Rats in the Walls: Exham Priory Celebrates 10 Years of Sonic Ferocity

(EDITOR’S NOTE — There’s something about the Niagara Falls band Exham Priory that seems to perfectly embody the city from which it hails. Gritty, hard, heavy and fast, the band’s no-bullshit approach — smacking of influences that range from metal to rock, thrash to punk — is as admirable as it is authentic. (Check out their killer version of Motorhead’s Ace of Spades.) Admirable, too, is that Exham Priory — which takes its name from the fictional village in H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘Rats in the Walls’ — has been doing it for a decade, a remarkable accomplishment as anyone who has ever been in a band will tell you. This Saturday, Dec. 20, Exham Priory will close out its 10^th year with a show at Mohawk Place, featuring a bill that also includes Sons of Ghidorah and Virus X. The show is being held in memory of Stephen Perry, the gifted graphic artist, painter and musician who passed away in September. In Perry’s honor, his former band ZigZag will also be reuniting and taking the stage during the Mohawk show. Recently, we spoke with Exham Priory’s guitarist and vocalist Nick Lucido, whose been with the group since Day One, and discussed the band’s origins, challenges, its new lineup, Niagara Falls and its influence, and what the band has on its horizon. Besides Lucido, Exham Priory — which this week also marked the seventh anniversary of its live album ‘Rats’ recorded at Mohawk Place — is comprised of Dan Twist on bass, Tom Petersen on guitar and drummer Jon Koz (also of The Living Brain Dead), who recently joined the group. We appreciate Nick’s time and we’re thrilled to bring you our conversation below.)

Exham Priory (Photo by Jill Ann)

1120 PRESS: Thank you for speaking with us and congratulations to Exham Priory on its 10th year as a band! How do you feel about the fact that you've reached that milestone? Keeping a band together for a year, let alone 10, is not easy.

NICK LUCIDO: It's pretty cool. In fact, this is probably the longest relationship I've been in in my life. (laughs) I don't know what that says about me, but it's pretty awesome. We started off in a frickin basement, just noodling around because a couple of us were bored and hadn't been in bands for a bit and it ended up turning into something serious. It's come a really long way since then. Even prior to us hitting record on this interview, we had talked about the fact it's hard to keep a band together for 40 days let alone 10 years. I've been in bands that have never gotten out of the practice space to play a show. There are bands that fall apart so quickly they don’t even get around to picking a name. So, it's pretty crazy to see it held together this long because I don't think any of us really had that expectation.

1120: When the band started, what was the vision for it?

NL: We started just jamming around. It really was just for me to get out of the house, grab the amplifier, grab the guitar, and actually play with other people. I don't know if we really had any goals at first other than let's just see what happens. And, honestly as for myself, at that point, I hadn't been in a band for a couple of years because I kind of stepped away from music for a bit, so I was starting to go a little stir crazy because I really like making music and working with other people.

I started doing some solo acoustic things, but it just wasn't feeding the beast. Anyway, the original idea for the lineup was so much different at the time. The guy originally coming in to play drums just wasn't a great fit. So that didn’t happen. Joe Kent from the Living Brain Dead was supposed to come in and play bass. But that ultimately didn’t happen either. And there was someone who was supposed to come in and sing because I didn't want to sing anymore. I just wanted to focus on playing guitar. But that never came through, so I ended up singing and playing guitar again out of necessity.

So, there was a very different vision at first — even sound-wise because we had much more of a punk feel with a little bit of thrash in there. But it pretty much moved away from that — maybe not fully away — there’s still that Motorhead vibe, but yeah, there’s definitely been an evolution.

1120: So, after 10 years, how do you think the band has evolved?

NL: I think we’ve come a long way. Our music is very different from where we started. Dan, the bassist, and I are the two original members. We’ve known each other since we were kids. We both grew up in the same neighborhood in Niagara Falls. Right before our first guitarist left (in 2019), we started moving away from the straight, three-chord song approach and toward more complex song structures, tempo changes and stuff. It wasn't just your straightforward: intro, verse, chorus. We started adding bridges and breakdowns, more than one solo. And then Tom joined the band, and he was really kind of that shot in the arm that we needed. That's when we really started to move into more of a Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden realm of music — a lot of dueling guitars. I don’t want to pigeonhole the guys in the band because everyone has pretty diverse influences including jazz and country and alternative. But we reached a point where we didn't have to dumb things down as much. It didn't have to be all power chords all the time. So that's when we really started to see the shift musically. Tom’s been in the band six years now and he’s done wonders for us.

At that point too, we started doing more writing in the room compared to our first album, on which it was me doing most of the writing and bringing it in almost fully structured and then going, ‘Okay, let's rework this a little bit so that everybody's got their own inputs.’ Now it's like: ‘Hey, what was that sick riff you were just jamming on? Keep playing that for a minute. I wanna try and find something.’ So, it's much more collaborative now, and reflects everybody's musical style a lot more because we all come from very different backgrounds musically.

Exham Priory (Photo by Jill Ann)

1120: Let's talk about the current line-up. Jon was just added not too long ago. What has he brought to the band?

NL: With John coming in, it’s kind of like it was when Tom joined; Jon was another shot in the arm that we all kind of needed. Any time you bring somebody new into the mix, you don't know exactly where it's gonna go. You don't know if that new musician’s influence is really going to overhaul everything or if it's just going to be an accent on what you already have. Jon's brought a fire back to the band in terms of the pace of everything. He's much more of a punk drummer. So, tempos are picking up a little bit more. We're excited. We’re all feeling the energy and getting a different enjoyment out of it. Jon really came in swinging. He came in knowing almost our entire set. He did a lot of work to get himself prepared and that was super impressive.

1120: We’ve established how hard it is to keep a band together. There had to have been times where you thought, ‘This might be over.’ How did you get through those times?

NL: When we parted ways with our original guitarist there were worries, including the fact that we lost our practice space, which was kind of concerning. We had no place to rehearse or get together and write anything. We thought, ‘this could be the end.’ I mean, you know, it's tough to find practice spaces and the ones that exist are full a lot of the time. Then you get put on a waiting list forever.

More seriously too was when Ant, our drummer, started having some health issues and required major surgery. He was worried about how that was going to impact him and his ability to play. He kind of felt forced into retirement at that time. So, there was worry about our future there too because, I mean, drummers are freaking hard to find and the ones that are out there, they're either in 15 bands or they're in no bands; and if a drummer is not in a band, the reason is usually because they're difficult to deal with.

Ant ultimately had to leave and that sucked. And I mean, when it comes to replacing someone, it’s not just a musical thing. There are other checkboxes, like: ‘Can I tolerate you?’ ‘Do we at least agree on, it doesn't have to be everything, but are we on the same page generally?’ ‘Are you in a different place in your life than the rest of us?’ So, it's tough when you bring in a new band member, especially drummers because there's not a lot of 'em.

1120: You often hear the Niagara Falls scene is a different animal than Buffalo’s. What has been your experience over these 10 years?

NL: We call ourselves a Niagara Falls band. When we come to Buffalo, it's still kind of like we're in the same scene to a degree. There's only one place to play in the Falls, really: The Evening Star. But I think there’s definitely challenges when it comes to trying to get fans to come here. It can be a struggle. There’s something about getting people to cross that Erie-Niagara County line. It's like pulling teeth; like it's a million miles away when it really isn't at all. It's a 20-minute drive.

The other struggle in Niagara Falls is that we're struggling to build different generations of fans and people coming out, and people forming bands here. Every venue in Niagara Falls is almost exclusively 21 and up. That doesn't really help bring new people in, so we’re not fostering anything new, which stinks. The band, STEM, used to be really at the forefront of taking that on back in the day, booking the VFW halls, legion halls, Elks lodges and trying to have more of an all-ages environment which is really critical to building a future. But those days have kind of washed away. A lot of those places started to move away from music because of issues happening at shows. You know, a few bad apples ruin it for everybody else. Or there were concerns about insurance. A lot of places stopped booking shows. So, we've lost that in the Falls.

1120: Staying on the issue of the Falls, there something that's very uniquely Niagara Falls about Exham Priory. The band just seems to exude a gritty toughness or a rawness. How has Niagara Falls influenced the music you guys write?

NL: I mean, we all grew up here. And in Niagara Falls, as far as musicians go, we pretty much all know each other. Hands down, there's no questioning it. We all learned from the same chain of people. A lot of people can trace their learning back to Tommy Tedesco, Jamie Holka, Dave Whitehill. Or there was Frank Grizanti and Jerry D’Amico of D’Amico’s Music, which is still on Pine Avenue and now run by his daughter, Ivy.

I think the environment of where we grew up definitely plays into who we are. But I think it’s more the lineage because in a small community, Niagara Falls bands tend to have a certain sound to them. Some of that comes from who we looked up to as far as local musicians go. I remember sneaking out, sneaking into bars when I was way too young, to see bands like Klear and STEM and God's Children. Those were the guys we looked up to locally. Of course I looked up to people like Jimi Hendrix. But local musicians like Bruce Wojick, Leo McDonald, Pete Vincent, Jamie Holka: these were guys I knew. I've met them in person. They were tangible. They were real. These guys were doing it and I wanted to, too.

1120: So, at this stage in the band’s existence, what do you want Exham Priory to accomplish that it hasn't?

NL: Oh, we would love to get the next record done and out. That would be great. (laughs) But seriously, our main goal right now is to get our new album done and to put it out. It's recorded. Now it's just a matter of going through and cleaning things up because we didn't do it with a click track. I'd love to do a small actual mini tour, too. You know, one that’s not just going to Rochester or Syracuse, but that has a few other state abbreviations on the posters. That would be really cool. Our goals are small goals right now given that we're in a transition period with Jon coming in. So, at the moment, I’d say we're aiming at small, accomplishable goals.

1120: Thank you again for your time and congrats on 10 years. Before we end, is there anything on the immediate horizon the band is looking forward to or wants to highlight?

NL: Yes, our show at Mohawk Place on December 20. It's a tribute for our friend Steve Perry, who sadly passed away a few months ago and was the guitar player in ZigZag and a couple of other bands over the years. I'm looking forward to that one. It means a lot to be able to pay tribute to our friend

I always say, too, if you like rock music then there's going to be something that Exham Priory is doing that you’ll enjoy. Whether you're a punk fan, a hardcore fan, old-school metal, classic rock: we offer something for everybody. If you haven't listened to us, poke around. You might find something you really enjoy.