Nightjars is the solo project of singer-songwriter Adrian Matias Bell.
Inspired by a childhood spent listening to folk music, Nightjars weaves complex lyricism with careful melodies to create songs that balance the personal with the mystical.
Photo by David Snyder
Getting his start in the DIY scenes of Southern California and the Bay Area, and currently based in Vancouver, BC, Nightjars has had the privilege of playing shows with artists like Sidney Gish, Cheekface, Rosie Tucker, Maggie Gently, Sarchasm, Maria BC, Minimall, TV-MA, Jess Kallen, and Bella Porter, to name a few.
He’s also played at venues like 924 Gilman, Rickshaw Stop, Junior High LA, BFF.FM, KXSC, CiTR, KUCI, The Hi Hat, Red Gate Arts Society, 648 Kingsway, and many, many living rooms & backyards.
His first album, Modjeska, is on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms.
You can keep up with Nightjars at any of these links.
Thanks for listening!
Modjeska (2021)
The first full-length Nightjars album, Modjeska, is a collection of songs written in and about Adrian Matias Bell’s childhood home of Orange County. Named for one of the peaks of the region’s ubiquitous Mount Saddleback, Modjeska traces the arc of a coming-of-age in Southern California, exploring gender, love, friendship, and family with depth and warmth. At the same time, the songs never lose sight of the backdrop against which they exist: the rigid class structures and manufactured blankness of contemporary colonialism, which follow the eye like a mountain on the horizon.
Modjeska is out now on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms, with a tape release through Sentimental Records.
Modjeska was made on unceded Tongva and Acjachemen land. It was recorded and produced by Rosie Tucker at Keepsake Studios and Pietown Sound in Los Angeles. It was mixed by Anna Arboles and mastered by Mirza Sheriff and Sonia Ohan. Jessy Reed played drums on the album, and Rosie Tucker played bass. The cover design is by Bella Porter, and the cover photo is by Adrian Matias Bell.
Press for Modjeska
“There’s both a warmth and delicacy to Nightjars’s sound, at times rattling along with intensity, at others pulling back into more contemplative moments.” - For the Rabbits
“Lyrics that almost feel like they’ve been pulled out of the pages of a novel…[a] potent folk-rock-meets-emo sound” - Spectral Nights
“Immaculate lyricism and delivery…An overall wonderful album for Tetris” - Tetris Album Reviews
“An absolute gem of a find…haunting, melancholic, eerie, and beautiful.” - Surface Noise Zine
Upcoming Shows
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Stay tuned!
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