Music / Midlake
We’re big fans of Texas-based group, Midlake, whose melodic indie-rock is deliciously produced. We interviewed guitarist Eric Pulido. There was a pretty big shift in sound between the first album and [new album] The Trials…, the latter being much more mellow, acoustic-based. What brought on the change? ‘We started getting influenced by bands and artists of the 70s folk era, such as Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, CSNY, Jethro Tull, Jimmie Spheeris, and so on. We were always aware of those bands, but not as immersed in the sound. While for the first album we were listening to bands like Grandaddy and The Flaming Lips, to name a couple, for the second album we switched gears, and so did our sound’. Whatever the shift, you’ve seen far greater success with it. Was the comparatively quiet response after the first album constructive for you guys? ‘Well, we got right to work on the second album after we toured briefly on the first. It was motivating to get back to recording because we felt like we hadn’t quite found the sound we wanted on the first album. Even though we’re still striving for better songs and sounds, we feel like we’re evolving and hopefully getting better’.
Tagged: acoustic music, rock music, Texan bands
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