Midnight Hour
Sometimes fate is to blame for great music and that is the case for Midnight Hour. Luck was on their side when Brad Lodge met fellow members Dan, James, Jared and Tim after moving out to California. This group knows the perfect formula to great music and isn’t afraid to show it off. Lead singer, Brad and I chatted about their plans for 2012 and what you can expect to see from them in the coming months.
Arin: What got the band together in the first place?
Bradley: Well, I’m technically the newest member of the band, but my guys were in a band before I was in the band, they were more of like a punk, metal, more of a Thrice kind of thing, and they decided to change directions, and then they added me along the way and it’s not terribly exciting, but I had to audition and there were a bunch of other guys, but I’m glad that I got on board and its been really fun ever since.
A: How would you describe the sound of the band now?
B: I don’t know, there’s a lot of different influences definitely some synth and 80’s influences but we like to heir more on like a rock side, an alternative side, but it’s also pop I guess because we’re trying to write catchy choruses and stuff that people can sing along to, so rock, alternative, pop rock, I don’t know, all the above?
A: Where is the best place for people to listen to the music?
B: Right now the best place would be on our Facebook and if you just search Midnight Hour you’ll find it, the record we are selling only at live shows right now. We’re not going online with it yet, I’m pretty sure that’s something we’re going to do this year and that will be exciting and we’ll announce it to everybody when we do, but right now we’re just selling the record at live show otherwise you’ll have to find us on Facebook.
A: What are your tour plans for this year?
B: Our goal really is to get out of California this year. Southern California’s been great, right now we’re doing the OC Music Awards, we actually just did our showcase and they were actually turning people away, it was at capacity, which was rad. So California’s good, but we wanna get out, and I think that’s our goal this year is to maybe catch a tour that’s bigger than us. That’s nice enough to take us on the road to see a little bit of America so I’m hoping that happens this summer, but we’ll see, we’re gonna do our best.
A: What was the most difficult song to write?
B: Good question. The most difficult song, I would say [was], ‘Aftermath’ just because it was a bit more introspective, about second chances, you know everybody messes up and for me it was just trying to dig a little deeper and consider how much I mess up in life and how grateful I am for those who continue to accept me time after time and I think I wanted to share that and that’s hard because it lets people in on something you don’t necessarily want to let people in on so ‘Aftermath’ might be the hardest.
A: How do you use your social networks to stay in touch with fans and which is the best for someone to reach you on?
B: Until something conquers Facebook, probably Facebook. Google+ didn’t work out so that doesn’t count, Facebook is definitely the best way to be in touch with us and we’re on it all the time. If somebody writes us a comment either I’ll reply to the person or Dan will reply to the person, but we’re pretty committed to our fans and our friends on Facebook and that’s the best way. We frankly love it, its really encouraging for us because people are so nice, they really appreciate what we’re doing and they really help us to keep going.
A: Are there any artists that you would want to jump on a tour with or just sit down and write music with?
B: Yes. One of my favorite bands right now and have been for a while, and I saw them at their beginning too, I think it was at the Viper Room, might have been the Roxy, and it was super early on, they released their first EP, that’s all they had, this band MUTEMATH. I still love those guys, they’re so good, so creative, they write catchy songs, but they don’t sound like massive pop songs or anything like that, they just sound cool, so Paul [Meany], I think I said this in another interview, but Paul if you read this, lets write a song together, that’d be awesome! I don’t know lots of bands I’d love to tour with, Matt & Kim’s really cool, The Killers,are great, I could name a lot, there’s so many I can’t even think of them anymore.
A: Are there any charities or nonprofits you guys are involved with?
B: There’s some I’d like to get more involved with that I have been involved with in the past. Currently we have worked with, there’s a company we have worked with in California called 31 bits, they’re a for profit but what they do is they help empower women in Africa to sell jewelery, they [the women] basically make jewelery and 31 bits sells it here. I spent part of a summer a few years back in Africa actually helping build an orphanage and I’d love to get back involved in that, I haven’t really been involved in what they’re doing, its kind of been on my heart lately that I should really get back into it and that one’s called Beautiful Gate and its in Lesotho which is in South Africa.
Random Questions just for fun:
A: What’s your favorite color?
B: My favorite color is your standard boy color; I really like blue.
A: What’s your favorite movie?
B: I know I’m not the only one in the band, but favorite movie, all time, Back To The Future, best trilogy ever.
A: What snack do you always need in the room when you’re playing a show?
B: I really like Cheese-Its, that’ terrible, and I’m not allowed to keep Cheese-Its because I could probably eat a whole box in a sitting and chips, oh my gosh, they don’t last very long so I try not to buy them because they’ll be gone in a day, or a sitting or a movie.
A: What is your favorite movie soundtrack?
B: Good question, because I love movie soundtracks, particularly the orchestrated ones, Lord of the Rings obviously has a great soundtrack, but Back To the Future also has a great soundtrack and it’s a different soundtrack. It’s like Huey Lewis and the News, it’s like rock music.
