Monday 22 December 2014

Middle City Q&A

Band name: 
Middle City.

Where are you from?
London, England.

Who is in the band?
Simon Ricketts (vocals, guitar), Will Minting (keyboards), Al Redler (bas) and Bryan Hudspeth (drums).

How would you describe yourselves?
Four pretty strong characters with four very different musical backgrounds, put in a blender and what you get hopefully is something that isn’t very easy to pigeon-hole.
There’s elements of new wave, country, soul, prog rock, soft rock, we’re old enough not to care about genres but stupid enough to dig at the moment what we’re each bringing to the party.

Who are your main influences musically?
If you breathe in real deep you’re going to get tones of Dylan, distinct hints of REM, maybe a David Byrne after-taste.

What do you hope to achieve in music?
To produce some work that stands the test of time, that people like us would pay to hear, that someone somewhere is going to listen to and connect with how they may be feeling. 
Really looking forward to getting back in the studio to finish off what may end up as an album late next year, but it’s hard, “delete” button being pressed a lot. We really admire studio perfectionists such as Jeff Lyne, the Blue Nile and (listen to them, they should be legends!) Public Symphony. It would be noise to get a bit of notice without resorting to the usual hype and 21st century payola.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?
Getting the four tracks down for our EP #1 was pretty awesome after a year of doodling. Each of the songs has been on a long journey to where it is now. The next session will definitely be an improvement but only because we have set the bar with those tracks.
Definite buzz for people to be picking up on the tracks. We’re in no hurry!

And what’s the moment you want to forget?
Forgotten - result.

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?
Gatsby’s Wonder has some key ingredients - a big theme, big on melody with Will Minting’s rolling piano and horns, Bryan’s and Al’s rhythm section (almost Motown for the chorus), Simon’s guitars and words straight from the final couple of pages of the Great Gatsby.

Where can we listen to it?
The track is on the forthcoming Americana Retrofit compilation by Factory Fast Records.

Where can we find out more about your music?

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