Hometown: Toronto, ON | Label: Remedy Music/Interscope
→ IN TIMES LIKE THESE… where the music you hear on the radio is often overshadowed by production, a band like The Midway State is certainly a breath of fresh air when you feel trapped in a smoky room. The Ontario-based band— consisting of lead vocalist and pianist Nathan Ferraro, drummer Daenen Bramberger, bassist Mike Kirsh, and guitarist Mike Wise— have come a long ways since the early days of their formation.
Over the past few years, along with the release of their debut album “Holes” in July 2008, The Midway State have spent quite a number of their days on the road touring with the likes of Shiny Toy Guns, Mika, and Daughtry, among others. It is their ability to establish a strong emotional connection with a diversity of listening audiences that make The Midway State stand out from the rest. The band consistently maintains their chemistry, not simply through studio recordings, but also through dynamic live performances which constantly draws new fans towards their music.
The storytelling lyrics in tracks such as “Unaware” and “Change For You” unravel like a bundle of strings to reveal the underlying raw emotion, that was undoubtedly the inspiration behind the words that you hear. This quality is a staple of The Midway State’s music, and they pull it off effortlessly. The songwriting abilities of Nathan Ferraro were further backed up by a Juno nomination earlier this year, appearing in the same category as Dallas Green and Alanis Morrisette.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Nathan just before The Midway State played at the Vogue Theatre with The Stereos, The Envy, and The Artist Life in Vancouver, to talk to him about what’s coming up for The Midway State, Canadian music, and the holidays.
→ asapmusicblog.ca: So you guys are about 17 dates into this tour right now, and you’ve traveled all across Canada, how has that been so far?
Nathan Ferraro: It’s been amazing. It’s so fun when you get to be on tour with bands who become your friends, you know? There’s four bands on this tour, and it’s like, it’s almost like being at summer camp, because we’ve become such good friends with The Envy, The Artist Life, and The Stereos. And we’re all just sharing busses and stuff, and I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing before Christmas right now.
A: Do you guys have a preference for smaller or bigger venues? Like what kind of venues have you guys been playing at?
N: We’ve been playing mid-sized venues, so a lot of theatres, like this one [Vogue Theatre]. And the theatres are nice, because they always sound really good. But the nice thing about when you play like a hall where it’s all open, and people aren’t in seats is that the energy is sometimes bigger. So, I mean it’s kind of a trade off, but I like them both.
A: On your Twitter, you posted about what “The Midway State” really means, that it was “the state between sex and love”, did you want to talk about how that came about?
N: Yeah, we came up with ‘The Midway State’ when we were younger, and it came from a very natural place. I’ve always loved the way it looked, the way it sounded, and it just felt like me, and the kind of music I wanted to make. And over the years, I’ve realized why, and what it really means to me, you know what I mean? And I think to a lot of people, different names for things have different meanings. But for me, it’s that blissful place between sex and love where it’s like, your own compass, you know, and I’ve always wanted to engulf people in our music, and bring them to our shows, and engulf and to reverb big sound. And it really engulfs them, and encapsulates them, and I feel like that’s the same way you feel when you’re in-between, when you’re in a very loving place, it’s just comforting, and warm, and that’s what I wanted our band to do.
A: Were there any other possible names you could have had, or has it always been The Midway State?
N: Yeah, it’s just always been The Midway State (laughs).
A: That’s kind of cool.
N: Yeah, we’ve just never questioned it too much.
A: The last time you guys played Vancouver, it was for the Juno Awards (Juno Fest) and since then you guys obviously had the two Juno nominations, and won two MuchMusic Video Awards. You guys have had a pretty busy year, what’s coming up next in 2010?
N: Oh yeah, this year has been so much fun for us and like and just incredible but now right after Christmas we’re gonna go back to the studio, finish writing our new record and record a second record. And I mean, we’re really excited about that cause touring is so fun and these award shows and everything are so much fun but really, you know we’re artists, we really are in this to create music and so that’s like the best part is when we get to go make a record.
A: And are you guys planning to hit the Juno Awards, I think it’s in Newfoundland— St. John’s next year?
N: Yeah, I’ll definitely go at it, it’s a lot of fun.
A: And speaking of the holidays, you come from a pretty big family, do you have any fond holiday memories?
N: Well this holiday season right after touring, we’re going to meet my family, my whole family is going to be down south, so there will be no snow this Christmas which is weird, we’ve never done that before but we decided this year to opt out on gifts and go on a vacation instead.
A: Because, you’re from a place, was it near a ski resort kind of thing?
N: Yeah exactly, Blue Mountain. But yeah, my best holiday memories are just generally, you know, the usual things, being with your family, eating, drinking, getting gifts and giving gifts, and just like being able to kinda like forget your job and forget the world for a little bit and just relax.
A: Sounds good. So our blog features primarily Canadian music, which is why we were excited when you guys signed on for the interview. Which Canadian artists inspire you, past and present?
N: I really like Emily Haines a lot and Jimmy Shaw, and the whole Metric band, They’re really great and I think their new record’s really awesome and I like Neil Young in the past. So Metric present, past Neil Young, and in the future my little brother Dominic. My little brother, yeah, I mean there is a lot of music in my family so I am getting inspired all the time by different people.
A: What kind of music does Dominic do?
N: He does… he plays piano and he sings, and he plays guitar. He’s a songwriter.
A: Okay, ’cause you also have Christian who’s in Trainlight.
N: And Christian as well, exactly.
A: And we’ve featured his band previously on our site.
N: Ah, that’s amazing, that’s amazing. Yeah we’ve played Christian too, all the time. Like he’ll come up with songs and music and I’m just like wow. It’s so great and it’s really fun for the three of us to be able to share that, it’s pretty awesome.
A: To share that kind of bond, yeah, I’ve talked to him through Twitter and I was like “yeah, the moment you guys come to Vancouver, I’ll be [at the show]”.
N: Yeah, amazing. I love their song “Lost”.
A: Yeah, I have that song on my iPod. And the last [thing] is, while we are on the topic of what you’re listening to, every Thursday we do a playlist, and we were hoping that you’d be able to come up with ten songs for our playlist feature.
N: Sure, can I just drop you an email? I’ll just go get my current playlist and send I’ll send it over to you.
A: That sounds perfect!
The Midway State are currently heading back East on their tour with The Stereos, The Artist Life, and The Envy, which will wrap up on December 20th in Hamilton, Ontario. For more on The Midway State, check out their official website for details and more links: http://www.themidwaystate.com.
A huge thank you again to The Midway State and Nathan Ferraro, and Frontside for the interview!
