Nervous Curtains

Fitting somewhere between Suicide, Tangerine Dream, and Giorgio Moroder, Dallas trio Nervous Curtains excel at creating uncomfortable yet compelling post-punk utilizing only synths and drums. In the wake of a quiet 2014 that saw member Sean Kirkpatrick play keyboards on Swans’ monumental album To Be Kind the band is back with Con, their third album. Produced by Daron Beck of the great, similar-minded duo Pinkish Black, the new record fuses experimentation, vintage sounds, and strong melody, yielding a piece of work of unrelenting tension yet remaining accessible all the while.

“Con is the result of us having been a band for since 2008 and playing hundreds of shows,” the band tells PopMatters. “We wanted to keep the energy level high and reflect the raw intensity of our live show. Most of the basic tracking was done live in the studio. On our first two albums, we’d layered everything to a scratch track. In fact, [during] the first session the Pro-Tools system at the studio was encountering a glitch. It would not let us do any punch-ins. So we were forced to get solid takes that didn’t require any fixes. I think it upped the stakes and made us play better.

“The album has a feeling of defiance to it. The songs are mostly about conviction. Is my belief driving me to accomplish positive acts, or am I operating under some destructive self-delusion? These types of contradictions drive the songs. People are so intense about their beliefs, myself included. When our convictions are so powerful, are we able to see the truth objectively? That’s the idea of Con.” - PopMatters

From the vaguely coke-inspired title to the maniacally minimal, analog ping-zing sounds, Nervous Curtains harken back to those jittery months of late 1979 to early ’81 when everyone was grabbing synthesizers while figuring where all this new wave was going to go.
White Flashes is a simmering song that sears deeper as it goes, and it’s syncopated drums lines drag the vibe into something like a nervous now. Singer/keyboardist Sean Kirkpatrick played keys on the Swans‘ To Be Kind, so his connection to seasoned dark sounds is secure. In fact, the Dallas trio’s third album, Con, from whence White Flashes comes, was recorded by Alex Bhore (This Will Destroy You) at the same studio (Elmwood Recording) as To Be Kind.

Check out White Flashes and Nervous Curtains’ tour dates below. Con comes self-released on October 2. - CMJ

It's no secret we've got something of an affinity for songs about Dallas around here. So you can imagine our delight when we learned that Nervous Curtains third LP, called Con and due out October 2, will feature another track to add to that canon.

But "City of Hate" isn't just an ode to the long-unchanged mentality of Dallas' citizenry. Rather, it's chock full of references to the Kennedy assassination, as well as allusions to several other famous songs about Dallas.

So, yeah, we're pretty stoked, then, that Nervous Curtains passed along that original song and its Black Taffy (read: Donovan Jones from This Will Destroy You) remix for us to exclusively premiere. Check out the original song immediately below, then keep scrolling for the remix and for a Q&A with Nervous Curtains frontman Sean Kirkpatrick about its inspirations.



You're pretty politically involved -- or, at least, you seem to be pretty outspoken about that type of stuff on social media. Didn't you work, in some capacity, with the Wendy Davis campaign?
I got involved with that campaign and did a lot of volunteer work. I wasn't an employee or anything, but I worked with Battleground Texas. I did a certain amount of social activism. My wife is really a lot more involved in that kind of stuff. She goes to lots of protests. We're very involved with the Black Lives Matter group. I go to some of that stuff with her, but I'm so busy with music I haven't had time to do much of that.

But then you get to put some of that into your songs…
Right. I mean, the new album as a whole... it's not necessarily a political album, I wouldn't say. It more just looks at the whole concept of beliefs, what we believe and our biases. The word that really keeps coming back in the album is "conviction." So, while conviction is often looked at as a positive attribute that drives one, what's to say it can't also be some sort of a blinding force? Or something that contributes to self-delusion and ends up creating paranoia? I have a lot of fun with those kinds of ideas. That's more what the album ties into. Everybody is so impassioned with their beliefs, but we're not all right. How often do we really ask ourselves whether we're right?

How does that apply to "City of Hate," specifically.
"City of Hate" is really the one song where I do let my own beliefs be known a little bit more. I mentioned the paranoia. That's the song where the paranoia really comes bubbling up to the surface and I can't contain it anymore. I had the idea for that song last year when we were acknowledging the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, and, every morning, KERA was doing a special about the political and social climate in Dallas leading up to Kennedy's visit. I had heard the term "City of Hate" before, but I had no idea that it was that strong. There was just this mass movement of insanity with all these people that thought that Kennedy was a secret communist and that integration was a communist plot. It was fascinating. I recently read this book Dallas 1963 that's all about that. It was really fascinating to see how a lot of those kinds of sheer paranoia that don't seem to be based on any kind of reality are echoed in today's society -- like with the Jade Helm thing and everything. I've had a lot fun watching all of that. But, y'know, there's people that have dedicated their whole lives [to it]. They left their homes and they're wandering around, tracking these government exercises. What drives people to do that? It's wild. It's just sort of talking about all those different attitudes. Around that time, also, was the republican primaries for the 2014 elections. I don't even really watch broadcast TV or anything, but still I was inundated with all these commercials everywhere I went. Everybody was trying to prove how much they hated the EPA and how much they hated immigrants. It was like this contest to see who hated immigrants more. It was so toxic. At the same time, people were saying Dallas was changing, Texas was changing, it's going to go blue. It's weird to reconcile these two things that you're hearing. I had a lot of hope for a while. I worked with the campaign and everything, and we all saw how that ended. Now here we are.

There's a line in the song about being born on the anniversary of the assassination. Is that an allusion to your own life?
No, not really. It just seemed like a good way to start the song. It sort of personified this darkness that seems to be ingrained in Dallas' DNA. Also, I reference The Flatlanders song "Dallas" in there, and the Silver Jews' song "Dallas." I enjoy doing that kind of stuff as a songwriter, sort of playing connect the dots. It's interesting that all of these songs have a darkness to them. It's interesting to me that Dallas is commonly portrayed that way. I've lived in Dallas for 15 years and I never planned on staying here this long, but some really good things have happened to me in Dallas. There was a time when I just wanted to get out. I just wanted to leave. And then I ended up staying here. Now, I really enjoy being here. I feel like there's a lot of great things happening in the city, and people doing cool stuff. We are somewhat progressive -- y'know, compared to lots of other parts of Texas. So I don't have to feel totally isolated in my own personal views. Even as I'm saying all that, American Airlines Center is sold-out with white people screaming for a lunatic that wants to put barcodes on immigrants and ship them back to Mexico. Just crazy, hateful stuff. I don't expect this kind of dichotomy of extremities to die down anytime soon.



Like, maybe we're not as far removed from the "City of Hate" nickname as we like to think we are.
Right. What I learned from reading Dallas 1963 is that Dallas was really resistant to integration. It really came in some really painful waves of implementation -- and that wasn't that long ago. What, 50 years?

You mentioned The Flatlanders earlier. Do you have any other favorite songs about Dallas? There are quite I few I've found that also reference the Kennedy assassination.
I put a Misfits reference in there. There's a Mickey Newbury song on Looks Like Rain that mentions Dallas. It's just sort of a passing line, but I tend to notice whenever people do mention Dallas. I can't really think of any others off the top of my head.

I saw that Daron Beck of Pinkish Black helped produce the new Nervous Curtains album. Can you speak a little bit about his involvement?
We did some of the songs with [This Will Destroy You drummer] Alex Bhore at Elmwood, but then we went and did some more songs at Echo Lab with Matthew Barnhart. Daron was involved in that second session. He was there pretty much the whole time that we tracked. In addition to that, I gave him demos to all the songs beforehand and he gave me feedback. There were some songs that he really kind of shaped. But "City of Hate," I think he liked the demo, and said, "Oh, this is going to be an easy one to do." He didn't really have any strong suggestions on it. In the middle section, he told us to turn up the choir Mellotrons just to make it more dramatic. I was joking around with him because it has that breakdown in the middle of the song that, to me, is really heavy metal. Daron isn't really into heavy metal. He's in a band that's associated with heavy metal and has been on two really big metal labels and played with all these big metal bands and everything. I was joking with him, "I think our band is starting to sound a lot more like Carcass," and he was like, "Yeah, I think my band is starting to sound a lot more like Air Supply." He's really into soft rock. That's his favorite music. It's funny, our different preferences on that and where we've ended up with our music.

Another song, which you just premiered on CMJ, has cocaine references. Some would argue that makes it a song about Dallas, too. Is there anything else about the album influenced by living in Dallas?
Actually, it was CMJ that said there were cocaine references. I never really saw it that way. I just wanted to use the imagery of flashing white lights, and how that could be some sort of trigger of paranoia -- or a static, religious experience as well. I don't mind if people think it's a cocaine reference, either. It doesn't bother me. The songs are definitely influenced by the people of this area, for sure. There's a song called "Progress" that has a lot to do with what I was talking about initially with convictions, and people having such strong ideas and never stopping to ask themselves if their ideas are right. I definitely include myself in that. It can be easy to get inside a bubble of your own biases. Not any explicit Dallas references, but definitely informed by the people and experiences that I've had here.

I was thinking about that the other day -- that if you're trying to gauge society's beliefs based of your Facebook feed, well, you've probably already whittled your friend group to people that already believe similarly to yourself. Your own beliefs are just being reinforced and you kind of get the sense that everyone in the world thinks the same as you. Then you realize, "Oh, the Donald Trump thing sold out the AAC."
I think about that kind of stuff a lot. I try not to stay in a bubble. There was a time when I was subscribed to all these liberal media sites like ThinkProgress. I was reading those and then reposting them and stuff. I was not doing anybody a service by doing that. I try to get my news from relatively unbiased sources. I've gotten more restraint as far as trying to preach about stuff I believe in all that time. I've realized it gets annoying.

How did the Black Taffy remix of "City of Hate" come to be?
I just thought it would be fun to have some people remix some of our songs. We know some talented artists that work in, sort of, the electronic realm. Donovan is really into chopped and screwed music. A lot of his stuff is influenced by the Houston screw music. It seemed cool to take a song that has a lot of urban references in the lyrics and put into that kind of realm. I gave him all the separate tracks, but what he did was not what I expected at all. We had a chopped and screwed version, too, but I decided we should go with the non-chopped version. He totally inverted the song. The part that he made the hook is really not the hook at all in our song. "Image fractures in the mirror / ultraviolet reflection." That's also another key line in the song. Dallas is very much known for its shiny buildings, buildings made of mirrors, even so much that we build new ones that cause works of art to physically deteriorate in our beautiful new Arts District. That's a very Dallas kind of thing. It was really cool that he made that the hook. I never would have thought about it that way. He really reworked the chord progression in a way that really made an interesting companion piece. Sometimes remixes can be just a vanity project, but I feel like he really took the song and made it say something a little bit different, from a different angle.

Nervous Curtains will play album release shows for Con on Friday, October 2, at Dan's Silverleaf in Denton, and on Saturday, October 10, at Double Wide in Dallas. Cover photo of Nervous Curtains by Hampton Mills. - Central Track

This Dallas, Texas trio brings together the sounds of the post punk ‘80s and synth pop to the present in an exciting and catchy way. This brand new album has ten songs that will make you hit the replay button over and over again.

Starting off strong with “How To Survive The End Of Time,” the album just gets better and better as you go deeper into it. Lots of reverb, angsty vocals, old sounding keyboards, and the odd bit of saxophone that mixes melody with a touch of no wave makes this one a lot of fun to listen to. The band has really grown since they first started, mostly due to all of the shows that they’ve played, which really shows in the maturity of the music. The songs are strong, with the playing showing raw emotion and energy that just jumps out of the speakers and into your ears, filling you with the spirit of a retro sound that makes your legs move, your head nodding and the uncontrollable urge to dance. “White Flashes” is just an amazing song with the keyboards giving off great effects, the drumming just pounding away, and the vocals just adding to the perfection of the track. This would be great to hear in a club. The production is not razor sharp, but it wouldn’t sound right that way, it has just enough dirt to it that it adds to the total sound of the album.

I really can’t say anything bad about this album…well maybe I can, it’s not long enough! This is the kind of band that will become your new favorite and then drive you crazy to have to own everything by them. You guys can always send me your stuff…lol. - New Noise

A few years ago, Sean Kirkpatrick wasn’t sure he would make another record. He openly talked about it when Fake Infinity, his second record with Nervous Curtains, was released in 2012. The keyboardist/vocalist wasn’t making bold declarations; he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do another grand presentation of recording an album, doing lots of press and playing shows all over the country to promote it. Turns out, he found enjoyment in writing new songs while delving into the history of Dallas’s music and its jagged political history. That's how he came about creating Nervous Curtains’ newest record, Con.


If some of the songs on the album sound familiar to regulars at their shows, it’s not a surprise. Most of the songs were written back in 2013, and the recording of a handful of them began in January 2014 at Elmwood with Alex Bhore at the helm. Another session a few months later, this time at the Echo Lab with Matt Barnhart, yielded a handful more recordings. Mixing and mastering were done shortly thereafter, but the fruits of all of that labor are only coming out now.

“It’s been a very long process. Trying to figure out the terms of the release has eaten up the rest of that time between last summer until now,” Kirkpatrick says in his East Dallas home with his two friendly dogs around him.

Con is a self-released affair, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying to find a label. Latest Flame, the label that had released Nervous Curtains’ output until then, ceased to exist, so Kirkpatrick weighed his options. “I talked to a bunch of other labels,” he says. “Some that just ignored me. Some that said, ‘No, this isn’t what we’re looking for.’ Some said, ‘I really like the music, but I don’t like the vocals.’ Some that said, ‘I love it!’ and wanted to put it out and then just dropped off the face of the earth. Other labels that wanted to put it out, but they offered so little in the way of financial support as far as even just basically pressing the album. I really didn’t see the benefit in going with some of these labels. They weren’t offering anything we couldn’t do ourselves.”

Strangely, it’s hard to see why Con was passed over by so many labels, as it’s the band’s most accessible record to date. The trio, rounded out by keyboardist Ian Hamilton and drummer Robert Anderson, is known for brittle melodies and disjointed rhythms. Those are definitely there on Con, but the interesting turn is how upbeat a lot of the material is. Consider it apocalyptic new wave, recalling the vibes of Devo and Goblin.

This twist came from listening to what their dedicated audience responded the most to. When they toured in support of Fake Infinity, crowds really took to the upbeat material they already had and the band liked playing the songs, too. With that in mind, exploring rhythm was more of a central focus in the writing of the new songs than writing moody atmospheric pieces. Hamilton brought a love of Afrobeat and funk to the songs, and Anderson is the kind of drummer that can harness and lock in with any style. “White Flashes,” one of the album’s standouts, was written in 2012 and played pretty frequently live. People would ask which album that song was on and the band had to tell them to wait to hear that song on the next album. “Once we wrote that song, it kind of became a conscious decision to keep writing in that vein,” Kirkpatrick says.

Not only are there musical ties, there are many lyrical bonds as well. Songs like “City of Hate,” “Progress” and “How to Survive the End of Time” feature Kirkpatrick exploring Dallas' history. He’s lived in Texas his whole life and has lived in Dallas for the past 15 years. “I ended up here, and I didn’t plan on staying here,” he says. “There was a time that I didn’t like living here and had solid intentions to leave. But some good things to me happened here as far as meeting lots of great people, getting married, finding work; all those kinds of things.” He briefly had a stint in Spoon and spent many years touring and recording with the Paper Chase before performing solo shows and eventually starting Nervous Curtains. “I ended up staying here, and when you live in a place for a certain period of time, you start to want to understand why things are the way they are,” he says.


The central theme of the Con is conviction. “Generally, people look at conviction as a positive,” he says with a subversive Jade Helm T-shirt displaying Barack Obama on a dinosaur with guns and explosions around him. “Like, ‘keep believing’ and ‘keep working towards your dream.’ What interested me is also [that] conviction can fuel a certain self-delusion and some possibly really destructive practices as well.” From a fear of integration and fearing a communist agenda with JFK all the way to thinking Barack Obama is a socialist, Kirkpatrick remains fixed on a history of fear. “There’s a history of paranoia in Texas and I find that kind of stuff really fascinating,” he says.


Kirkpatrick worked on Wendy Davis’s campaign for governor and has worked with his wife Nan, a staunch supporter of reproductive rights, on various events. Seeing Democrat Davis lose to Republican Greg Abbot was heartbreaking, especially since Kirkpatrick believed in Davis so much. That sentiment can be heard in “Progress,” especially. “When you get shut down like that, you question yourself with, ‘Well, are the changes I want right? Maybe I’m the one who’s wrong,’” he says. “That’s something we don’t really ask ourselves very often. I’m very guilty of that as well. Bias can blind you from facts and reality.”

And with Dallas specifically, Kirkpatrick loved touching on the town’s fear of racial integration, how negatively many people responded to John F. Kennedy’s arrival in Dallas in 1963, all the way to how things are now. “Dallas has an element of darkness in its DNA and I think about why that it is,” he says. Especially in “City of Hate,” he goes off: “Aside from being friendly to big business, Dallas seems like it’s always struggled to find its identity,” he says. “The city is often associated with materialism, which is what makes the mirrored buildings of downtown such a fitting metaphor. Dallas has thrived as a patriarchy, and that alienates many of its citizens. We are always high on those lists of cities that are mean to its homeless. We see this militarization of culture with everyone driving their huge SUVs with their ‘Come and Take it’ bumper stickers. It all reinforces the City of Hate moniker despite the best intentions of people working in their communities. There is a huge movement of culture and arts in Dallas, but it’s relatively fractured. I guess what I’m saying in the song is that all of that is somehow reflected into me, and I feel my identity fracture similarly.”

Kirkpatrick likes to reference other songs in his lyrics. Picking up from how hip hop songs reference other hip hop songs, he wanted to do that in Nervous Curtains. From quoting the Misfits’ “Bullet” to Pantera’s Vulgar Display of Power to the band Magazine and even Fake Infinity, they’re meant as fun callbacks. “PMA,” a title often associated with Bad Brains’ “Positive Mental Attitude” approach is retooled on Con to talk about “Psychomotor Agitation,” a neurological disorder that causes spasms and physical reactions based on anxiety and paranoia. They’re in-jokes, essentially, to lighten the mood.


Lots of stuff is explored on Con, and interestingly, there is a lot of leftover material from its writing sessions. Kirkpatrick is considering releasing that material on an EP, as well as a 30-minute horror soundtrack to a lost '80s film, which was recorded during a break in tracking Con. Given how prolific they’ve been, the band doesn’t spend much time together aside from rehearsals, shows and sporadic touring. For the immediate future, don’t expect a lot of shows from the band, as Hamilton recently becoming a father for the first time and Anderson is raising a young child, in addition to work commitments.

“We can’t go out for very long,” Kirkpatrick says of touring. “But I’m not interested in going out for very long. There was a time in my life where I did not like being at home and I loved being on tour. That time is very much gone. I really like being at home with my dogs and my wife. It’s nice to have a paycheck and be able to survive.” - Dallas Observer

Sometimes we just want to get glum and jump around. On such occasions, we can be glad for Nervous Curtains, a Dallas, Texas-based post-punk synth-rock trio formed in 2008 by Sean Kirkpatrick (vocals, keyboards), Ian Hamilton (keyboards) and Robert Anderson (drums).

“White Flashes” is from Nervous Curtains’ third album, Con. According to Kirkpatrick, the single is “a clash of cultural paranoia and ecstasy” that “references the manner in which people define themselves by belief systems and political leanings while simultaneously relaying signifiers of the modern surveillance state.”

It’s also got a beat, and we can dance to it. - The Big Takeover

Dallas-based unit Nervous Curtains are gearing up to release their third album Con this fall, but before it arrives, Exclaim! has got the premiere of the band's new single "Devastator."

Blending electronic noise with live drums and a punk rock energy, the three-piece deliver a unique, powerful sound. "Devastator" follows suit, offering up slow-burning synth lines that get punched up with ominous, thumping keyboards and an ever-present drumbeat.

The track features co-production and back-up vocals from Daron Beck of Pinkish Black — who, according a statement from the band, "played a big role in helping us structure the song and sculpt the dynamics."

Con is officially out on October 2. For now, though, listen to "Devastator" in the player below and keep scrolling for a look at the band's video teaser for the upcoming album. - Exclaim!

"Dallas trio playing some pretty evocative and somewhat creepy electronic rock featuring drums, keyboards and vocals reminiscent of Wall of Voodoo or maybe Ultravox. Very intriguing stuff." - When You Motor Away

With that minimal setup, there's still a labyrinthine feel to Fake Infinity — it's almost metal in concept, but Krautrock in its execution. This time the themes are success and failure, and the lyrics are definitely more abstract than Out of Sync With Time, but its references are grounded a bit more in reality. - Dallas Observer

"There is a pulse of definition and innovation beneath these ten tracks that beats with potential; it is invigorating to hear a good band growing into something great.

The album is called Fake Infinity, as if to say it is something unreal existing forever. But most listeners will probably find this disc as taking the realest parts of music and making them count for each moment they are played. We may hear the echoes of the past in these tracks, but they are definitely taking the necessary steps into creating the future." - Innocent Words, Chicago, IL

"Fake Infinity is yet another fine produce from a band that is constantly underrated by the press and the music fans alike." - Rock Freaks

It’s the electronics and primal rhythms that bring the dread and intense feeling of alienation. The formula works; Nervous Curtains have created a sound that is truly unique and unlike anything being made at the moment. - Stripwax (Milwaukee)

"The drums are solid and the keys and electronics come up with a mixture of scrumptious melodic passages and assertive textural blasts. The songs are focused and manage to build intrigue...Nervous Curtains offer their personal approach to this style and come up with a vibrant set of songs that will stay with me for some time." - DC Rock Live

Firing off such a well-rounded debut is no small task, especially in today's market of independent music. The Nervous Curtains, however, have managed to do just that. Musically well-endowed and tragically beautiful, Out of Sync With Time promises to bring the Curtains a smattering of well-earned attention not just on the expansive Texan frontier, but, more than likely, all the world over. - Baeble Music

Texas may not readily be the first in line to lay claim to bands of a darker state of composition, but turns out, once one name is pulled up, a bunch of others magnetize. Dallas, Texas trio Nervous Curtains and its leader, Sean Kirkpatrick (the pAper chAse, the Falcon Project, Spoon), are part of that cold breeze that is slightly stunning the sun-baked atmosphere of their environs, their heavy keys and percussion wallop (compliments of Ian Hamilton and Robert Anderson) droning and electrifying simultaneously with the sting of sinister lyrics. And of course, dark knows dark, so Kirkpatrick readily lists out his likeminded fellow Texans. - WMSE Milwaukee

"There is a pulse of definition and innovation beneath these ten tracks that beats with potential; it is invigorating to hear a good band growing into something great.

The album is called Fake Infinity, as if to say it is something unreal existing forever. But most listeners will probably find this disc as taking the realest parts of music and making them count for each moment they are played. We may hear the echoes of the past in these tracks, but they are definitely taking the necessary steps into creating the future." - Innocent Words, Chicago, IL

After the sex, drugs, and rock and roll, we’re left with a wicked hangover. This isn’t the glorious future we were promised and we thought we deserved. So what we do with it now is our own decision. It’s the end of something false but could be the beginning of something real and finite. Sonically, we attempt to capture this setting with a mix of otherworldly synthesizers and echo effects and very gritty and grounded rock and roll sounds. - Atlanta Retro

There are rare moments on this album come when the creepy synths rise up to support a positive emotional release, just to keep you guessing. The production is very stark and minimal, relying on bare, bristling instrumentation to set the mood, and without ever overwhelming the senses with overdubs and reverb, the songs are freaky enough and the playing powerful enough to land a few stabs into the psyche. - You-Phoria

"The tracks are cinematic in scope yet the three piece set up keeps “Fake Infinity” grounded and minimal enough to keep that post-punk edge. The album is soaked with buzzing analog sounds, angular riffs and propulsive krautrock drumming. The whole affair is dark and bizarre with lyrics that are intriguing and beguiling with some great hooks thrown into the mix." - RAD Vinyl