Guitarist and lead vocalist Alex Edkins had completed Hoopla while his band, METZ, were still on their final tour. Having announced an indefinite hiatus in October 2024, Edkins thus had a whole other LP ready to go for his solo project, Weird Nightmare, set to release on 1 May 2026.
With his new LP, Hoopla, coming out on 1 May, Tom chatted with the METZ frontman about his influences and love of of distorted guitars.
“So this this record has been sort of patiently waiting to come out”, he told RTL Today Radio’s Tom Einarsson, “and it feels great that it’s so close.”
Weird Nightmare’s second studio album dips its toes into a wide variety of rock (sub)genres, swapping the jagged guitar riffs of METZ for catchier, more melodic tunes. On tracks like Pay No Mind, it’s the sound of a catchy, 2010s era indie bop that would feel right at home on the soundtrack of a Playstation 3 snowboarding game.
Hoopla’s first single, Forever Elsewhere, fits neatly into the fourth-wave emo frame – soaring, half-screamed vocals couched in killer riffs – whilst the LP’s closing song works as a jangly indie anthem with a healthy serving of pop flourishes.
Hoopla (and Weird Nightmare, for that matter) isn’t afraid to explore every last recess of indie rock. “It’s very liberating to go out and just follow your instincts”, Edkins said. “This record goes a lot of different places, but it’s grounded in my love of distorted guitars and growing up in the hardcore scene and the punk scene.”
That being said, Edkins’ approach on his solo project is also fundamentally different. “I think in the world of heavy music, which is where I spent the last 15 years, there’s a tendency to write based on a riff or a rhythm, whereas here I’m trying to do it based more on a melody.”
To Edkins, the LP is an honest representation of all the music he loves, “kind of smashed and blended together without overthinking it, really just trying to enjoy the process of making a record as much as possible.”
When asked whether Weird Nightmare would ever go for a more hardcore sound, Edkins was totally honest. “I feel like life is short”, he said, “I don’t want to put myself into any kind of box and I want to do everything that I can.”
“And, you know, heavy music and punk and hardcore is always going to be a huge part of me and where I come from and what I love about music”, Edkins added.
But the process of writing and performing punk and hardcore comes with its caveats, too: “I felt sometimes a little bit boxed in with heavy music and the lyrical content being usually aggressive and discontent. I mean, I think that’s a super, super healthy outlet. I think that the world, frankly, needs to scream and shout about what’s happening now.”
Dabbling in poppier sounds – Edkins quotes the British Invasion sound and 70s punks like The Undertones and The Buzzcocks – is the ticket: “And when you hear this perfect hook or this melody... to me, nothing is more uplifting and great than that.”
Edkins’ almost purist passion for the sound of distorted guitars, rock ‘n’ roll riffs, driving beats (and all that good stuff) is certainly tangible.
Hoopla, more than Weird Nightmare’s first self-titled LP from 2022, presents a smorgasbord of rock sounds, styles, approaches, and wears its influences on its sleeve – even though it can be difficult to pinpoint those influences precisely.
“So I love that you can’t put your finger on it!”, Edkins replied to this, “because I want it to sound like me, you know, Alex. I want Weird Nightmare to have its sound. And I think what that is what we were touching on before, a pretty wide mix of things.”
Would he find it too corny to call Hoopla a love letter to alternative rock?
“I’m fine with that. I like that a lot, actually. It’s in some ways a love letter to the music of my life, the music that I love, and keeps me obsessed with this whole thing, like this, this need to create this need to make new songs and release them to the world and go play them for people.”
“It’s like a bug that you catch. I don’t think people can explain why they feel so committed to it.”
Weird Nightmare’s second studio album, Hoopla, releases on 1 May, 2026, and Luxembourgish fans can catch Alex Edkins on the European leg of his tour later this year: in London on 5 September, Rotterdam on 6 September, and Cologne on 9 September.
