Nitzer Ebb hits Orlando with a bang Friday at the Abbey

Bon Harris is as upbeat as they come. The English composer behind electronic music group Nitzer Ebb — more on that name later — learned early on that optimism is the only option for making it through tough times.

“Anytime there’s political and social unrest, that’s where the good bands come from,” he sings to the Orlando Weekly choir. “It was a sign of the times when a lot of noise musicians and musicians in general — including us — were on welfare. How much of the English music scene from the 1980s wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t a benefit system?”

One shudders to think, but thankfully for us, there was. Harris met the group’s other co-founders during such down times, and the Essex trio subsequently bonded over their mutual interests.

“Dave (Gooday) and Douglas (McCarthy) lived in the next village along from me. We were all into skateboarding, and music is hand in hand with skating,” he recalls. The new mates soon saved up enough from odd jobs to buy what gear they could find.

“People often ask me, ‘What drum machine did you use when you started out?'” Harris says. “We didn’t use a drum machine. We had a bunch of drums, pieces of metal, a microphone and a PA,” he continues. “We didn’t even have a full kit because none of us could play it. So it was just like a stand-up drum kit. Really trashy kind of garage stuff.”

In keeping with their experimental mindset, the members of Nitzer Ebb often rotated instruments in the early days.

“We’d take turns doing different things,” Harris says. “Each of us would have a turn singing a song here and there to try and mix it up. Most of the time I was on synth, Doug was singing and Dave was drumming.”

Though their roles have changed over the years, the project’s belief system remains unchanged. “We’ve always been very committed to our principles and our ideals, which are firmly aligned with social justice and equality and fairness,” Harris says. “As I get older, I become even more entrenched in it,” he adds. “When I see the way things are going, unbridled capitalism is clearly not working.”

Taking cues from anarcho-punk pioneers Crass, Bon and the gang developed a “very punk rock approach” inspired by their neighboring Englishmen.

“We’ve always been fascinated by the idea of being an electronic punk band or electronic rock band, rather than an electronic dance band,” Harris says. While he “wasn’t so keen on the music” of Crass, Harris “absolutely love[d] the aesthetic and artwork and how they presented it.”

Harris also cites the Dada movement as a major influence on the band’s graphic design and direction. In addition to the three musicians forming its sonic DNA, the Nitzer Ebb lineup features an in-house graphic designer — Simon Granger — who often plays synths during the band’s live performances.

“The music was the primary thrust,” Harris says, “but we took a great deal of care about all the other aspects of it.”

After self-releasing a demo and several singles, the Ebb found a flow on their first album. Their 1987 debut on British powerhouse Mute Records, That Total Age — widely considered the trio’s definitive work — opened the door to a worldwide tour supporting synth-pop titans Depeche Mode.

If you’ve stepped boot in a goth club lately (read: ever), there’s a devil’s chance in hell you’ve bobbed your body to the singles that have made this album an underground staple to this day. Ahem, night.

Now: about that name.

“We wanted something that sounded vaguely European, but not specifically European,” Harris says. “So we cut up letters and rearranged them until something started to suggest itself, and the name came out of that.”

And there you have it — but how do you say it?

“There is no correct pronunciation,” Harris says.

“We’ve said night-sir from the beginning. But when we first started coming to the States, we heard people pronouncing it nit-sir. So, if you like to say nit-sir: You carry on. And if you like to say night-sir: You carry on.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Nitzer Ebb opens November with a bang this Saturday at the Abbey. Bring your body and let it learn.

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This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2024.