Prior to forming The Midnight, Tyler Lyle and Tim McEwan were both established musicians. Lyle was an indie-folk singer-songwriter based in the state of Georgia and gained initial notability with several self-released titles, becoming regionally and nationally known. McEwan was a drummer and producer based in Denmark, later becoming a member of the Danish production group Deekay who has written and produced songs for many popular artists.
The pair met for the first time in 2012 at a songwriterβs workshop in North Hollywood organized by Katie Donovan, Lyleβs A&R representative at the time. Prior to meeting, McEwan had listened to some of Lyleβs previous work and liked Lyleβs folk sound. Despite differing musical backgrounds, they bonded over a mutual love of 80s rock and began to write songs together. After initially struggling to define their sound, McEwan suggested that they compose songs in the synthwave style. McEwan had prior exposure to the burgeoning genre and was inspired by the movie Drive. The first song they wrote together as a duo was WeMoveForward, which was included on their debut EP Days of Thunder.
STYLE AND WORKFLOW
For most of their career, The Midnight has created a strong and distinct synthwave sound in their music - Tim McEwan once described the band's early albums βas if Miami Vice had a baby with a John Hughes movieβ. However, McEwan has continuously expressed a desire to evolve the synthwave genre and not be confined by it. Tyler Lyle has stated several times that the band's philosophy when composing is βcombine, not confineβ. Influences of genres such as lo-fi, soft rock, trance, and vaporwave can be heard on Monsters, and Lyle's musical background has brought influences of indie folk and Americana to the band's sound as well. Regarding the merging of their individual talents and styles, Lyle has said:
Itβs rock and roll with synthesizers. Tim has a keen ear for production, and I can write songs that fit comfortably within the tradition of 20th century classic pop songwriting. Somewhere in the middle things get interesting.
McEwan employs various digital synths in his production, including Serum, Diva, TAL-U-NO-LX, Spire, and Roland Cloud's Jupiter 8 and Juno 106. In mid-2020, he mentioned that his favorite synth to use at the time was U-He's emulation of Prophet-5, known as Repro 5. McEwan has stated that he commonly begins with presets and then tweaks them to his liking. KONTAKT is used for sampling.
Both McEwan and Lyle use Logic Pro on macOS as their primary Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).Universal Audio interfaces are used to capture their sounds, which are then processed using UAD plugins. Using the same utilities makes it easier for them to share session files as a significant amount of their work is done remotely, due to living in different areas of the US. However, they will usually get together in the same room a few times during a release's production and will often write and record together while on tour. A release's sound and overall direction are generally created by the two bouncing ideas off each other - McEwan will send Lyle a rough track or beat, which Lyle will then think of lyrics and a title that would go good with the beat, after which McEwan will further build and produce the track. McEwan has stated that the production of a typical The Midnight album takes around three to six months, βfrom the early gestating part to finishβ.
Production and drums are handled by McEwan, with Lyle providing guitar, lyrics, and vocals. Lyle has stated that he writes on a daily basis, and many lyrics come from a large number of fragments he keeps stored in Evernote. Most of the remaining instrumentation is digital, but on occasion songs (including most with saxophone and guitar solos) will at first have digital instruments that are then outsourced to other musicians to play live on the track. Thomas Edinger has been the primary saxophone player for The Midnight's releases, and McEwan's brother Oliver has frequently played bass for the band as well.
For live performances, various setups have been used by the band. Lyle stated that the Spring 2019 tour utilized an Ableton rig, with McEwan using an SPD SX sampling pad and MIDI controller. Lyle ran his guitars through a Kemper profiling amp, and he also used an OP1 for certain synth moments and pads.
Kids
The Midnight Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Kids grow up and move away
They close the plant in the mall arcade
Kids are sad, their parents too
Kids get high in the spare bedroom
We grow up and move away
The seasons pass but the monsters stay
At first listen, "Kids" by The Midnight may appear to be a light-hearted, nostalgic song about the joys and sorrows of childhood. However, upon deeper analysis, the lyrics reveal a much darker theme of the cyclical nature of pain and trauma passed down from generation to generation. The opening line, "Kids are sad the sky is blue" sets the tone for the whole song. It suggests a sense of hopelessness and melancholy that pervades throughout. The line "their monsters in the spare bedroom" could be interpreted as real monsters, but more likely represents the fears and anxieties that children face when they are alone in their rooms at night.
As the song progresses, it becomes clear that the sadness and fear of childhood do not simply disappear with age. The line "Kids grow up and move away" suggests that there is no escape from the past, and that the same struggles will follow you throughout your life. The references to the mall arcade and seasons passing create a sense of nostalgia for childhood experiences, yet the recurring theme of "monsters" indicates that something dark and unsettling lies beneath the surface. In the end, the line "the monsters stay" reinforces the idea that unresolved pain and trauma will continue to haunt you long after childhood is over.
Line by Line Meaning
Kids are sad the sky is blue their monsters in the spare bedroom
Children are not happy and feel down because of their problems, and these problems make them scared and anxious, causing them to imagine monsters that live in their spare bedroom.
Kids grow up and move away
Children eventually mature and go to live their lives. They leave home and start a new chapter in their life.
They close the plant in the mall arcade
The local community space where kids played and hung out has been shut down and taken away from them.
Kids are sad, their parents too
Parents also feel the pain and sorrow their kids go through. They are deeply affected when their children are unhappy.
Kids get high in the spare bedroom
Children might resort to drugs in order to cope with the overwhelming emotions they're experiencing, and they use their bedroom as a hiding place.
We grow up and move away
Just like the children before us, we also eventually mature and leave our old ways. We move away from all the things that we knew in the past.
The seasons pass but the monsters stay
Time can be a great healer, but some of our fears and anxieties remain with us. They're something that we can't easily outgrow, and they linger even as we age.
Lyrics Β© BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave
Written by: Tyler Lyle
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
NewRetroWave
The Midnight delivers an album to last for many generations. So much nostalgia in this project, one can never let go. Sit back, and drift into another world where you are 10 and ready to exploreβ the world. A beautiful album!
https://themidnight.bandcamp.com/album/kids
Tracklistings:
1. Youth 00:00
2. Wave 03:09
3. Kids (Prelude) 07:41
4. Lost Boy 09:54
5. Saturday Mornings (Interlude)
6. Explorers 14:32
7. America 2 18:49
8. Arcade Dreams 22:50
9. Kids (Reprise) 26:24
SoulSearchAndDestroy
I discovered the Midnight only recently, right before COVID hit. I heard their songs "Sunset" and "Memories" before, and loved them, but never bothered to take a closer look. I don't know what the hell I was thinking.
My hometown is close to an amusement park and boardwalk with arcades, I spent my childhood there. I was looking forward to visiting it again, but because of the pandemic, I couldn't visit the park or arcades, and the beach was closed most of the time. My family and I were isolated and often lonely. We all felt like we missed out on the fun and freedom of Summer.
I stumbled upon some music videos featuring the Midnight and suddenly I was hooked. This was the first album I downloaded.
I'm a 90s kid, and much of the aesthetic of the 80s lingered on then all the way beyond the beginning of the Millennium, before social media overtook our lives. So I, too, lived the childhood memories of this album--the yearning for freedom, the bittersweet experience of growing up, losing touch with friends, of first relationships, explorations and loss, arcades, pizza parties, and Saturday morning cartoons. "Wave" and "Kids (Reprise)" hit me like a ton of bricks.
I'm not an emotional person by any means. But there I was, earphones on, listening to this album all misty-eyed. By the time "America 2" came on I was a sobbing mess. Once it was over, I felt cleansed and liberated. This album is a beautiful, bittersweet catharsis, so painful but so beautiful.
I'm a hardcore fan now. There's no going back.
Fran Ruiz
LYRICS
Kids are sad the sky is blue their monsters in the spare bedroom
Kids grow up and move away
They close the plant in the mall arcade
Kids are sad, their parents too
Kids get high in the spare bedroom
We grow up and move away
The seasons pass but the monsters stay
NewRetroWave
The Midnight delivers an album to last for many generations. So much nostalgia in this project, one can never let go. Sit back, and drift into another world where you are 10 and ready to exploreβ the world. A beautiful album!
https://themidnight.bandcamp.com/album/kids
Tracklistings:
1. Youth 00:00
2. Wave 03:09
3. Kids (Prelude) 07:41
4. Lost Boy 09:54
5. Saturday Mornings (Interlude)
6. Explorers 14:32
7. America 2 18:49
8. Arcade Dreams 22:50
9. Kids (Reprise) 26:24
siothrun72
Are you going to complete the series? Iβm enjoying the slow crawl of the album covers but youβre a little behind.
PVTRIAE
thank you for this
Atariboy
I am playing this song every time I play my old Atari VCS to this day I still own. Here's some old TV ad on the Atari 2600 youtube.com/watch?v=dLiiQdfoLtw
Brian
What an excellent description and such an enjoyable experience provided by The Midnight & NRW! π
ak-47.412
Fantastic guys. A bit more on the mellow side of things compared to previous albums. Perfect for car rides and chill evenings. Love it so much. Thank you!
Garett Gazay
The Midnight doesn't sound like the 80's, it sounds like young memories of the 80's, early 90's, and all the dreams we had, and still have in a world beyond time.
Aron Highgrove
@Alex S No it's capturing some of the spirit of the 80s, and adding new stuff. But the optimism was definitely there in the 80s, and the hope for the future to be big and amazing.
The Social Justice Gamer
That's the point of Vaporwave. I never heard music like it during early childhood (I was born in the early 80s) or throughout the 90s. What Vaporwave does is take some aspects of the music (the synth music) and amplify it to a massive degree and use voice samples from movies that people may have seen and make it sound like that memories often have.
The whole point of vaporwave is to invoke distant memories of memories. We all know how those feel and that's why Vaporwave is so popular.
Alex S
i think that rings true for a lot of synth/vaporwave. it's not replicating the 80's, it's looking back at the 80's through a lens of nostalgia