Watch Nap Eyes’ New Video for “I See Phantoms of Hatred and of the Heart’s Fullness and of the Coming Emptiness”

Out Today

The colossal penultimate track of Nap Eyes’ new album, The Neon Gate, takes its title and text from a poem by Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939). In 1922, as the Irish Civil War raged, Yeats wrote his “Meditations in Time of Civil War” while summering in Thor Ballylee, a Norman tower. In the final section of this visionary poem, tortuously titled “I See Phantoms of Hatred and of the Heart’s Fullness and of the Coming Emptiness,” the poet climbs “to the tower-top” to survey (or conjure) a fantastical scene involving, among other things, ladies riding “magical unicorns,” Babylonian prophecies, and Jacques Molay (the final grand master of the Knights Templar, burned at the stake in 1314 for his supposed heresy and homosexuality). “Frenzies bewilder, reveries perturb the mind,” Yeats writes. “Monstrous familiar images swim to the mind’s eye.”

The video for this track, the first to follow the album’s release on October 18, finds songwriter Nigel Chapman—now having, perhaps, passed through The Neon Gate—wandering through a pastoral cemetery, a postmodern disciple of Yeats contemplating mortality and nature, and undercutting that self-serious persona in scenes goofing around and performing live with his three bandmates, Brad Lahead, Josh Salter, and Seamus Dalton. After the surreality of the hand-animated “Dark Mystery Enigma Bird” video by Dr. Cool and the similarly psychedelic, partially animated series of four visuals and shorts for the album singles “Feline Wave Race,” “Ice Grass Underpass,” “Demons” (like “Phantoms” a literary adaptation, this time of a Pushkin poem), “Passageway,” and “Eight Tired Starlings—all of which feature only guitarist Brad Lahead—the “Phantoms” video finally offers an intimate glimpse of the entire band inhabiting a more anchored, recognizable “real world,” albeit one with typically humorous, skewed details.  

Director and DP Ana-Maria Espino Trudel explains her inspirations and process: “I had this idea to shoot with a drone as if it were a steadicam, to create an ethereal sense of movement that felt otherworldly, matching the spirit of the song. Josh [Salter, bassist] suggested the main location, and we found this sprawling field filled with flowers next to a cemetery. For the rest of the video, we used a mix of slow motion to give it a dreamy quality and lo-fi digital cameras to evoke an intimate home video feeling.”

 

 

Buy The Neon Gate

$9.00 – $35.00

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Read more about the album HERE.

Watch All Videos and Visuals (So Far)

 

Nap Eyes Live

Nap Eyes have announced new Canadian and US tour dates in 2025, in addition to their European tour. All dates are listed below and on sale now; new dates are in bold. Tickets are available HERE.

 

 

Dec 27th – Halifax – Propellor Arcade
Jan 20th – Vancouver – Green Auto
Jan 21st – Calgary – The Palomino
Jan 22nd – Edmonton – Rocky Mountain Ice House
Jan 24th – Winnipeg – Sidestage

April 30 – New York @ Brooklyn Steel w/ MJ Lenderman
May 1st – NYC – Baby’s All Right

May 7, 2025 – London @ The Lexington
May 11, 2025 – Birmingham @ Hare & Hounds
May 12, 2025 – Manchester @ YES
May 13, 2025 – Glasgow @ The Hug & Pint
May 14, 2025 – Leeds @ Hyde Park Book Club
May 16, 2025 – Brussels @ Les Nuits Botanique
May 17, 2025 – Amsterdam @ London Calling
May 18, 2025 – Utrecht @ Ekko
May 19, 2025 – Rotterdam @ Renée
May 20, 2025 – Köln @ Bumann & SOHN
May 21, 2025 – Hamburg @ Nachtasyl
May 22, 2025 – Berlin @ Schokoladen
May 23, 2025 – Schorndorf @ Manufaktur
May 24, 2025 – Freiburg @ Swamp
May 28, 2025 – San Sebastian @ Dabadaba
May 29, 2025 – Ourense @ Sala El Torgal
May 30, 2025 – Lisbon @ ZDB
June 1 2025 – Valencia @ Loco Club

 

Video still by Anna-Marie Trudel.

 

Acknowledgments

Fripp-esque sustain, synths, and drum machines color a beautifully constructed record that brings to mind Aztec Camera’s High Land, Hard Rain or Scritti Politti’s Songs to Remember. – Uncut

The Neon Gate finds Nap Eyes adopting new forms and expanding—these are among Chapman’s most empathetic and charmed compositions yet. – Aquarium Drunkard

A remarkable accomplishment. – Stereogum

Nap Eyes’ playful fifth album finds the perfect middle ground between live rawness and a glossy studio sound, as the band packs their mid-fi rock jams with fried guitar solos, electronic grooves, and a genuinely funky adaptation of W.B. Yeats … Miraculously, these contrasting pieces—hip-hop hi-hats and folky guitars, verbose lyrics and ripping solos—come together as a cohesive whole. Their members might not change like The Fall’s did, but the cliché remains: Nap Eyes are always different, always the same. – FLOOD

How can you sustain this many ideas over the length of an album? Somehow, Nap Eyes manage it. The quartet manage to keep the energy — a very singular energy, multidimensional but featherlight, full of momentum but never sweaty or frantic — until the final note. Nap Eyes find themselves on a particular, illuminating wavelength this time around, and they leave their gate swung open for whatever may come their way next. – Exclaim (Staff Pick)

Each new Nap Eyes album still feels like an event … The surprises that appear at every turn offset the studied slacker vibes of Chapman’s singing, and the whole thing ends up twisting memory and contorting space and time in the most satisfying ways. Nap Eyes seem to create a different niche for themselves with every new album; long may it continue. – KLOF

These songs are poetic, and not just because the words are poems. Their poetry lies in the music itself: Chapman’s reserved but powerful delivery, their lulling, hypnotic repetitions, the avian chorus of squawking guitars and chirping synths. This marriage of words and music captures something ineffable that lies between thought and expression (to borrow a phrase from Lou Reed), and with it, Nap Eyes have produced a beautiful, literary, aspirational, and inspiring work. – Post-Trash

Nap Eyes’ musical horizons only continue to broaden, and the vistas are something to behold … they stand on tiptoe as they continue to contemplate amidst their most adventurous songwriting to date. – Northern Transmissions

The poem’s narrative nature fits perfectly into the realm the Nova Scotians have crafted; they’ve crafted this stunning elegance, almost as if it was meant as part of some ancient folk symphony. Nigel’s voice, like a moth to the flame … pulls you into the storytelling. Very few acts are crafting music in this matter, so feel free to raise your glass to these lads. – Austin Town Hall

Clean, tightly wound power pop that places Chapman’s remarkable talent for lyric writing front and center. – The FADER

Slow blooming bliss … worth the wait. – Raven Sings the Blues