EP Breakdown: Narcolepsy - Nocturne

Formed in 2024, narcolepsy is a five-piece shoegaze/dreampop band from Norwich, UK, conjuring soundscapes that shimmer like streetlights in fog. With Ivy’s ethereal vocals floating over a haze of reverb-drenched guitars and hypnotic rhythms, their music feels like a lucid dream you don’t want to wake from.

Drawing from the celestial melancholy of Slowdive and Spiritualized (Jamie on bass), the distortion-drenched textures of Starflyer 59 and My Bloody Valentine (Luca on guitar), and the raw pulse of Ride and Mercury Rev (Billy on guitar), narcolepsy weaves nostalgia and noise into something intimate and vast. Drummer Luke brings a dynamic edge with influences ranging from Foo Fighters to Slipknot, grounding the haze with visceral energy, while Ivy’s vocal inspirations - Faetooth, Plastic Tree, Dinosaur Jr - add a mythic, otherworldly ache.

After sharing stages with the likes of the Miki Berenyi Trio, narcolepsy has become a rising force in the UK underground. Their debut EP nocturne drops 23/01/26 – an invitation to drift, dissolve, and dream.

We invited narcolepsy to break down their debut EP track by track.

Read more to find out what constructed these sonic dreamscapes here.

TRACK 1: MINNESOTA

LUKE: Minnesota was the first track that was written after I joined the band and it is probably my favourite song of ours, I really like the drum part because the different parts of the song are quite interesting to play to.

IVY: The lyrics were inspired by Amy Winehouse saying ‘he hit me and it felt like a kiss’ which is a line I included. The concept of a relationship like that is a very muddling thing to think about and I wanted to write about a scenario where someone is in that situation.

TRACK 2: THROW AWAY

IVY: This is the first song we ever wrote and that was back before we had a full band. It was me and Billy starting a shoegaze project between the two of us. Billy would write the tracks and then send them to me and I would record vocals in my bathroom. The version we released originally doesn’t even have real drums, and we used to perform like that too! We have re-recorded this track for the album with our full band but it stays one of my favourites of ours, I like it more with the whole band.

TRACK 3: INTERLUDE

BILLY: We used to play a song which we called ‘tippy tappy’ and it had a chord progression that I really liked. We were torn about whether to include it on the album as Ivy wasn’t a fan of the song so I rewrote it into a minute long instrumental track inspired by my bloody valentine and astrobrite. I experimented with having the reverb on my guitar before the distortion which creates a wall of noise effect that we thought sounded cool.

TRACK 4: LUCA’S SONG

LUCA: Sitting at the middle of the EP, the title “luca’s song” has no deeper meaning, it was simply something I had been working on at home. I took inspiration from Slowdive’s ‘Celia’s Dream’, with very clean, swirling guitars, but after introducing it to the band, we turned it into something much more dynamic. Luke’s busy drumming really elevated this one.

TRACK 5: ROSE

JAMIE: Rose is one of my favourites, and has some of my favourite of Ivy’s lyrics. About a girl, presumably called Rose. It was named ‘Vibrato’ as a working title for the longest time due to the guitar tone and we always jokingly referred to it as the Vibrator Song. The name ‘Rose’ comes from that… a rose toy. It’s nothing to do with the songs meaning! The song itself is about no one realising when you’re down and feeling like your sadness is not valid. The world just wants you to be ‘happy all of the time’.

TRACK 6: NO PLACE LIKE HOME

IVY: The second song we ever wrote, another demo made entirely by Billy and then sent to me to write lyrics. One of our heavier songs for sure. Our friend remarked that the intro reminded him of a diarrhoea commercial (not sure if that’s good or not). This one’s about running away from home and then realising you should have never left. Sounds so lovely with the full band, they’ve all added a little bit of flare to the song.

TRACK 7: ELEVEN

IVY: This is a particularly meaningful song to me because I wrote the lyrics about the struggles of growing up and disliking the person you’ve become. I often get overwhelmed by the feeling of nostalgia and find myself wishing that I could meet the little me or that she never had to grow up. When I listened to the demo before writing lyrics it sounded so dreamy and wistful that I knew immediately what it needed to be about and the lyrics came to me pretty quickly.

NOCTURNE OUT NOW