ALT BLK ERA: "You might not notice on the first listen that this album is about my hidden disability"

On the same day that their Earache Records labelmates Napalm Death are laying waste to the Dublin Academy, ALT BLK ERA – AKA Nottingham sisters Nyrobi and Chaya Beckett-Messam – are conducting their first Irish interview whilst speeding down the motorway to London’s Heathrow Airport.

From there, it’s off to Austin, Texas for South By Southwest, the massive showcase festival which has managed to avoid a repeat of last year’s artist boycott by telling the US Army where they can stick their sponsorship money.

They’re going to the Lone Star State armed with not only a UK Rock & Metal chart-topping debut album, Rave Immortal, but also a Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) Alternative Act Award.

In winning that MOBO gong, Nyrobi (aged 21) and Chaya (17) beat off stiff competition from Bob Vylan, Hak Baker, Kid Bookie, Native James and their Tallaght bezzie Spider.

Asked whether friendship turned to rivalry for the night, Chaya shakes her head and says: “If you see the video of when we win, Spider’s literally celebrating – and we’d have been cheering for her if she’d won.

Our relationship with Spider is so genuine and full of love. We met at a gig the BBC Radio One DJ, Alyx Holcombe, put on late last year in London and just hit it off. Instagram DMs followed and now it’s like having another sister.”

Asked how their MOBO day unfurled, Nyrobi reveals that, “With my chronic fatigue syndrome, I woke up at 2.30pm and started panicking because we had to be on the red carpet by six. We’d arranged for the makeup artist to come to our apartment, so they worked their wonders and then we got dressed. And were still getting dressed in the car! We got to the venue with just a couple of minutes to spare.

“We were nominated in the same category in 2024 when Skindred won, hoped that this would be our year but took nothing for granted because the shortlist was so strong. We’ve loads of friends in the industry that we don’t get to see very often, so it was lovely to hang out for the night.”

MUTUAL ADMIRATION

Along with diversity, inclusion, relationships and rebellion, Nyrobi’s chronic fatigue syndrome – at one point she was sleeping twenty-two hours a day – is one of the themes that Rave Immortal explores with great lyrical dexterity.

“You might not notice on first listen that the album is about my hidden disability,” she reflects. “It took hold during my teens and left me bed-ridden for years. I take the listener through the shadows and share the pain of abandonment I felt, and the solace that I found in my younger sister’s unwavering support.

“This part of the album is so painful for me and at the same time it feels beautiful because it shows my sister by my side, every step of the way; through each emotion and every story.”
I suspect I’m not the only one whose eyes have just moistened. Musically, Rave Immortal blurs the boundaries between rock, metal, alt pop, drum ‘n’ bass, rap and techno to the point where they don’t exist anymore.

“What’s really exciting at the moment is that artists aren’t just sticking to the one genre,” Nyrobi proffers. “Even in the short time we’ve been together, music’s become a lot more diverse and has something to say about what’s going on in the world. I guess why people are drawn to me and Chaya is that you never know what you’re going to get. Whether it’s indie rock or drum ‘n’ bass or sad pop, every song has a twist. There’s so many different vibes that we bring. I love new music at the moment.”

ALT BLK ERA.

Asked what the catalyst for them wanting to be in a band together was, Nyrobi recalls that, “Music and drama have been my passions since primary school. My first bit of band merch when I was seven was a JLS pencil-case! A few years after that I discovered Rihanna and her Good Girl Gone Bad album, which in hindsight was quite rocky. At the same time as I was loving RiRi, I was playing Rizzo in the school production of Grease and writing poetry.”

One of her teenage heroines being American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, who was part of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X’s inner circles.

“She was probably the main reason I started writing poetry, which gradually drifted towards lyrics and songwriting,” Nyrobi resumes. “With Chaya it was seeing my passion and me convincing her that we sound amazing singing together. We did various bits and pieces – including a band competition at one of our local venues, Rock City – and then got into it fulltime as ALT BLK ERA in 2022.”

The band’s breakout song was ‘My Drummer’s Girlfriend’ – sample lyrics: “I never come round ‘cause she’s always a mess/ Banging her head in a gothic black dress/ She’s snorting cocaine every other weekend/ She’s partly insane, she’s my drummer’s girlfriend” – which is an earworm of epic proportions.

I think we’ve all at some time met that girl – and her male equivalent!

“Yeah, so many people have said ‘I know that person!’ to us,” Nyrobi laughs. “‘My Drummer’s Girlfriend’ is so many people, men included, from all over the world. I think we’ve all been through that phase to a lesser or greater extent.”

Courtesy of the mutual admiration society which started last year at the Download Festival, there’s an alternate version of ‘My Drummer’s Girlfriend’, featuring middle-aged dirtbags Wheatus.

“When they followed and said nice things about us on Twitter we thought it was a fan account,” Nyrobi smiles. “The second we found out that, no, it was actually them, we messaged them saying, ‘Thank you and, by the way, we think you’re legends!’ After that there was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with their singer, Brendan. We hadn’t written ‘My Drummer’s Girlfriend’, which was our first indie rock song, yet but when we did we thought, ‘Let’s send it to him and see what he thinks’. We were really, really nervous but Brendan loved it and played it to the rest of the band, who loved it too. Chancing my arm one night I messaged him again saying, ‘Would you like to work on it?’ Amazingly, the answer was ‘Yes!’ so we met on Zoom which is where, putting his own twist on it, he changed the words to the second verse. They were sending us basslines and then – even more amazingly – they flew over from New York and spent two days with us in the studio. We learned so much from them.”

ALT BLK ERA signing to Earache Records, whose roster also includes the likes of Hellbastard, Extreme Noise Terror and Filthy Christians, makes more sense when you hear ‘Come Fight Me For It’, a

1,000mph banger that sounds like The Prodigy smacking Rage Against The Machine up.

“One of my first gigs – even though it felt more like a rave – was The Prodigy who were mind-blowing,” Chaya enthuses. “I was like fifteen, so it made a really big impression on me. When they did their tribute to Keith, the whole place went off!

“A couple of years ago Maxim – who’s a massive inspiration – said some really nice things about us, which at that point in our career was a massive boost.”

As for them Rage boys, ALT BLK ERA were seriously starstruck last summer when they opened for Tom Morello in London.

“We saw him again the next day at Download – he was in a golf buggy and waved at us which was really sweet,” Chaya says. “I was just starting to learn guitar – I had half of one song worked out – and wasn’t going to embarrass myself by playing in front of him. Anyway, seeing Tom Morello live, made me even more determined to get to his level. Which I haven’t yet, but I’m working on it!”

LOTS OF CRAZINESS

As you can see from the pics on these pages, ALT BLK ERA manage to look as good as they sound.

“One of my career choices when I was younger was to be a fashion designer,” Chaya says. “Me wearing black and Ny wearing white is the Ying and Yang of our personalities and adds to the theatre of our performances. We want to lean into that even more and start adding props to our shows.”

Would they be au fait with Simone Rocha, whose designs have been sported recently by the likes of Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Fontaines D.C. and The Murder Capital?

“Oh my god, yeah, we’ve been following her on Instagram for quite a while!” Nyrobi enthuses. “Seeing the people she dresses is really impressive and definitely our vibe. I also like Karl Lagerfeld, Robert Wun and Vivienne Westwood, who’s probably my all-time favourite – but Simone is up there too.”

Along with fashion, Chaya is also a K-Drama expert. My knowledge of the genre being somewhere between zero and fuck all, what should I watch as an introduction?

“One of my feelgood favourites,” she says, “is Welcome To Waikiki which is about three not particularly bright guys who open a guest house, called Waikiki, and the bizarre people who stay there. I’ve recommended it to loads of friends and they’ve all loved it.”

While dates have yet to be confirmed, Nyrobi and Chaya have promised me that there will be Irish ALT BLK ERA dates this year. What can we expect?

“Lots of craziness,” big sis says. “Every time we play, the moshpit seems to get bigger – as does the sense of community. We did an in-store tour in January and the experience of hundreds of people singing our lyrics back to us brought tears to my eyes. Getting to meet people face to face and sign their records was just the best experience.”

• ALT BLK ERA’s Rave Immortal album is out now on Earache Records