Yes! A pop punk band! Not too many of them here recently, but what the hell. Let’s break the silence and let’s do it right. Ambitious pop punk, lyrically-amusing, adventurous and sexy, contagiously smiled, lots of D’s, M’s, T’s and E’s… these guys have been called by many names :) Formed in 2011, Portsmouth, UK’s MIDDAY COMMITTEE have just released their new EP titled “Girls In Open C”, a music video and are now expected to hit the road to promote their new catchy tunes.
Sit back, launch the player below and scroll down to be entertained by our little talk about pop punk, girls, Portsmouth, DIY, touring, BLINK-182 and a few more.
Hey Adam! How are you? Feelin’ good?
Alright dude. I’m sound thanks. Feeling tip top.
Haha! Awesome! Let’s get to the point, right? ;)
BLANK TV has just shared a video for your track “Starry Eyes”. It’s not coming from your new EP “Girls In Open C” though. Where does it come from? What’s the story?
That’s a good question. I’ll have to cast my mind back a year or so (which is difficult for me as I forget most things).
“Starry Eyes” is from our second EP called “I’m Sure Someone Mentioned A Cheque”
We’d been in the band a few years by this point and released “Starry Eyes” as the single. We self released the EP, totally rushed everything and then Will (ex lead guitarist) left shortly after, kinda crushing any further use of EP2. Which was a shame but we still love Will though, no hard feelings brother!
Oh… and how about “Nice Kids, Bad Judge of Character”? This release is not available via your Bandcamp, nor in the About Tab of your official Facebook profile, too. How come? Are you ashamed of it? ;)
Hahaha. You’re one brave interviewer.
But no, we are in no way ashamed of the record. Everyone has to start somewhere. We love the tunes, we loved one so much it’s been re-recorded for “Girls In Open C”. I think the overall quality would give of the wrong impression to people who stumble across it. It was our first bash at recording. We recorded with some real great guys who have since gone on to get bigger and better themselves.
Let’s just say it was early days for us and the producers, which kinda left a rawness that didn’t show off what we are really capable of. We’ve grown up a lot since then, now we know exactly how and what we should sound like.
Oh no, not at all Adam! The worse quality of a recording you get, the more love from real punks you get! ;)
Appreciating your positive attitude, I’d like to dig more though. Back to the video, weren’t you tempted to put some girls in the video? Haha ;)
No, but seriously, why there have to be so many girls in melodic pop punk lyrics? ;) You must admit that the subgenre has always been a form of satire and fun.
Girls girls girls. Everyone feels a love song right?
Flip it over and you get: every heart broken soul cries out for a “see you later b*tch” song.
The simple answer is girls excite us.
We could sing about politics or religion or mass killing sprees but it’d probably sound weird in a melodic major key and aggravate the majority of softer sounding pop punk fans.It also comes down to life experience and, obviously, we’re all stud muffins, never short of girls.
As for girls in Videos. It’s only since we’ve been doing bigger things as a band the chicks wanna get involved. When I say chicks I mean Richs cousin (the bum shot in Hometowns”
For the Starry Eyes video it was shot in a farm yard barn and we tried to get some girls down in bikinis but it was cold and grubby…
So just us four unfortunately.
Can’t wait to see your next video, hope you’ll expand this concept ;)
As I’ve gotten older, I feel like it’s a bit harder to have a relationship with pop punk, haha :) Why aren’t you tired of it? Tell me more about your experience in music and the path you have already traveled.
Ah man, that’s sad to hear. Stick with us and we’ll keep you down with our style of pop punk at least, even if it’s all about girls haha.
I think in terms of pop punk, it’s always been there for us. So why disown it? Seen us through tears, fears and good times.
When I was growing up I was a massive emo, I had the long black hair and skin tight jeans. I wanted to be in the next FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND. I also loved metal, like way back to AS I LAY DYING and BMTH when they we’re touring their first EP.
As for bands I was in a few school bands but nothing big. I’m here due to perks of being best pals with the front man. I still knew the score though.
Rich had always been a pop punk kid. He grew up with Patrick Stump as his idol, which comes out a lot in his melody. His music career is very different to ours.
He’s been singing since very young (so his mum tells me) always entertaining family and friends.
He started gigging as a solo artist when he was 15 and ended up recording a few tracks with the Artful Dodger before his “at the time” manager stitched him up, making it his first music career set back (rewind, the crowd say bo selecta)
True story!
As for Kurt and Keiran, they both listened and loved the kings of pop punk growing up.
Their music careers.. Kurt was in an indie band and was crying out for some faster paced tunes go drum crazy to. We kinda stole him with promises of chicks, pizza and faster tunes. (All lies)
Keiran was in a rock band and they split just as Will left. Being a close friend it just made sense he joined the team and boy did he fill the spot well.
Long answers.. Hope you’re all still reading!
Dude, IDIOTEQ is all about long answers. I tend to bin most of the interviews that come through my mailbox, cause they’re not long enough! ;)
Ok Adam, enough of the loaded stuff ;) Do you have plans to work on a full length album?
Haha that’s great for me because I am known to ramble on and on and on… And.. Well you get the drift.
Ok so Album 1. In typical Midday fashion we are in fact months ahead of ourselves and have nailed about four tracks towards the album. So the answer is yes, we have big plans for an album. We’ve even noticed our own progression so it’s exciting even though it’s miles off yet.
Obviously the biggest kill joy is having to front the cash to pay for the recording time and all the other music industry stuff that comes with it.
Thankfully we all have day jobs and we all get a chufty little grin when we listen back to our work.. So it’s worth saving for. Better than saving for a car or a new telly you know?
We don’t believe in that pledging business either. We’ll only take money from fans when we have a solid record to hand them back.
We’ve thought of labels, but I think the days of a cigar smoking fat guy in a suit handing out cheques is all over. Still we can hope that someone out there wants to help us get an album together quicker than us lot doing it via breaking our backs every day.
Yet, I’m not complaining. The 9 to 5 pays for the floor show lifestyle that is MIDDAY COMMITTEE. Made good friends, seen good times and none of us will forget that!
Stay DIY! There are so many great independent labels, no fat guys, fuck that! It’s not that hard to find a decent hub that can put out a record for you guys!
About the album, maybe you should consider starting a crowdfunding campaign? How many fans and followers have you got?
Thanks for the pointers dude! Well received.
We are DIY so I guess it’ll stay that way as long as we’re banging out the tunes and meeting good people.
I dunno about that. We’re only just about to release Girls In Open C so I think we’ll focus on getting out there and playing as many shows as we can. Not the time to worry about money.
We’ve got a good local following and we managed to rack up 5k views on the “Hometowns” video in under a week so we’re just stoked people are sharing it and tuning in to hear what we have to offer.
How can you gauge a fan base anyway?
Using technology and social media, like you mentioned. Moreover, you can also gauge it by looking! Don’t you count people at your shows?! Come on! ;)
How many gigs have you played so far? Is it a priority for you?
Haha I didn’t mean it too seriously. We could have fans all over, who knows with the power of said technology and social media.
In all honesty we never started counting. We’ve been going steady for three years. Played shows with some really great bands too.
Who had agreed to share stages with you? ;)
Ahh come on man. I can’t start name dropping, I don’t wanna be that guy. Hopefully we’ll keep getting the opportunities to meet and play with bands we love though.
One of the best perks in the game.
Ok, let’s talk about Portsmouth. Were your local surroundings open-minded towards you and your activity back when you formed the band or were you scoffed at?
Portsmouth is a strange place but I wouldn’t say we’ve ever been scoffed at. When it come to shows we pull a decent crowd and the vibes normally good. The other bands do their part too so I’ve never felt awkward so to speak.
We play in Southampton a lot too, way more smaller touring bands go through there so it seems a bit more goes on.
We just enjoy it. If people wanna hate, let em hate.
How’s vital is your local alternative music scene?
I think it’s vital for everyone involved, having any sort of scene in a city is helping keep things moving. Having the opportunity to go to shows is a part of life, no one wants to see it disappear. Big or small shows. I support a lot of friends who play in other bands. It’s great to see people out enjoying live music. I’m sure it’ll keep going on and on. Why not be involved.
Okay, you now you literally have to drop us a few names to check out :)
Ok I give up. I’ll give you two bands that we’re close to.
The first is PROLONG THE AGONY. These guys are heavy and nothing like pop punk but their live show is insane and when their breakdowns make you feel like the worlds about to implode. Good guys.
The second is THE EXPOSED. They are good old punk. The sort that makes you grin just the first strum of a chord. We go way back with the singer Sim. When I say way back I mean way back to school.
Sim’s also the good looking, tattooed up chap that plays the older male actor in our “Hometowns” video. He nailed that too, eating dry coco pops and looking for hypothetical jobs in a music video isn’t easy. Hats off to Sim for winning a Midday acting award!
Considering all bands, not only your local acts, what are some bands that you listen to now?
I listen to a whole bunch of stuff. At the moment I’m spinning STATE CHAMPS and LIFE ON REPEAT a lot. Still love older FOUR YEAR STRONG and THE STORY SO FAR. As for the brits I’m into BLITZ KIDS, NECK DEEP, that kinda stuff.
Which older pop punk acts are you still in love with?
NEW FOUND GLORY are the one band that after 15+ years still amaze me. They haven’t really sold out and I like that. I’m also partial to ALKALINE TRIO.
FALL OUT BOY still write some crackers.
No BLINK-182? ;)
No BLINK 182. You’re trying so hard to make me say something I regret haha. I’m glad this is an interview with me and not the band. Least people can only say “that MC bassist is full of it”
Yeah what can I say about BLINK. Don’t get me wrong they most definitely inspired me and thousands of other people to pick up instruments.
They wrote some super simple songs which just stick in your head. I guess it made people think “Yeah! Anyone can do this”
I’m no Victor Wooten on the old bass either, but I can look up to Mark Hoppus for making easy bass lines an accepted thing and before you ask.. Yes I’m a +44 guy over Angles and Airwaves. Team Hoppus!
So I left em out, I’m no longer in love, got respect but it’s more like the love you have for a distant Aunt.. There’s only so many times you can watch “All The Small Things” on Kerrang before you start frantically trying to turn the channel when it starts playing.
Unless you’ve had several Coronas of course.. Then it sounds like childhood and you sing like it was released last week.
Fair enough ;) Who are some of your favourite lyricists then?
Lyric wise I think NECK DEEP and A STORY SO FAR.
Angst always sounds good when you shout it. If you actually zero in on the lyrics both bands write with serious passion. If you were to say some of their lines in a proper Gentleman’s English you’d probably get people thinking, or get some girls blushing.
How hard do you work on your own lyrics?
I think we work hard on all aspects of our music.
With lyrics, for us anyway, it’s finding the balance between being “cool” and having the words fit the melody we want. I think we’re more into having a song flow well and get stuck in your brain. Sometimes less is more I suppose.
Both personally and as a band, where do you see yourself at the end of 2014?
Personally I’d like to be happy and healthy, regardless of what I am doing. Sounds cheese but you can’t take things for granted.
As a band.. Just to be in amongst it still. We’d like to be known enough to be get into playing festivals and stuff.
And I sincerely wish you this. Thanks so much for the chat, Adam. Anything else you’d like to tell your current and future listeners?
Ah thanks man. Anytime! I’ve enjoyed talking with you. Maybe we’ll catch up again one day and hopefully
I can tell you how it’s all worked out.
I’d like to say a quick thanks to everyone who’s bought our music, been to a show or given us love on the social interweb.
We’re stoked to release “Girls In Open C”
If you know us or not, give it a listen when it’s out on the 7th April. Loadsa ways to find us online too, come say hello!
Thanks for having me dude. Stay classy!
Definitely! Thanks mate!
Band photo by Dave Snocken / Black and white band photo by Sam Elliott / Portsmouth photos by trekearth.com and Google Maps.
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