Can you give us a brief introduction to Midnight Resistance?
It´s my very own phantasmagoria. I make music with synths, acoustic instruments and everything starts with blank sheet of paper...
I officially founded MR in the beginning of 2007 as a solo-project and it turned into a band.
The debut-album Remote was released in 2008 through A Different Drum and now the second album is in the pipeline.
Before you started Midnight Resistance you were a band member of ReActivate. Why did you leave that band and how do you look back on the ReActivate period?
I´ve left the band, because of differences concerning the music and the overall working process.
But it was an interesting and necessary experience for me, which had many ups and downs. But it showed me, that I´m happier with a project of my own.
When you left ReActivate, did you already have Midnight Resistance in mind or did that come later?
Well, MR was the whole time my experimental project beside my other band activities. I released some remixes under this brand and wrote songs which wouldn´t fit to the other bands. And after the split I´ve got enough material to release an album on my own.
How did you come up with the name Midnight Resistance and is there a special meaning behind it?
First of all, I like the sound of the name ;) But there isn´t a special meaning behind it.
They discovered my music via myspace and we get in contact. And then everything went very quickly, I signed a contract, finished my album and released it via ADD. But for the second album, I´m looking for a new label.
Did you find a European label already?
Not yet. Unfortunately the licensing-fees for the first album were to expensive for the most labels in europe. (particularly regarding these times of huge sales losses)
But there are negotiations with some european labels at the moment for the release of the second MR-album in 2010.
Lots of people say that synthpop is dead these days, you and several other bands prove me they are wrong. I do think most syntpop these days is more danceable, do you think this is the direction that synthpop will go to? What is the future of synthpop in your eyes?
When I look around, I have to say: Synthpop is dead, otherwise it breathes in so many styles, even in mainstream pop-music... Yes, it is more danceable these days, but doesn´t get much plays in clubs.
The future of Synthpop? I don´t know, I´m not so interested into the synthpop-scene.
You released the debut album “Remote” What can you tell about creating it, did you do it everything on your own, what problems did you face while making it?
I faced many problems. But I managed to solve them ;)
Seriously: It´s an organic process for me, to occupy all these different roles. It gives me the complete control about my music and I like this way of working, especially when writing the songs. This is the main reason, why I started my solo-project. Ok, sometimes you wish to have more distance to the songs, mainly when it comes to the production & mixing of the tracks, but I think it works good for me.
Everything will be different! More guitars, more noise, not so four-to-the-floor... I hope to surprise you.
And I will try to work with a producer, to get the best out of the song-demos so far. Like I mentioned above, it´s sometimes hard to do everything on your own and be completely satisfied.
How are the comments so far on the album?
The reviews of the actual album Remote were great and all the people out there loved it as well.
But there was no promotion through our label, so we´re still kind of an insider-band. But I hope this will change with our new album.
You expanded the line up with 2 live members, Gordon and Greg, can you introduce them and what is their role in the band? Will they also take part in the songwriting?
Well, I was searching for a live band, because alone on the stage looks a bit dull ;) So I was looking for a guitarist and a keyboarder for the live-shows and wrote several requests, in magazines, internet, etc. Gorden answered me and we found out that we live in the same area. He played in several Punk- and Rockbands before and wanted to try to combine his guitar-style with electronic music. I liked his open-mindness, so we did a jamming session and there was a great chemistry between us and he became part of the band. The same with Greg. I was also looking for a keyboarder and saw that he was doing live-keys for Reaper and Modulate. So I just contacted him for the session as well and it just fit perfectly. Greg is a great live performer, as well as Gorden. And I have to introduce you another female keyboard-player: Alisha Destiny
But they don´t take part in the songwriting, I´m writing all the music and words still by myself.
