20 December 14 - 20, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Catch Them If You Can Midnight Thirty: Is being good enough to be successful? BY ANDREW SHERMAN I n the social media- and celebrity- driven world of entertainment, can a band succeed just because they’re re- ally fucking good? Even defining success is tricky for a band today. Is it having a song go viral on TikTok, selling out American Airlines Cen- ter or just being full-time musicians? Dallas band Midnight Thirty are doing their damnedest to find out. Midnight Thirty is a true power trio, in- corporating sounds of Stevie Ray blues, Grateful Dead jamming and a clear and solid nod to classic rock. But, ultimately, they are a Texas band. The catch is that if you want to hear them, you’re probably going to have to catch them live. Yes, they do have a presence on Spotify, but all their recordings to this point are from live shows. However, you can find them playing frequently in Dallas, Fort Worth and Denton. Jonathan Figueroa and Hayzen Hunter met at Timber Creek High School in Keller, “At the end of the urban sprawl,” as Hunter puts it. It was the school’s good old diplo- matic system of alphabetical seating and fate that found them sitting next to each other in a Photoshop class. The assignment was to make a collage of their favorite things. The two were a bit blown away when they found they shared many of the same interests: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Biggie Smalls, the blues, skateboarding and its aesthetic. Their connection translated to their own music. Their early jam sessions consisted of almost no conversation, just hours and hours of jamming guitars “until the sun went down. Then we’d keep going,” Figueroa remembers. Around this time, Hunter needed to relocate. He settled on what was in the budget at the time: an un- finished shed/cabin in Keller. He and Figueroa toughed it out for a winter with no heat. “The only running water was like a small bathroom sink and toilet,” Hayzen says of the spot. “It was like a project that a family friend of theirs on the property wanted to create as like their summer home. And they never finished it.” It was in this chilly cabin that a lot of the core material was generated. A few drummers played with the duo back then, but none really fit their sound. That’s when drummer Cade Nelson essen- tially slid into the band’s DMs with message after message asking to jam together. Once the three finally came together it was clear the final lineup was set, and thus was born ... “Mahagonie.” The band had a lot of trouble landing on the name. It wasn’t settled, even after a Twitter poll. “’Rich Mahogany’ won, but Rich Mahog- any was already taken,” Figueroa says. “’M- A-H-A-G-O-N-I-E.’ worked and we just fucking [went with] it ... like we really didn’t take into consideration the spelling of the name. There was like four other bands/art- ists named Mahogany ... in Dallas! Jesus! Yeah, that was a lot.” The definitive name change came earlier this year when the band was booked on the same bill as R&B singer Mahogany the Art- ist, and to avoid confusion they changed their name to Midnight Thirty. The band played local coffee houses and dive bars for a while, but then Hunter’s fa- ther encouraged them to travel to Dallas to the happening open mic at Deep Ellum Art Co. Coming in as a fully formed trio, and a badass one at that, they quickly caught the attention of owner John LaRue. LaRue started booking them for gigs immediately and had them open for some big national acts. They also caught the eye of the venue’s former artistic director, Amber King. Once COVID started dying down, King hosted two backyard concerts. The first weekend it was Remy Reilly, the second, Midnight Thirty. Michael Kervin, owner of talent booking agency Time2Fly, also saw something in the band. Between the backyard concert and the buzz the band was creating, the trio got on the radar of Amber’s husband, Zane King. Like most people who see the band, Zane became an instant fan of the music and of the guys, especially as people. Soon after, Zane King was booking concerts for the band in downtown Plano, adding Midnight Thirty as well as Remy Reilly to many bills. Remy Reilly is a rising star herself, and at this time in her career she was seeking some stability with a regular backing band. The Keller boys may not have seemed like an obvious fit to most, but Zane King saw the connection right away. He remembers saying to the guys, “This is a chance to really do something unique, to get involved with Remy ... if you can get tal- ented people in your corner, that’s always going to be a win.” He also recalls the first jam session be- tween the two acts. “They went over to Remy’s house that day, you know, for a play date essentially,” Zane King says. “And it was kind of, ‘That’s all she wrote’!” Zane King is currently the creative pro- ducer at EpicCentral waterpark in Grand Prai- rie and has booked Midnight Thirty as well as Reilly for many events, and even got the guys into the recording studio at The Epic. The effect of Midnight Thirty on Reilly has been an amazing thing to witness. “Having Midnight Thirty as my band has been life-changing,” the singer says of her collaboration with the group. “They’re all masters of the instruments they play; they push me to do better. I’m forever grateful I get to work with them. I truly believe they will inspire thousands of people like they in- spired me.” It’s also clear Midnight Thirty has also become a stronger, more seasoned band with the added stage experience and extra exposure from those gigs. Back to the original question of whether being a great band is enough to be a success- ful band: it isn’t like this band is ignoring so- cial media. They have a TikTok because as Figueroa puts it, “Overnight, something can happen ... but Instagram has been the most — as far as communicating with people who follow us — it’s been the most intimate way.” The guys make hilarious videos to pro- mote shows, which actually works to bring out the crowds. Many people have told them they’ve come to a show mainly because of their funny promo clips. Their live single, “Speckle Part 2,” came out Dec. 7. Success means something different to ev- eryone. It’s defined by this band as simply being able to make a living making music. Of course, that includes playing their own songs. To them, commercial success is al- ways welcome to find its way to them, but just being able to quit their day jobs, like many artists, is the ultimate goal. They are already making strides in that direction with out-of-town and college shows that they’re getting with the help of Time2Fly as well as backing up Reilly. And, yes, the first studio recording is on the way. But in the meantime, exactly why should you see Midnight Thirty? “Because we care about the show we put on for you,” says Figueroa. “We care about entertaining you. We don’t give a shit about anything else. Putting a good show on is our top priority. Like, we just want you to have a good time. That’s all we want to do, we want to play for more and more of you so you can have a good time being with us.” Hunter agrees. “We’re not just three dudes who are pretty decent at playing our instruments, we don’t want people to like, you know, fucking come out and admire us,” he says. “We want to perform for people because that’s one of the biggest driving forces for us is the performance — and entertaining you.” Andrew Sherman Dallas band Midnight Thirty are rising in North Texas. And they don’t even have a single studio recording. | B-SIDES | t Music
