ARTIST SPOTLIGHT ~ THE MIDNIGHT DEVILS

I'm Music Magazine, boogie woogie, Elvis Presley, Motley Crue, John Wayne, Pink Halo, Sniper, Sam Spade, Jimmy Mess, rock, metal, glam rock, glam, Alice Cooper, The Midnight Devils

Artist Spotlight is a segment that we started to introduce our listeners to some deserving up and coming artists/bands that have made an impact on us for all of the right reasons. We think they kick ass and we hope you do too! Today, we’d like to introduce you to the rock ‘n roll wildmen of The Midnight Devils.

The Midnight Devils are a high energy glam slam boogie woogie rock n roll band out of Omaha, NE. It’s unique, it unpredictable, and it’s covered in a heavy layer of glitter and lipstick. Mixing all the best with a heavy dose of rock n roll these high flyin’-gravity defyin’-over the top ridin’ bad boys are down n dirty party monsters. The Midnight Devils are Sniper on lead guitar, Sam Spade on bass and vocals, and the indestructable Jimmy Mess behind the kit. Out on the road in support their debut album, The Midnight Devils have toured nationally as well as performed at the 2018 Rocklahoma Music Festival. Simply put it’s loud, dirty, heart pounding rock n roll on steroids. combine the look and feel of Alice Cooper and Motley Crue with the boogie woogie of Elvis Presley and you have The Midnight Devils. Nothing even comes close.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=40yEhjWfRsI%3Ffeature%3Demb_logo

We had a chance to sit down with frontman Sam Spade and had a fun little Q&A session with him.

All superheroes and villains have an origin and a band is no different, minus the secret government experiments and radioactive spiders. What’s the origin of The Midnight Devils?

Sam Spade/The Midnight Devils: The Midnight Devils started from the ashes of an older band out of Omaha, NE. Chris “Sniper” Hineline and I were playing with an 80’s hair tribute band and we hit the plateau. We started The Midnight Devils as a 2 piece acoustic band to make some money. We did a small tour in about a year we decided the acoustic stuff wasn’t as good as the real thing. We booked another tour to Rocklahoma with a drummer but he left us high and dry 4 days into a 10 day run of shows. In steps Jimmy Mess all the way from Chicago, IL. We called up Jimmy and he was down to finish the tour we just had to pick him up. We drove from Kansas City to Omaha, then from Omaha to Chicago, turned and burned back to Omaha, then hauled ass all the way to Oklahoma. Jimmy learned all the material in while cruising down the interstate. After the tour we were driving back and Jimmy told us he liked where this was heading and wanted to keep it going. The next year we did a bunch of regional shows but we weren’t making any traction. Jimmy suggested we double down and start booking bigger runs out to the coasts. In 2018 we released our debut album then toured back and forth to both coasts. The jump was hard as hell but Jimmy was right and it pushed us from a regional Midwest band into a whole different level. No we are setting our sights on Europe and our sophomore release.

What’s in a band’s name? It can be a cool story or sometimes just a random name picked. What about The Midnight Devils?

The name came from a song we wrote called simply Midnight Devils. We added “The” to make it sound more like The Who, The Ramones, The Rolling Stones, and The Clash. The idea comes from that felling you get on a Friday night when you get off work and all your wild friends start getting together for what is sure to be a night you’ll never forget. It’s about the animal feeling you get as soon as the sun goes down and the evening starts to heat up. For the most part we are all pretty decent human beings during the day but as soon as it gets dark we tend to go crazy. For some of us that party never ends and you end up becoming that monster 24/7. We decided to combine that idea with comic book style imagery that can put the character or characters in any ridiculous situation imaginable. The sky is the limit and that’s what really gets us off.

We’ve lost quite a few music icons over the last few years. If you could bring back any artist to sit down and chat with, who would it be? I know it’s tough to name just one, so feel free to name two or three.

You know there are really so many to name. I love hearing all the old rock n roll stories. I love reading the legends and listening to guys that have been there and lived it talk about what it was like back in the day. We all have those stories but there is just something really cool to me about listening to old classic rock tales being told. Of course there are guys like Johnny Thunders from The New York Dolls, Marc Bolan from T-Rex, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Joe Strummer. There were guys like Traci Michaelz from The Peppermint Creeps that weren’t all that famous but moved mountains for all the glam rockers around the world. They really aren’t gone as long as we have their music and their stories. That’s always been the saying “through music we can live forever.”

What is something in your music collection that would surprise even your most die-hard fan?

The first band I can remember falling in love with was The Beach Boys. It was one of the only rock n roll bands my parents would let me listen to. Little did they know the beloved Beach Boys were smoking weed, banging tons of chicks, and hanging out with Charles Manson. Those songs though were unforgettable and always teleported me away from whatever situation I was stuck with. The Beach Boys really captured rock n roll for me at an early age. They delivered that feel-good vibe every time they came on the radio and I couldn’t get enough.

If you could play any character in any movie or tv show, who would it be?

I know I should say something like John Wayne, and I really do love those old western movies. Every time we travel through Arizona I find myself drifting off into an old outlaw saloon down by the Mexican border. That really sets a picture and a place in time. Good guy or bad guy John Wayne was always the best. He wasn’t scared of anything or anyone and you better believe he always got the girl at the end of the movie.