When this band reached out to me about scheduling an interview, I was definitely intrigued by both their music and their name. It’s not often you find a band name that’s comprised of not wanting their identity to be known. But, it’s a name you won’t forget! When I asked their lead vocalist, Oni, about it he explained about a time during the MySpace era, “Back then I didn’t like to use my real name and I’d change my name back and forth and one day I came up with the name Nameless and said, ‘You know what I’m going to put Anonymous as my last name’.” They originally were listed under Into The Abyss and their founding guitarist recommended the change to Oni‘s MySpace name. And low and behold you have the band Nameless Anonymous.
Nameless Anonymous is originally from the California area forming in 2009 and played until about 2013 where they took a hiatus. Oni moved to the Fayetteville, NC area and started the band back up again. “I was in the military and tried to find friends in the military who knew play instruments, people in my unit…” Oni said on finding people to continue the band. The final lineup ended with Onier “Oni” Vargas (lead guitarist/vocals), Effin “EpinEfren” Esparza (guitar), Zeke “Zer0” Wilkerson (drums), and Russ “Wojo” Wojciechowski (bass). Russ is still an active Army member while Zeke and Effin are civilians.
Like every other band, I asked how they defined their music. “We tried to determine that ourselves,” Oni started off. “We go back and forth from thrash metal. But I have a lot of Iron Maiden influence, but I also like melodic death metal. So we blend the 3 or 4…types of genres.” They compared themselves closer to At The Gates and Iron Maiden. Nameless Anonymous is an unsigned band at this time and hopes to make music a full-time gig. They wanted to release the album in early 2020, but due to the pandemic, it kept getting pushed back. They eventually made the decision to move forward and released their debut album Out of the Darkness on May 15, 2020. Oni called out “NA” as his favorite track due to the melody. Zeke agreed because it was the hardest song to learn and finds it to be a “bad boy”. Russ listed his two favorites as either “Godly Transfiguration” or “Angel”. “Godly is that very aggressive punch in the face,” Russ explained, “the bass line and guitar riffs are intricate and a lot of fun to play.”
“Angel” is definitely the track that caught my attention from them. It has multiple transitions in not just the melody but the style of music too. “It’s considered a love song,” Oni said, “but it’s a darker love song. I like to describe it as it starts off everything’s good, as you listen towards the end it shifts melody, it shifts feeling. It goes through a progression. At the intro it’s something blossoming and blooming, in the middle it’s always fun and exciting, but during the second half of the solo things start to change, and gets more chaotic to revert back to the intro, and end on a somber feel. So I like to describe it as a relationship.” And he’s pretty spot on. “Angel” is a really cool track and you can listen to it below.
Nameless Anonymous is no stranger to the road. Towards the end of 2020, they traveled to Kentucky to take part in a livestream event. And earlier this year planned their own tour and went out on the road for two weeks hitting Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas and Texas for two nights, South Carolina, and wrapping it up in North Carolina. I caught Russ smiling as we talked about the tour and softly said, “That was fun”, so I asked him to elaborate. “What didn’t happen on that tour is the question” which brought laughs from everyone. “Anything you can think of happened” and then Oni chimed in with “Vehicle problems for sure” with Zeke adding in, “We almost died!” Of course, I needed more details and Oni starts off with “It wasn’t my fault”, as all good stories do. I won’t go into the full details, as Oni tells it well in the video around the 10-minute mark. Needless to say, it’s a crazy story that fans need to hear.
Like many of the Rising Talent, they applied to get onto the Blue Ridge Rock Festival. This will be their first festival Nameless Anonymous is playing and they’re thrilled to be doing it. And when they perform live, they thrash and jam as one. I love Zeke‘s description of their performances “The chemistry that is up there is not even science! It’s unexplanatory!” Check out their video performing “Godly Transfiguration” at White Rabbit in the hometown of Fayetteville, NC.
Nameless Anonymous is working on a second studio album and is currently playing songs from it during their shows. They’ll be playing up in Columbus, OH on July 30th and playing in at the 21st Amendment in Louisville, KY on July 31st.
Outside of the music, the three members I spoke with like to have fun. Oni is a huge nerd and showed off on the video all of his wonderful tattoos in honor of anime and gaming along with his Star Wars posters that were hanging on the back wall. He is an avid motorcycle rider and is a photographer (part of his role in the military) using Canon gear. Zeke shared his unique role driving a forklift in a freezer at Walmart distribution and deals with pretty cold temperatures all day while working. Russ is also a huge anime fan and also cosplays! All three of them also love video games, which I find to be a trend amongst many musicians.
Nameless Anonymous plays the Blue Ridge Rock Festival on Friday, September 10th. Come check out Nameless Anonymous during the festival, say hello if you see them, and you can find their music and merch in the links below. It was an absolute pleasure to speak with them and look forward to see how far they rise. Check out the full interview below where you can hear all the details on their music, crazy tour vehicle issues, and mutated fish in video games!
Nameless Anonymous
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