really have time.
What's been your favorite place to explore so far?
This tour hasn't been going on for that long, so the only place I really got to go out at all was Chicago. So, I guess I'll have to say Chicago because it's the only one I've been able to walk around in, which was nice. It wasn't even that long, but I got to walk around and eat and it's just a great city.
Usually, I'm excited when we go back to a place that we played before and have fans, which is probably about five or six of the cities on this tour. They've all been super fun. We're looking forward to Boston a lot, New York, so it's just fun because you have fans there already.
Do you feel like you've seen your fanbase grow since the last tour you went on with NF?
Oh, 100 percent. For sure. Even from this tour. Each night we've been meeting a lot of people at the merch table, taking a bunch of pictures; things like that. So, we've definitely seen it grow.
If you missed Nightly at Stage AE, the group plans to perform again in Pittsburgh at the beginning of next year.
