LUCIDMEDIA

Midway There with Midway State

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Monday, 04 May 2009 14:25

It’s a perfectly lovely spring evening; perfect patio weather as evidenced by the number of people listening to the game and enjoying a pint outside Bobby O’Briens on King St. in Kitchener. Right next door, The Midway State are doing their soundcheck, trying to find the same perfect balance of rock and soul for the live audience of the Go Festival that they know when they listen to the band’s album at home.

This four-piece band from Collingwood, ON has come a long was since founders Nathan Ferraro and Daenen Bramberger toured in the summers and during March Break, while in high school, using a van that Ferraro’s father bought. Ferraro started learning piano at 6, and picked up the guitar by 14. He wrote songs and performed them with friend and drummer Bramberger, calling themselves The Midway State.

When they made the permanent migration to Toronto three years ago, they picked up the Mikes: bassist Mike Kirsh and guitarist Mike Wise. Well-known Canadian producer Gavin Brown liked the sound of the band and helped them put together their 2007 EP, Met a Man on Top of the Hill. Ferraro said that he feels like Brown’s become the fifth member of the band because of his contributions to their success.

“We feel really, really lucky at this point,” he explains about the band’s recent success. “We believe in our message, we want to make beautiful music and we want people be able to come to our show and know that everything’s going to be okay.”

Last year, they released their first, full-length album Holes, featuring the hit single “Never Again,” which rose to #30 on Billboard’s Canadian Hot 100. “[Holes] really represents us as we are right now and our next record will do the same,” says Ferraro. “Everyone’s going through heartbreak and different things at different times and we just want to be able to envelop people in the romance of the music. We’re just guys making music the best we can.”

And so far, their best seems to be pretty good. A heavy touring schedule opening up for a diverse range of musicians including Avril Lavigne, Theory of a Deadman, MIKA, 54-40, Evanescence, Collective Soul, and Lifehouse has probably helped too. “It’s a way great to see the world: playing music with your best friends,” says Ferraro. “It’s also neat to see the different peoples and different cultures react to your music. And the funny thing is, people always think that a person from France is going to react differently than someone from Nebraska, [but] we all react to music the same.”

But the chaos of a touring schedule does have its drawbacks, according to Ferraro. “Sometimes you do feel like you have to be everywhere at once and its tiring and it’s not exactly the most creative environment,” he explains. “So I love to go home to the country where I grew up and be with my family and have down time. I’m much more inspired my melancholy, sadness and relaxed moods than I am the hustle and bustle of New York or Paris.”

Midway State still likes that feeling of being home, it’s where they know the lay of the land and it’s where they do their best writing. “We pride ourselves on being songwriters and musicians and we spend every minute of everyday doing that,” says Ferraro. “I’m always striving and we’re kicking each other in the ass to get better and we’re never, ever happy with the stuff we put out.”

So does this mean that there’s a lot of sniping and arguing in Midway State? “We fight about stuff, we push each other back and forth, and you get really, really intimate and way too into the details of it. But at the end of the day, that’s what being a band is. It’s about mixing the creative fields of four different people.”

If it sounds like there’s a streak of perfectionism in the way Ferraro describes his band’s music, it’s because there is. In fact, each member of the band brings that same level of attention to detail, but in different ways. “Daenan is a sonic perfectionist, he’s never happy with the sonics of it. I’m a vibe perfectionist. I have a thing called Synesthesia where I hear colours as sounds, so if a song doesn’t have the right colour and the right vibe, then it can never be finished.”

As for what’s next, Ferraro says that he’s writing a lot and looking forward to recording a new album. As for what shape it’ll take remains to be seen, but “things are coming together,” he says. They do have a new single coming up with a “big American female singer” whose identity will remain secret for now. Other than that, it’s just about working towards Ferraro’s secret ambition.

“I want to be a household band, I want to sing in front of everybody and I want everyone to be able to get a good feeling from our music. My ambition is to play beautiful music in front of lots and lots of people my whole life.”