San Diego’s Midnight Track have been making a name for themselves playing a relentless amount of shows. We spoke to Ricky and Moe about their Brazilian influences and future plans.
Read on…
It seems like Midnight Track is playing a show almost every week. Do you guys ever plan on slowing down?
Moe Pasin: No, we don’t want to slow down! Our new drummer Lucio Vieira lives in Long Beach so we are trying to book less shows in SD since he joined the band early this year, but because of the distance for him we are trying to get some more gigs around LA.
What local bands do you guys enjoy playing with?
Moe: We always have a blast playing with our good friends from Making Incredible Time, PunchCard, Roman Watchdogs, A-Bortz, Strangely Strange, Let’s Face It… I think SD has lots of great bands in the scene.
What’s the meaning behind the name Midnight Track?
Ricky: It’s the name of a song from a Jamaican old school artist named Owen Gray, I’ve always loved this song and it shows our Ska/REGGAE influence.
Your background is Brazilian right? Did you grow up there? How long have you been in San Diego?
Moe: Ricky and I are from a city in South of Brazil called Porto Alegre. We met each other in college 16 years ago and we used to have a band named I.Q.zero back there. It was just for fun and only ever played in our garage, we never played any gigs or anything, just to spend our weekends. Ricky has been living here in the U.S. since 2006 and I moved here in 2014 when we started MIDNIGHT TRACK.
What is the punk world of Brazil like? How has that influenced you musically?
Moe: Mostly it’s underground, not many opportunities or venues to play, instruments are super expensive but everyone is so passionate about the music they find a way. Sao Paulo is where you can find the biggest scene but you can find punk bands anywhere throughout the country.
Are there bands back in Brazil that people in the US should be taking notice of?
Moe: There are some great bands. Some of our favorites we grew up listening are; Replicantes, Blind Pigs, Dead Fish, Garotos Podres, Tequila Baby, Holly tree…
You guys made a music video for “Sober Up” off of “Don’t Be Proud Of Me”. It looked like a lot of fun to make. How did that process come together and what was the inspiration for the video?
Moe: It really was fun. A good friend of ours, Luigi Rizzo, whom works at channel Telemundo/NBC told us he would like to make a video for one of our songs, so we blended some of our ideas with his and it came out better than we were expecting!. He is extremely talented and a great friend. That’s how MIDNIGHT TRACK works, with the support of all of our friends.
We’ve talked some soccer in the past…where’s your favorite place in San Diego to watch a game?
Ricky: I love going to Shakespeare’s! Always a good time there!
Last October you put on the first Beach Punx Fest. How did that all come together?
Ricky: it started as a “joke” with my friends… i was complaining about how bad warped tour is these days and that I know better bands in SD from our scene. They said that we should organize a festival. I decided to do it!
Are there plans for another Beach Punx Fest?
Ricky: first BPF was RAD… it was so good that it became an annual event… BPF2 was supper cool too! So get ready for BPF3 in 2018! BPF really is my my way to give back, to support our punk scene in SD… it’s a free event, so anyone can go! It gives all the bands a chance to play at a cool venue by the beach. It’s day of UNITY. No bullshit. Just good times!
What are the plans for the future with Midnight Track…more shows, new music?
Moe: We want to keep playing as much and for as long as we can, because we truly love the music and playing live. Most of our good friends in SD came thru the music. We plan to do some west coast tours and continue getting more gigs out of SD but because of our jobs it’s not that easy and we can’t do it all the time. We do have lots of new songs and we are planning to record a new album for early 2018.
Thank you San Diego Punk for the support you guys give for the local punk scene.
Thanks Ricky and Moe for taking the time and talking about Midnight Track!
Find, Like, Listen to Midnight Track…
reverbnation.com/midnighttrack
facebook.com/midnighttrack
instagram.com/midnighttrack13
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Interview by Ryan
