Handsome Midnight is taking a leap in the building of their upcoming album. They are planning to release a video a month until their done. On a limited budget. I applaud the challenge. Check then out online to keep up on the work!
Last time we spoke to Handsome Midnight was October 2023! Please give us an update.
In early 2024 our lead guitarist Kyle decided to step away after 8 great years with our full support. He has been performing solo and providing mastering services for us and other local musicians around town since then. We picked up Jeff a few months after that, which worked out great because he started the band with Chud and I all those years ago. We went right to work; Jeff taking over recording responsibilities and myself shouldering video production for 2025. We also started working with Northstar Original Revue (NOR) since they started up last year, which is run by a booker/tour manager we’ve known for decades. It’s a group made up of local veteran musicians that put their feelers out to give up-and-coming acts a chance as well as spotlighting established local and touring acts with free showcases before larger shows. If you are familiar with D.E.M.O. ran by Steve McClellan of First Ave fame, then you would know NOR has been able to fill the gap left by that organization’s absence.
You are planning to release your newest album one video a month on YouTube. What made you decide to go that route?
Kyle helped us spawn the idea before we left. The music industry does not work the way it used to. In place of purchasing physical or digital media, most consumers prefer to either pay a streaming service to hear what they know or allow social media to reveal content to them via the algorithm. In the place of releasing 2 years worth of work all in one dump it makes more sense to release content over time. Since we are no social media gurus, hip to making short videos weekly (or even daily), we opted for a choice that encompassed what we knew we were capable: of music and music videos. We have never made more than a few music videos for any album before though, and we began the year with only 3 fully recorded tracks, so we’re laying the train tracks as we’re speeding along. We’ll see if we can keep up.
The first video for the Ones You Left Behind is a fun “behind the scenes” extrapolation. How much fun versus work was that video? I love how each of you is set up playing a different instrument for a clip or two and I have to imagine hamming it up with an instrument you don’t play is kind of fun.
This one is already video 5 for us, and I’m trying to do something a bit new with each video. The first (Piece) was just a performance video in my living room riffing on what a lot of younger local indie bands have been doing. The second (Breakdown) we shot on the coldest day of the year on the high bridge in St Paul. I was going for minimalism with a one-shot dolly in partial slowdown in reference to Bittersweet Symphony and Yellow, but we didn’t have the thousand dollar dolly rigs those bands had so we spliced. The third (Current) we combined a few different ideas together (carpool karaoke, live performance, stylized performance, making of BTS footage). For the fourth video I wanted a story that didn’t feature us, and I’ve always been a sucker for horror type characters so I created a Grim Reaper costume for Brian to wear. Finally, the fifth video so far (Ones You Left Behind) is about caring for yourself and your friends in fascist times, so it felt appropriate to bring in as many of our local musician friends as possible on short notice for a mashup performance. That one in particular was almost 10 hours of footage that had to be boiled down to 3 minutes. They all have their own challenges.
Not asking for any spoilers, but will the other videos follow in a similar vein or will each one be completely different?
I’m not inclined to share the next video ideas in case I embarrassingly can’t pull them off. But I want them all to attempt something different than the rest. I’m pulling out every trick I can remember from film school with zero budget.
Where can folks see you play live? And do you have a release party plan?
We’re still working out an end game for this 12 song release, but you can see us somewhere every month. We’re headling Day Block Brewing in Minneapolis this Saturday the 7th (2pm-7pm show), Zhora Darling (previously Red Stag Supper Club) on Saturday, July 12th, and we’ll be playing the NOR 1 year anniversary at Midway Saloon (previously Big V’s) in St Paul on Saturday, July 26 at 3pm. You can always see updates on our website handsomemidnight.com
Thanks again for giving us some attention.
Mostly Minnesota 