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 songwriter’s workshop in North Hollywood organized by Katie Donovan, Lyle’s A&R representative at the time. Prior to meeting, McEwan had listened to some of Lyle’s previous work and liked Lyle’s 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 “as if Miami Vice had a baby with a John Hughes movie”. 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 “combine, not confine”. 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:
It’s 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, “from the early gestating part to finish”.
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.
Lost & Found
The Midnight Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Even though you've been digging through the break of dawn.
You've been pushing and the push is gone.
You think it makes you strong.
Strong.
Ohh
Nobody knows when it goes.
Love takes some time to bloom.
When it's right, it'll find you.
When it's right, it'll find you.
Like sunlight breaking through,
When it's right, it'll come to you.
When it's right, it'll find you.
When there's nothing left to mediate
You take your coat and you close the gate.
You grow your hair in branches long
and you lose your days in the LA sun.
Ohh
Nobody knows when it goes.
When it goes.
Love takes some time to bloom.
When it's right, it'll find you.
When it's right, it'll find you.
Like sunlight breaking through,
When it's right, it'll come to you.
When it's right, it'll find you.
We have mostly wasted time,
half-asleep and have-to-buy.
Waiting for the faintest lie
and waiting for these wounds to heal.
No, we're never as lost or as found as we think we are.
No, we're never as lost or as found as we think we are.
Love takes some time to bloom.
When it's right, it'll find you.
When it's right, it'll find you.
Like sunlight breaking through,
When it's right, it'll come to you.
When it's right, it'll find you.
The Midnight's song Lost & Found is a song about finding love and coming to terms with the fact that it may take some time to blossom. The opening lines “when you find your love, you'll find your song” suggest that true love brings meaning to life and gives us a sense of purpose. However, the journey towards finding that love can be difficult as we “dig through the break of dawn” and push ourselves in the hopes of finding it. The lyrics also acknowledge that sometimes we mistake the stress and pressure that come with finding love for strength, when in fact it is finding and sustaining love that makes us strong.
The chorus emphasizes the idea that love comes when it is right and that it will find us, like sunlight breaking through. The lyrics suggest that we need to be patient and not force things, rather love will come to us when we least expect it. The bridge of the song is more reflective and talks about the things we do when we feel lost or alone. It describes a person who has retreated from the world and immersed themselves in nature, growing their hair out and spending their days in the Los Angeles sun. Lastly, the repetition of the line “no, we’re never as lost or as found as we think we are” reminds us that finding love is not what defines us, and that life is always a work in progress.
Line by Line Meaning
When you find your love, you'll find your song
Finding true love will give you a sense of purpose and completeness in life.
Even though you've been digging through the break of dawn.
Despite experiencing difficulties and putting in a lot of effort to find love, it is worth persevering.
You've been pushing and the push is gone.
Having struggled to find love for so long, you feel exhausted and drained from the effort.
You think it makes you strong.
Persevering in the face of adversity can build inner strength and character.
Nobody knows when it goes.
The end of a relationship can be sudden and unpredictable.
Love takes some time to bloom.
Finding true love can take patience and understanding.
When it's right, it'll find you.
True love will come to you when you least expect it, if it's meant to be.
Like sunlight breaking through,
Finding true love can bring warmth and light into your life, like the sun breaking through clouds.
When there's nothing left to mediate
When all efforts to reconcile a relationship have failed and there is no hope for repair.
You take your coat and you close the gate.
Moving on from a failed relationship and closing the door on the past.
You grow your hair in branches long
Symbolic of trying to find growth and strength in oneself after a difficult breakup.
and you lose your days in the LA sun.
Escaping from reality and taking some time to recover and heal.
We have mostly wasted time,
Realizing that a lot of time has been spent on things that don't actually matter in life.
half-asleep and have-to-buy.
Living life in a trance, just going through the motions of work and consumerism.
Waiting for the faintest lie
Hoping for something that is unlikely or untrue to give meaning to life.
and waiting for these wounds to heal.
Hoping for emotional and psychological wounds to heal over time, even though it may take a long time.
No, we're never as lost or as found as we think we are.
Realizing that life is a journey and that we are never quite as sure of our path as we would like to be.
Contributed by Stella K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
tayo
on The Equalizer - Not Alone
A very good music can you make some new songs then we will give your channel 24700 subscriber I promise