NVSN’s “Siren Song” Tells A Story About Struggling With Anxiety

Ann Schlottman
5 hours ago
6 min read

I’ve been following and supporting Biloxi, Mississippi-based metalcore band NVSN since Spring of 2021 when they released one of their most beloved songs, “The End”. I quickly fell in love with everything about this band. Their music (of course). Their honesty and vulnerability. Their deep love for their fans. They have a Facebook group called the Broken Hearts Club, which is not only a fan group, but a place where people can come and be open about how they are feeling and get support. It’s meant to be a safe space.

A little over a year later, the band released their self-titled album, NVision (the band’s previous name), and my two favorite songs by them became “Distress” and “Amara”. One deals with anxiety, and the other is about losing a loved one. They both spoke to me.

I do believe, however, I now have a “new favorite” NVSN song. That’s their brand new single, “Siren Song”, which came out August 22nd. It’s wonderful on so many levels. I’ll talk more about the song later, but first some background on NVSN.

Band members of NVSN include: Alex Carr (lead vocals and founding member); Kevin Migues (guitar/backing vocals); Chase Wilson (bass/backing vocals); David Kersey (guitar); and Randy Thompson (drums). I interviewed Alex for this review, and as always he gave me some great information.

I realized that despite having followed this band for the past four years and having written about them a couple times, I never asked Alex about the band’s original name, “NVision”, as well as the name change to “NVSN”. He shared the story with me.

“NVision started out simple enough — I had a vision of where I wanted to go with music, and I could ‘envision’ that future,” Alex told me. “Then years down the road, it would be ‘in vision’ with what I saw. At one point in my solo days, I wanted to change the name to ‘Vision’ once the project took off.”

Alex said the name change to NVSN was implemented a couple years ago for a few reasons. Number one was to signify change -- a new era. And another reason is a little simpler – Search Engine Optimization, or “SEO”. Alex said, “If you Google ‘Nvision’, it gets lost behind a bunch of nail salons of the same name. If you Google ‘NVSN’, the band is in the top five results.”

The creation of the latest NVSN musical masterpiece, “Siren Song”, was a total team effort. In fact, Alex says that, from top to bottom, “Siren Song” is the most collaborative work NVSN has done so far.

“Siren Song”'s instrumentals were written by Kevin and David, as well as Alex, who also wrote the lyrics. To go along with Alex’s lead vocals, Kevin is doing most of the harsh vocals on the song, and Chase recorded both clean and harsh vocals.

Jonathan Norris of Kingdom Collapse produced the song, along with David and Alex. It was mixed by Alex Gibson of the band Hopout and mastered by Sean Peterson of Pensacola Mastering.

What do I like about “Siren Song”? In one word – EVERYTHING. The first thing that got me right away was the tempo. It’s fast-paced, which is an interesting contrast to the dark topic of the song. The clean and hard vocals combine perfectly, and I think it’s awesome that NVSN uses the vocal talents of multiple band members along with Alex. There’s a sick guitar riff at the beginning of the song that’s also incorporated in the chorus. There’s also a wicked breakdown, which is one of my favorite parts of a metalcore song.

NVSN is not afraid to write about inner demons and mental health issues which the band members have dealt with or are battling. That’s something their fans love about their music, because they can relate to it as they’re going through their own struggles in life. My loose interpretation of “Siren Song” is that it’s about being submerged in “an ocean” of emotional and mental issues and not sure if it’s worth trying to fight to stay afloat. I asked Alex to share his thoughts on it. I think I was pretty close.

“ ‘Siren Song’ is about drowning in anxiety, with the Siren being a manifestation of anxiety to deliver the final blow. Towards the end there is a struggle between dealing with anxiety or changing who you are to be rid of anxiety.”

In case anyone is wondering about the definition of the word “SIREN” as it relates to “Siren Song”, I found the following: “Any of a group of female and partly human creatures in Greek mythology that lured mariners to destruction by their singing".

Alex told me a cool story about the art for “Siren Song”. He said the Siren was drawn by an artist named Jorden, who’s a fan of NVSN. It was based off a sketch by Zoey Brownlee, the fiancée of the band’s drummer, Randy. The final design was done by Alex and Randy.

NVSN actually shared the story of the art on Instagram. I’m including the link below.

Using a fan’s art is not surprising, because NVSN is the type of band that always wants to include their fans in everything they do. Case in point: their video for “Amara” off of their self-titled EP, which incorporates photos of NVSN fans’ loved ones who have passed away. Simply put, NVSN makes their fans feel like they are a part of something – a family.

At the time of writing this review, the music video for “Siren Song” had not come out yet, but Alex still gave me some insight on it. He said it was directed and edited by Michael Cannon and filmed by Katie Cannon. Keeping true to the band’s local roots, the video was filmed at Downstage Productions Theatre in Gulfport, Mississippi, which was also the video location for “Black Hole” and “The End”. The concept for the video was created by the band as a collaborative effort. I can’t wait to see it, because everything this band puts out is always amazing, including their videos. They always find the perfect way to bring the visual story of a song to life.

It had been a while since NVSN’s last single, “Black Hole”, which came out in April 2024, and Alex was very forthcoming explaining that. He said the main reason is that they have been trying to find the process that works best for the whole band with the current lineup. It’s taken time to go through things and find something that works for all of them, but Alex thinks they have done so now. These men are all busy with not only their music endeavors, but also families and regular day jobs. Alex is hoping the releases going forward will be closer together.

That being said, Alex can’t really promise any more new music this year from NVSN. They don’t have anything else ready right now, but they are hoping to release another song in 2025. If they don’t, they will have several releases next year that we can look forward to.

It’s been a great year of live performances for NVSN, as the band has done some cool shows. They did a show with ENOX and Transient in Gainesville, Georgia back in February, opened for The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus May 17th at Soul Kitchen in Mobile, Alabama and 12 Stones in a show sponsored by The Sound 228 July 19th at the D'Iberville Community Center, and were part of the lineup for the 8th Annual Gulf Coast Metal Alliance & Cold Comfort Brewing Metal and Beer Fest May 17th in Gulfport. They have done a lot of shows with another popular Mississippi band, their friends STORAGE 24.

NVSN has two big shows coming up. The first one is Friday, September 12th, at Downtown Music Hall in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, with Dark Remedy, Dead Etiquette, Serena’s Fire, and Brenden Starr.

The other show is The Sound 228’s Rock 4 A Reason, Saturday, September 13th, at The Sanctuary in Biloxi, Mississippi, which will include headliner Kingdom Collapse, along with Dark Remedy, Papercut Massacre, Brenden Starr, Raven’s Banquet, and Sanity's Last Breath, as well as Thomas McCormack doing an acoustic set as guests arrive. This event is a benefit to raise money for suicide awareness, specifically benefiting the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention and Mission 22.

NVSN has a full line of merch for “Siren Song”, so make sure to check it out. I’ll include the link below. As Alex said, “It would be rad if people supported us through that!”

Get NVSN merch: https://www.nvsnband.com/collections/all

If you would like to join the Broken Hearts Club group on Facebook and be a part of this wonderful caring, supportive community, you can do so by following the link below.

Join the Broken Hearts Club (NVSN Fan Hub): https://www.facebook.com/share/g/14GQw6L3vux/

You can follow NVSN on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and the band’s website. Make sure to be on the lookout for updates on the release of the “Siren Song” music video!

Written by: Annie Schlottman Photo credits: Katie Cannon, Chris Montgomery, Jennifer Touché