All About The Rock chat EXCLUSIVELY with Midland Railway Vocalist/Guitarist Nick Lote about his Top Tunes

All About The Rock chat EXCLUSIVELY with Midland Railway Vocalist/Guitarist Nick Lote about his Top Tunes

16th January 2025 0 By Jon Deaux

Captivating UK alt rock crew MIDLAND RAILWAY set loose their glorious self-titled album on Friday 14th February. The melodic rockers have also released their hooky new single and video, Bedroom Analysis

With the band on the up, we had an exclusive chat with Nick Lote (guitar and vocals) and asked him to offer up the tracks that have most influenced their sound:

“1. Grandaddy – The Crystal Lake

I decided to kick things off with this song because those of you who have been listening to our new single, Bedroom Analysis, will probably quickly spot the way that the twinkly arpeggiated effect we used is extremely similar, and this is the song I was thinking of when adding that part. I love the way Grandaddy combines some really heavy guitar sounds with really beautiful melodies. Their lyrics always look weird when written down, but they work superbly well. They have some great 3-minute pop songs, like this one, and others that break all the rules, but it always works.

2. Idlewild – Little Discourage

Watching this now, the table tennis technique leaves a lot to be desired.
Anyway, I loved Idlewild’s early stuff. It was kind of punk-rock, but really dark, abrasive, and beautiful, all at the same time. I’m not sure any other band has ever achieved that balance so perfectly. There was a precise moment I remember thinking I wanted to play in a band more than anything else, and it was at one of their gigs in Wolverhampton, just before 100 Broken Windows came out. They opened with this song that night, and that guitar intro sent the crowd wild.
Idlewild also made me appreciate the importance of drumming. The lively drums make their songs feel way more lively than those of most other indie bands, and they kind of punctuate the lyrics and fill the gaps, which is something I was keen to have the drums do at various points on our album.

3. Weezer – In The Garage

This was an album track, so there’s no official video for it (though there are some great unofficial ones).
In my opinion, this song is the greatest geek-rock anthem ever. Before I heard this, I thought music was all quite conventionally “cool”, and in 1994 I was spending a lot of my free time playing epic-scale Warhammer (Space Marine / Titan Legions, now often referred to as 2nd edition Epic), and then I heard this song kind of celebrating nerd-life, and I had never related to any lyrics in that way. In writing music, I don’t know whether I would have had the confidence to celebrate the things I enjoy in the same way if it were not for this song. It helps that it also has a brilliant melody and Ric Ocasek’s production is spectacularly good.

4. Therapy? –  Screamager

I met both Sarah and David through our mutual love of Therapy?, so it is unlikely Midland Railway could have formed and evolved in the same way if it were not for them. They were the band that really got me into heavy rock music, and they managed to rock out spectacularly while having great melodies and lyrics. Their songs showed what you can do with a good guitar riff or solo, and David used to tune his snare really tight like Fyfe did, as it helped the snare cut through the distorted guitars really nicely due to its higher pitch and made it sound really punchy.

5. Bright Eyes – Something Vague

This is rather different from the others I picked out, and it is also an album track. Conor Oberst is my favorite lyricist of all, and it was because of his music that I realized I don’t have to be the greatest singer ever in a conventional way to make music that can make an enormous difference to people. When I first started writing music, I found it quite difficult to write lyrics that really let people in. In a way, the more personal your songs become, the harder it can be to accept it if other people don’t like your music. It’s still something I’m working on. There are plenty of Bright Eyes songs I could have picked,  but Something Vague is one I always find particularly moving. The lyrics manage to create these visual images, and the emotion feels so raw and authentic. Conor Oberst’s lyrics tend to be the thing everyone notices most, but he’s also a fantastic songwriter. This one has a beautiful melody and builds spectacularly, before bringing it all back down at the end. It’s a very unconventional song structure, but it’s done so perfectly that it works really well as a pop song.”

For more on MIDLAND RAILWAY, see https://linktr.ee/Midlandrailway

 

 

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