Midgar talks new album Unity and more – interview

Cinematic rock band, Midgar drop their new album, Unity tomorrow.  Ahead of the release, we caught up with Andy Wilson – Taylor, the artist behind Midgar, to talk about the album, the recording process, what song he has on repeat right now and everything in between.

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Hey Midgar, how’s it going? To kick things off, what should the All Punked Up readers know about your band?

Midgar started with an idea I had back in 2007 to create a rock band that drew on a more classical influence. I’m a composer for TV and film so creating ‘cinematic’ music is something that’s come naturally to me. When it comes to Midgar’s sound, with the piano and orchestra combining with the heavy guitars and big drums, it lands somewhere between Muse, Silverchair and Pantera, if that’s possible!

 

You’re releasing your new album, Unity on 25th June – how are you feeling?

Honestly, I’m freaking out about it a little bit. I’ve never put so much of myself into anything before. As it’s a solo production, the amount of work I’ve put into this over the last 18 months or so has been unreal. It’s scary for me to finally have it out there in the world, I hope so much that people enjoy it and take something from it. I’m excited too, of course.

 

What’s the story behind the album and any stand out lyrics from it?

Unity tells the story in some way of the last 8-10 years of my life. It’s been 9 years since the last Midgar album and I’ve been through a lot, and the world has changed so much too. I went through some hard times and almost totally lost myself a few years back, but eventually I got my life together and turned all those experiences into something positive and creative, once I was able to. There’s a lot of darkness on the record, but also a lot of fragility, a lot of discovery and a lot of love.

 

Favourite track from the album and why?

I change my mind on this pretty regularly, but one track has a special place for me and that’s “We Found The Darkness In The Sun”. I can’t describe it, it just somehow feels like home. I’m really happy with the production of that song in particular, it sounds so full and satisfying and I never get tired of hearing it. It’s an album track for sure, it could never be a single, but it captures for me that moment of accomplishment, where I can sit back, open my ears fully and be really proud of what I created.

What was the recording/producing period like for Unity?

I started the writing sessions for ‘Unity’ in January 2020. After about 5/6 weeks I had the bones of the record and the demos done for the tracks. They were super rough at that point, just sketches – outlines even – but enough for me to have an idea of the feelings, the emotions and the overall sound of the songs. After stepping away from it for a week or two to rest the ears, I began recording and producing it. It’s hard being the writer, performing every instrument, engineering it, producing it and doing every element yourself as there’s no time to recharge, or to feel energised by listening to someone else playing their parts. Downtime in the studio is important but I didn’t get any of that so it was difficult to push through sometimes.

Once I had the drums and guitars down, I began putting together the orchestral arrangements, the piano, and all the other parts that really inform the melody and texture of the songs. This process takes a really long time as the orchestral arrangements are pretty complicated. Then I’ll add acoustic guitars where they’re needed, some post-production/synth stuff, then the bass (which on this record was played by Greg McPherson of InMe) and eventually the vocals right at the end, which take absolutely forever because I always get carried away and create massive vocal arrangements with 50+ tracks.

Then it’s a case of taking everything out of the ‘production’ sessions and getting it set up for the mix phase. It’s good to separate these two processes I find, as although you can – and arguably should – shoot for ‘finished’ sounds during production, you don’t really want to be revisiting production elements while you’re in the mix portion of creating the record. This allows me to focus on mixing creatively without worrying too much about tone/timbre selection, or arrangement choices.

Then after mix, it’s on to mastering which again is another separate process and one I like to leave for a little while after I’ve finished the mix. Fresh ears are so important. All in all it took me about 9 months to make this album on my own from start to finish. I wasn’t in the studio every single day, but there were a few solid blocks where I really got in the zone and then I’d take a couple of weeks out to recharge and reset.

 

Who would be on your dream tour line up?

Silverchair, Jeff Buckley, Reuben, Deftones, Moderat (hey if emerging bands have to play 5 band bills then these guys have to!)

 

What song do you have on repeat right now?

It’s a random one… but I can’t get it out of my head, an old track by Vukovi – “These Ghosts Won’t Let Me”. Those vocals and particularly in the second verse just blow my mind! Also I’m super stoked on the remixed/reissued version of Muse’s “Origin of Symmetry” as that’s one of my favourite albums of all time.

 

Any shows on the horizon for when the restrictions lift?

No plans at the moment.

 

Do you have anything else to say to our readers?

Eat your vegetables, and listen to Midgar. (Especially the new album Unity which comes out June 25th on Year of the Rat Records!) Thanks for having me.

 

Check out Midgar’s latest music video below: