Midnight Til Morning are set to take the world by storm, and they won't stop
Having shot to fame via a hit Netflix show, rock band Midnight Till Morning are currently tearing up venues across the globe. We caught up with them backstage ahead of their massive show in London to talk about life on the road, going from delivering pizzas to headlining iconic stages, and why American band members can't quite get on board with the British breakfast bean debate.
First of all, how have you guys been? I know you've been on the road for a while now. How has it been treating you?
Zach: It's been awesome. We had a couple of months off in between extensive touring, so it was a nice little refresh. Now it feels great to be back with a pretty new show, showing some of our new music to the fans. It's good to see some new faces, and some old faces again. We're just excited to be back on the road.
You're playing a massive, iconic venue in London (Kentish Town Forum) tonight. Do you ever feel the pressure playing a huge city like this?
Conor: I think cities like this, we know it's going to be a big show, and our fans are so passionate. There's a little bit of pressure to be, I guess, perfect but I think the reason people come to see us is that sometimes we're not perfect. We mess up, and we stumble, which is cool. I think it makes us a bit more real and raw.
We always want to put on a good show, especially in a venue as gorgeous and big as this. The pressure kind of helps us perform better, of course.
You've toured in the States, Europe, and even Japan. Do you notice differences between your fans across different continents?
Conor: Europe and the UK have always been super, super passionate. All of our fans are great, but definitely when we come over to the UK and Europe, they line up super, super early. They're very exciting and loud, singing all of our songs at the top of their lungs, which is super cool to see.
Looking back a bit obviously, the Netflix show was a massive launchpad. Before all of this, how did you guys get into music? Was this always the plan?
Mason: It's always been my plan. I got into music because I was playing a karaoke game and my parents said, "You're pretty good at singing, do you want to get some lessons?" It just snowballed until eventually the Netflix show came about, and now I'm here.
Conor: I was really into skateboarding. I worked in skate shops and skated since I was a kid, and music was just a hobby I did on the side. Then the Netflix show came about. It was wild, a year and a half ago, after we finished filming, I was a pizza boy! Now I get to play in London, but I still skate and play music at the same time. And I still eat a lot of pizza.
In the music industry today, what do you think is the biggest challenge a rising band faces when trying to get their music out there?
Mason: Just the amount of music and people doing it. On one hand, it's really awesome because of social media and having Logic or GarageBand right on your laptop to record songs. But it also makes it so competitive. There are hundreds of thousands of songs being uploaded to Spotify every day, so trying to cut through the noise and find your audience can be challenging. We're very lucky we had the Netflix show as a launchpad to reach a massive group of people from the get-go.
What inspires you the most when you're writing and performing?
Zach: Life, just life in general. Both my parents were a big inspiration for me, they've been super hardworking my whole life and instilled a really good work ethic in me. Being away from home can have its heavy moments, and you're always giving your all to an audience, which is the best thing ever, but mentally you have to take a step back sometimes and realize it's a lot. I'm very grateful for what my parents taught me.
Conor: Our fans have always been the biggest inspiration since the beginning. Thousands of fans rock up every morning and night, and their passion is incredible. So many of our fans are also musicians themselves, which is so cool and inspires us to be better musicians and write better music back to them.
You've got some new music on the way, right? What's happening music-wise?
Shane: We've got some very exciting things coming up! We've been working on a lot of music that we're thrilled to share very soon. We've actually got a new single coming out this Friday called "365."
Are you playing it tonight?
Shane: We are, yeah!
Do people already know the words?
Shane: Yeah, they know the song word for word, that's the cool thing. Even when we play unreleased songs, they somehow know them.
Let's talk about London specifically. Give us one thing you love about it, and one thing you hate.
Zach: I love the people. Everyone's super nice here. I'm from Boston, where people can be a little ugh sometimes. Here, people are more willing to help. I don't really like the fact that it's so damn hard to get around in a car. I'm really bad with trains and the tube. Also, those underground tube lines. I don't know what noise it is, but it is so loud! I sit there thinking, Get me out of here.
Shane: Let's start with something I don't like: beans and eggs. I love eggs, I love beans, but I just don't feel like they belong together for breakfast. It's like peanut butter and pickles!
What do I love? I really like the accent here. It's so cool and completely different from anything back home. People call things different things too like calling a trash can a "rubbish bin." It takes me a second to process, but I love hearing the different ways people talk.
Mason: For me, London feels like a home away from home. I've been coming here since I was a little boy, and a lot of my family is from over here. I've got a lot of family coming to the show tonight, so it's always like a hometown gig. I don't like delays on the tube! But I guess that's just par for the course.
Midnight Til Morning's new single "365" is out this Friday.
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Words by Sal F and Photos by Gianmarco R.
