About This Album

Night Terrors is the first full length album from Sydney Singer/Songwriter Wires (Ed McGuire)

Although sticking largely to the indie pop, guitar-lashed sound of previous EPs, Bad Signs and Short Term Pleasures, this album also introduces new sonic flavours and in tone is a somewhat more reflective piece.

Ed has always turned to music to find his centre and with many of the songs on this album he found himself writing post-it-notes to himself on how to deal with some particularly restless mental demons.

“Art normally tends to be a cathartic experience,” Ed says, “You wrestle with certain things and, as a musician, attempt to trap them in the genie bottle of a song”.

This is most notable in songs like, Those Thoughts, about repetitive negative thinking, Get Out Of Your Head, about the dangers of too much introspection and losing perspective, and Face It Alone, which reminds us that a problem shared, is a problem halved. The song ends with the unnerving reminder: we won’t make it, alone.

“This album was also much more of a solo project that previous efforts, and took way, way longer!” Ed reflects. “I decided to rent a production room above this fantastic analogue studio in Camperdown in Sydney, called Free Energy Device. There is a really great community spirit there and the studio owner Richie Belkner is not only a lovely guy, but also super talented. He ended up engineering and mixing just over half of the songs on the record.”

Several members of the Wires line-up that had recorded the previous EP, Bad Signs, had moved away from Sydney and so this time Ed relied much more on session musicians to bring his vision for the album to life. It was also an opportunity to self-produce. The new studio space afforded time to experiment with new sounds, such as synths and electronica, as well as introducing lavish string arrangements to tracks such as Let It Go and Face It Alone, with players guesting from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

“I struggled to finish this album, to be honest. It was such a labour of love but also a chance to close the door on a certain chapter in my life. I guess maybe I wasn’t quite ready to close that door.”

Many of the songs on this album had been written, in one form or another, when Ed was signed to Albert Music in Sydney. That whole experience had been a series of record industry clichés ultimately ending in disappointment (Eds original album, recorded with Alberts, was never released). At which point, Ed stepped away from music for a period and went travelling, with his now wife, Claudia.

“I almost gave up. I really needed some time out, to remember why I did all of this in the first place.” Ed says, “This album was a chance to recapture what I love most about writing and recording music. And that’s the way it makes me feel. That’s always been the hook for me. There’s nothing else quite like it. I hope that comes across in this album”

Ed still lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife Claudia and baby daughter, Sophie Mia.