Biography/History of
The Midway State
 The Midway State
comes at you from out of nowhere. The band’
s nakedly emotional,
piano-driven songs bear no clear connection to any current sound or
scene. Even within the confines of a four-song EP, you don’t know where
the emotional undertow is going to pull you next, just that eventually,
the combination of youthful drama and mature melodies of these songs
will tug you under.
Perhaps it helps that, geographically speaking, The Midway State pretty
much is from out of nowhere. “It’s a little ski town two hours north of
Toronto,” singer and songwriter Nathan Ferraro says of his hometown,
Collingwood, where the 21 year-old oldest of eight children still splits
his time between the family house and Toronto. “We live out in the
country, so I had a lot of time to play around at home. We were never
involved in a scene or anything from one of the cities, so I never knew
what was cool or what was going on.”
“From a very early age,” Nathan took piano lessons, which he hated, so
he switched to guitar and then back to the piano at 16. And while
keeping up with schoolwork and playing sports like other kids, he found
time to write songs. A lot of them.
“All through high school, I felt like ‘you’ve got to write a song,’ just
to get that feeling like I’d done something good for the day. So I used
to come home from high school and write a song every day.” Nathan has
tapes and tapes and tapes and tapes of songs. He’s probably written 500
since he was 14.
These songs are what ultimately distinguish the Midway State. “Met a Man
on Top the Hill” is like pages torn from a fairy tale, with lyrics that
switch perspective between a powerful figure and his object of
manipulation, pushed along by Nathan’s tumbling phrasings.
“It could be anything,” Nathan explains of the manipulating force in the
song, “like the Devil, or someone just pushing stuff on you. I really
want to write on a human level that everyone can relate to and just be
honest.”
“Change for You” and “Nobody Understands” tread in more romantic
territory, but similarly unfold in ways that are both familiar and
unexpected; “A Million Fireflies” with its chunky guitar, has emerged as
a crowd favorite.
Reaching the audience is a skill Nathan and drummer Daenen Bramberger,
who’s been in the band since its schoolboy origins, learned early on.
“When we were 16 or 17, my dad bought us a van and we toured across
Canada for the summer,” Nathan says. “We played everywhere, from Cape
Breton to all the way to Vancouver, just booking our own gigs. We would
play in living rooms, in bars. We played with hardcore bands, emo-bands—we
were always first of five bands at the all-ages show.
“When I look back at it now, I’m like, ‘wait, when I was 16, I didn’t
get a job, I spent the summer driving around Canada playing at weird
little places?’” he laughs.
A short time later the band moved out of their parents homes and
re-located a couple of hours south to Toronto. There they were able to
find the other half of the band; best friends Michael Wise and Michael
Kirsh, by putting an ad up within the university of Toronto jazz
program.
Now, The Midway State is poised to reach many more people than Nathan
and Daenen could have imagined when they first started playing those
songs pounded out after school on the family piano.
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A note from drummer
Daenen Bramberger after their last concert on tour with Mika (2/20/08)
Be back soon
We had a great
time over the past month on the road with Mika. We've been able to
come back to a bunch of places we've visited over the past few
months and it’s great to start seeing familiar faces. Thank you guys
so much for making us feel welcome everywhere we go.
We're going continue to tour in support of our upcoming full length
album so if we missed you this time around, or you missed us, I'm
sure we'll be crossing paths soon!
Talk soon,
Daenen
Stay tuned for The Midway State’s
full-length album due out this Spring.
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