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.
Synthetic
The Midnight Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Been black and blue
Trying to turn the old
Into something new
You found somebody
I found someone too
She got everything I need
Yeah but she's not you
I locked my love into the ground
Hoped it never could be found
Body slowly shutting down
And now I am...
I'm still alive but I can't feel
I got stuff inside but it's not real
They say I'm fine but I feel synthetic
Nothing human left in me
I'm just a machine full of moving parts
I got emptiness where I used to have a heart
I'm still breathing but I'm synthetic
Nothing human left in me
Nothing human about me
No emotion
Just autotune
Left who I was back there with you
Maybe I died
And I kept movin'
In a body made of plastic and glue
I locked my love into the ground
Hoped it never could be found
Body slowly shutting down
And now I am...
I'm still alive but I can't feel
I got stuff inside but it's not real
They say I'm fine but I feel synthetic
Nothing human left in me
I'm just a machine full of moving parts
I got emptiness where I used to have a heart
I'm still breathing but I'm synthetic
Nothing human left in me
Nothing human about me
The Midnight's song "Synthetic" explores the theme of heartbreak and the struggle to move on from a past love. The lyrics describe the attempts to turn the old into something new in order to move on, but ultimately realizing that the love they had before cannot be replaced. The chorus reflects the numbness one feels after a breakup, feeling synthetic and machine-like, with no emotions and only automated responses. The use of autotune as a metaphor for the lack of genuine emotion adds to the overall synthetic feel of the song.
The chorus also describes the feeling of being made up of "moving parts" but having "emptiness where [they] used to have a heart." This depicts a person who is physically functioning but not emotionally complete. The lyrics then suggest that the singer might have died after the breakup, becoming a body made of "plastic and glue." This echoes the earlier metaphor of being synthetic and machine-like, creating an overall feeling of detachment from humanity.
Overall, "Synthetic" is a hauntingly beautiful depiction of the emptiness that comes after heartbreak. The lyrics evoke a feeling of despair and numbness that is all too relatable to those who have experienced the loss of love.
Line by Line Meaning
Been trying to move on
I've been attempting to let go of you and move forward with my life
Been black and blue
I've been emotionally and physically hurt from trying to move on
Trying to turn the old
I’ve been trying to change the circumstances of my past relationship
Into something new
I’m trying to make something positive come out of the negative
You found somebody
You have moved on and found someone new
I found someone too
I have also found someone new in my life
She got everything I need
My new partner seems to possess everything I need in a relationship
Yeah but she's not you
But she will never be able to replace you completely
I locked my love into the ground
I buried my feelings for you and tried to move forward with my life
Hoped it never could be found
I hoped that my feelings for you would never resurface
Body slowly shutting down
But burying my feelings caused me to become emotionally distant
And now I am...
Now I'm experiencing the consequences of my actions
I'm still alive but I can't feel
I’m still living but I don’t feel alive
I got stuff inside but it's not real
My emotions feel fake and disingenuous
They say I'm fine but I feel synthetic
People tell me I seem fine, but I feel like a manufactured being
Nothing human left in me
I feel like I've lost my humanity and have become a machine instead
I'm just a machine full of moving parts
I feel like I’m just a collection of body parts and not a person
I got emptiness where I used to have a heart
I feel like I’ve lost all capacity for love and human emotion
Nothing human about me
I feel totally unrecognizable and inhuman
No emotion
I don’t feel anything
Just autotune
I sound like I’m using auto-tune; my voice lacks all authenticity and emotion
Left who I was back there with you
I feel as though I lost myself in our past relationship and can never go back to being that person
Maybe I died
I wonder if letting go of my emotions killed a part of me
And I kept movin'
And now I’m left with nothing but a robotic shell of a body
In a body made of plastic and glue
I feel like my emotions and emotions are synthetic, like my body
Nothing human about me
I feel so disconnected and inhuman
Contributed by Jordyn B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@kjell159
I think in the 80's people still had a basic sense decency instead of antropomorphising a polluting, obnoxious, loud, ugly, dangerous, predatorous pack animal that is the result of 10 millenia of inbreeding grey wolf descendants.
Dogs don't have eyebrows & human feelings, nor human intellect.
The fact I have to tell you this, is very sad.
But nowadays we're all in fantasy, Disney, lalaland where everything is like we want it, everything that isn't offensive is offensive and everything that is actually offensive is considered normal, and people living in reality are looked at as the weird ones.
Flat earther, dog person
It's the same kind of mental disfunctioning.
@mandatory210
Been trying to move on
Been black and blue
Trying to turn the old
Into something new
You found somebody
I found someone too
She got everything I need
Yeah but she's not you
I locked my love into the ground
Hoped it never could be found
Body slowly shutting down
And now I am...
I'm still alive but I can't feel
I got stuff inside but it's not real
They say I'm fine but I feel synthetic
Nothing human left in me
I'm just a machine full of moving parts
I got emptiness where I used to have a heart
I'm still breathing but I'm synthetic
Nothing human left in me
Nothing human about me
No emotion
Just autotune
Left who I was back there with you
Maybe I died
And I kept movin'
In a body made of plastic and glue
I locked my love into the ground
Hoped it never could be found
Body slowly shutting down
And now I am...
I'm still alive but I can't feel
I got stuff inside but it's not real
They say I'm fine but I feel synthetic
Nothing human left in me
I'm just a machine full of moving parts
I got emptiness where I used to have a heart
I'm still breathing but I'm synthetic
Nothing human left in me
Nothing human about me
@Swordsquire
Digital Gravity, I cannot sing your praises enough.
You're making the 80's new all over again with these videos. Keep them coming!
Btw, I totally shared this on my Facebook page.
@digitalgravityy
Swordsquire omg you're the nicest😁 Thank you!
@Swordsquire
You're very welcome, thank you for posting these gems. : )
@CSM100MK2
DG is an artist. Unique to the swarm horde of movie-to-music video edits these years. A beacon of quality.
@kjell159
I think in the 80's people still had a basic sense decency instead of antropomorphising a polluting, obnoxious, loud, ugly, dangerous, predatorous pack animal that is the result of 10 millenia of inbreeding grey wolf descendants.
Dogs don't have eyebrows & human feelings, nor human intellect.
The fact I have to tell you this, is very sad.
But nowadays we're all in fantasy, Disney, lalaland where everything is like we want it, everything that isn't offensive is offensive and everything that is actually offensive is considered normal, and people living in reality are looked at as the weird ones.
Flat earther, dog person
It's the same kind of mental disfunctioning.
@Swordsquire
@@kjell159 Lol! I guess someone is just feeling all manners of bitter about life.
Turns out you are everything in your comment that you just bitched about. Sans the Miniature Collie with the awesome eyebrows.
Get over yourself butch.
@Frankie2259
This is the kind of music that makes you cry and smile at the same time, and you don't know exactly why...
@pragyasengupta9637
Imotion dont stops till the song ends
@madmaxofmayhem9353
This music both makes and breaks my heart. Like some kind of neverending story-esque dream from childhood I can never get back to after waking from
@bigjpl88
That’s a fantastic way to put it! Go see them in concert, so many emotions