Another solid alt pop band with 'night' in its name
NIGHT TRAVELER, nightly... now presenting Fly By Midnight
Good morning. We’ve previously discussed NIGHT TRAVELER and nightly. Fly By Midnight (Justin Bryte & Justin Slaven aka Slavo) started in NYC and moved to LA, which at this point is basically a prerequisite to becoming a recognized indie pop duo. Please enjoy the choreography in Fly By Midnight’s “6AM” music video at 6AM (LA time) on this Sunday morning.
As Kevin of On Repeat fame commented on my Alfie Templeman post:
There is a genre of music at home in places like Caribbean all-inclusive resorts. […] I should note that I happen to love this sound; it represents sun & escape for me.
To me, Fly By Midnight’s sound represents youthful recklessness, road trips, falling in love, recovering and growing from heartbreak. It’s overall more uptempo and contemporary alternative, closer to nightly’s sound as opposed to the more electric guitar and downtempo oriented work of NIGHT TRAVELER. But this duo’s music is becoming special to me because of the surprising contrast between the generally upbeat, motivating instrumentals and the stories they tell in their songs. It’s a rare day that I resonate this strongly with songs that instrumentally could be club remixes or at least played in a very crowded bar.
Here’s an example — “Settle Down” with Zaeden (Sahil Sharma — side note — fascinating story — according to Wikipedia, started DJing at 14 in his hometown in India, studied sound engineering in college, closed for David Guetta, opened for Justin Bieber, GQ feature… and he’s 26).
What a trip to wait for the beat to drop while hearing this:
You're not the first person that I ever loved
If you were the last that would be more than enough…
I'm scared to settle down
But I'm more scared to live without you
When music is very dream-synth, I call it euphoric. “The Ad Above Your Head” sounds euphoric to me, slower, reverbed falsetto and chorus heavy, and somewhat of an instrumental outlier (softer drums) on last year’s Silver Crane album. The lyrics are vague but sound to me like commentary on missed connections in the modern age of consumerism, especially since the next track on this album is “LA Lonely” (“I’m so LA lonely”, which does not resonate quite as much with me but still sounds good):
Two trains passin' on the night line
Your hair fallin' like a landslide
My thoughts are hangin' by a thread
All I remember is the ad above your head
Bonus: (Brad, if you’re reading this, you might like this next one! For my other readers, Brad of Front Row & Backstage has cool music history, exclusive interviews and tracks, regularly a great read and a music writer inspiration to me.)
Another band with “midnight” in its name, The Midnight (songwriter Tyler Lyle from Atlanta and producer Tim McEwan from Denmark). This one is considered synthwave and you’ll hear why in their 5-year anniversary album Endless Summer. My favorites on that album are “Daytona” and “Jason” (which features Nikki Flores from California).