Nightlands’ Dave Hartley talks basketball, indie rock, and ‘Oak Island’
Nightlands plays the Earl on Sat., March 2 with Efterklang and Qurious
?
Dave Hartley is best known as the bassist for the War on Drugs, but his Nightlands solo project and writing about basketball are what he dedicates most of his time to these days. Earlier this month, Hartley debuted his sophomore album, Oak Island, via Secretly Canadian. He also was the ringleader in getting Matt Bonner to finally shoot in the NBA three-point contest, to no avail. There was something about his first album, Forget the Mantra, that was so intriguing, yet somehow fell flat of truly captivating you. His second album is a far more elaborate offering, and it was a good call to spice things up.
?
Before making his way to Atlanta, Hartley took a few minutes to talk about how love songs are the equivalent of politicians’ bumper stickers, those pinch-me-I’m-playing-with-John-Cale-right-now moments, and how love is an explosion of euphoria.
?
So currently you’re on the hunt to get Matt Bonner into the three-point contest for the NBA.
Dave Hartley: Yeah it just started off as a lark and sort of stumbled into something that might actually work.
Why him?
I do some writing about basketball and I <ahref=”http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2012/03/crossover.html”>interviewed him. He’s unique in the NBA because he likes indie and rock ‘n’ roll and stuff. But we hung out last year and I interviewed him for Paste. But we kind of became friends and I was just like, I’m gonna start a campaign called “Let Bonner Shoot”. He doesn’t even use Twitter or Facebook or anything. So I just tweeted some shit and it just took on a life of its own. I hope he gets it, he deserves it.