Nails – currently founding vocalist and guitarist Todd Jones alongside drummer Carlos Cruz (Warbringer), bassist Andrew Solis (Despise You, Apparition), and guitarist Shelby Lermo (Ulthar) – recently announced their first new record in eight years Every Bridge Burning due out on August 30.
In a recent interview with the Punk Rock MBA, Jones cleared the air about Nails never actually going on hiatus, noting that the band was just quiet – not dead.
"I never said [we went on hiatus]," said Jones as transcribed by Metal Injection. "Even if you go to Apple Music there's a description for the band, it says the band 'went on hiatus.' It's like, no the band didn't go on hiatus. There was some turnover with the musicians but I've been focusing on doing Nails. I've never had any plans to not do Nails. So yeah, things are good."
Jones mentions that Nails did put out a double single in 2019 named I Don't Want to Know You, meaning that there wasn't total dead space between 2016's You Will Never Be One Of Us and Every Bridge Burning.
"Yes and no. In 2019 we put out a two song single," said Jones. "We did put something out, but it wasn't an album. The whole reason for that was basically I was kind of burnt out. Nails in the past has typically put out records once every three years. 2019 would have been the year that we would have put out another record, but every time I picked up a guitar it was just nothing was coming out of my hands that I liked or that I thought was cool for Nails. Just very uninspired, very kind of burnt out.
"COVID hit the beginning of 2020 and around that time, like pretty early on into COVID is I separated from the members in Nails. We separated, and the summertime of 2020 I got asked to work with Terror on their new album which has been out – the Pain Into Power record that they put out, I believe that came out in June of 2022 or May of 2022. So we started working on that in the summer of 2020, so I was focusing on that more than I was focusing on Nails stuff or writing a new Nails record.
"So we did that all the way up until the summer of 2021 and then after that I started looking for folks to play with. In 2020, nothing was really happening at all, so it was hard for me to like go out there and find folks to play with. So I just focused on that Terror record, and then in 2021 started playing with people. Summer of 2022 is when I met met up with Carlos and started playing with him and you know, we practiced once every two weeks with some breaks in there and we just wrote a record, me and Carlos and Shelby wrote a record together. We recorded that in October of 2023 and it's finally coming out in August."
Every Bridge Burning was produced by Kurt Ballou at God City Studio and features artwork by Jef Whitehead. Pre-orders are available here. You can also catch Nails on the road with 200 Stab Wounds, Mammoth Grinder, and Tribal Gaze (and some others) at one of the dates below. Tickets are available here.
w/ 200 Stab Wounds, Mammoth Grinder & Tribal Gaze
9/11 – Montreal, QC – Theatre Fairmount
9/12 – Toronto, ON – The Axis Club Theatre
9/13 – Detroit, MI – Tangent Gallery
9/14 – Chicago, IL – Avondale Music Hall
9/15 – St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway
9/16 – Nashville, TN – Exit/In
9/17 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
9/18 – Greensboro, NC – Hangar 1819
9/19 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage
9/20 – Brooklyn, NY – The Brooklyn Monarch (+ Stabbed)
9/21 – Worcester, MA – New England Metal & Hardcore Festival @ The Palladium
w/ Xibalba, World Peace, Deadbody & Auditory Anguish
10/14 – Berkeley, CA – Cornerstone
10/15 – Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco (w/ special guest Entry)
10/16 – San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick (no Xibalba)
