If you love your Hard Rock to make you think of the Glammier side of the Sunset Strip circa 1987 then Midnite City is the band for you. Hailing from my old stomping ground of Nottingham, Rob Wylde has been writing great music for years and now he and his latest band are finally getting the attention they deserve. Midnite City’s 2017’s self-titled debut was one of the very best releases of the year but almost unthinkably their follow up ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’ from 2018 surpassed it – we can’t wait for what comes next! We caught up with Rob ahead of their trip down-under for the Melodic Rock Fest 2020… It will be one of the sets you cant afford to miss!
Rob Wylde
Mark: Hi, Rob, how are you?
Rob: I’m alright, how are you doing?
Mark: Not too bad thanks. It’s great to hear you guys are on your way to Australia!
Rob: Yeah, we can’t wait, it’ll be awesome!
Mark: It will! I never thought I’d see the day, but Peter’s done a great job with the line-up great blend of the old and the new in the line-up.
Rob: We’re very much looking forward to it.
Mark: Well first things first, you know we chatted a while ago when you released that EP that was only available at live gigs. You know what I’m going to ask don’t you! Are you going to be packing my copy of the EP and bringing it over with you?
Rob: (laughs) Of course, mate, of course! We’ve literally got about three copies left!
Mark: I haven’t actually heard it yet, is it available digitally as well?
Rob: No, we just kind of got in to the tour, we did a tour in November, and that was all there was time for. You can’t get it on I-tunes or anything like that yet, but we may do that as a lot of people are asking for it, so we’ll see what happens.
Mark: Sounds good. So, before you got the call, what were your thoughts of Australia, how did you imagine it?
Rob: I’ve never been to Australia as a tourist, so the first thing that comes to mind is ‘Neighbours’, which was absolutely huge over here in the UK, in the eighties, so I always think of that, and the beach, which hopefully we’ll get to see in about four weeks’ time!
Mark: Well St Kilda has a beach, so you should be OK! And, it’s been really hot over here!
Rob: Well the weather here is awful, it’s the middle of winter and absolutely freezing, it’s cold and raining, so it will be nice to get some sunshine!
Mark: I remember those days all too well! (laughs) Midnite City is a band that a lot of people are talking about; it seems that Eclipse, Crazy Lixx, and you guys are the bands that people really want to see in Melbourne. So, take us all the way back, what’s your earliest memory of music?
Rob: Music, growing up as a kid was always a huge part of my life, my dad used to listen to a lot of country music, so I used to listen to a lot of John Denver when I was about 3 or 4 years old, and then from there, my sister was a huge Duran Duran fan, and so they became my first favourite band. And then in about 1986 I discovered Europe and Bon Jovi, they both had massive hit singles in the UK, and so I suddenly went from being a Duran Duran fan to being in to Rock Music! Then when I was about eleven, my mum took me to see Europe on the “Out of This World Tour”, and that was it! I always knew I wanted to play music, but seeing that first concert sealed the deal for me, that was all I wanted to do, I never wanted to do anything else. I wanted to write, perform and play music.
Mark: That’s great, and Europe is still a great band, we caught up with them the last time they were here. I’m starting to ask everyone this question, and I’m getting some amazing answers, the last person I asked was Donnie Vie and he gave me an interesting answer, so can you remember the first song you wrote?
Rob: Yeah, I can, it’s a really good question! I wrote my first song when I was eleven years old, without actually realising I’d actually written a song. I started playing the guitar when I was nine. My mum and dad sent me for guitar lessons, so I learned the basics, and I started playing around, and I remember one day coming home from school, and there was a girl that I had a massive crush on at school and I’d just found out her and her family were moving away. I remember coming home and picking up my guitar and writing this song, I’d just started to figure out other bands songs and I realised I’d actually written a song, and what’s really funny is I can still actually remember the chorus of it!! I remember the chord progression, and the lyrics, and it was called “Leaving”! It’s so funny that I can remember it all these years later!
Mark: I think it is it’s a funny one because Donnie said there’s nothing like a broken heart to inspire you to write a song!
Rob: Oh, God, yeah! All the best songs come from a broken heart, when you’re happy and content with life, you’re not necessarily sat on the couch writing songs, you’re out having fun, and I do believe you get your best songs from going through those bad times!
Mark: Yes, definitely inspiring! You’ve seen the line-up for the Melodic Rock Fest, is there any of those bands you haven’t seen before?
Rob: There’s actually a few, I’m looking forward to the whole thing, it’s a really solid line-up. A lot of the bands we’ve played with, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Firehouse again, I saw them many years ago in the UK, Reckless Love are always good, Enuff Z’Nuff are great. I’m looking forward to hanging out with my buddy, Julez from White Widdow, the whole line-up is great, I know a lot of people here in the UK are jealous that this kind of line-up can’t come over here!!
Mark: Well it used to back in the day! We’re hoping it’s going to be a big thing over here and hope it happens every year! You’re also playing some side shows as well as the main event, tell us about those.
Rob: Yeah, on March 5th we’re playing at The Prince Bandroom in St Kilda, with Reckless Love and Eclipse, we play that show the day after we arrive, which will be great, and then the night after that we’re doing an acoustic set at the VIP show, and then of course we play the festival on March the 8th, so we’re doing three shows which is great!
Mark: We’ll get to see all three, so I’ll be sick of you by the end of the weekend!! (Laughs)
Rob: (laughs) Yeah, you’ll go from never seeing us to being really sick of us in three days!!
Mark: I can’t see that happening and it’ll be great to catch up with you. Next big question of course is when’s the new album out?
Rob: We actually just started recording it last weekend; we always take a while to do new albums as we all live in different parts of the country and are pretty spread out. Pete’s got a studio in his house, and he’s a good three hours away from me, and we’ve also been doing a few shows, but we made a start last weekend, but we’re probably looking at towards the end of the year, October/ November time.
Mark: Fantastic! You did the impossible with “There Goes the Neighbourhood”, where you topped the first album, so you’ve set the bar pretty high for yourself, mate!
Rob: Thank you, yeah; with the first album we set the bar pretty high, and that album had only been out for about two months when George at the label, AOR Heaven e- mailed me, I guess it had been selling really well, and he said let’s do another album this year. That was 2018, and at that point, I had probably about three songs for it, and so suddenly I had to get my writing head on again, but like you said, the first album was a tough act to follow but I think we managed to top it, and so the pressure’s on to top “There goes the Neighbourhood”! I’m pretty confident with the songs that we’ve got, and being able to step up again.
Mark: OK, you’ve arrived in to Melbourne, and we’ve booked you a table at one of the best restaurants, which four musicians would you invite to join you, living or dead?
Rob: Wow! Well first would be Paul Stanley; I don’t even need to explain that!! I’m a Kiss freak; he’d definitely be my first invite! Second would be Katy Perry, for her beauty, just so we’d got something nice to look at!! That’s a tough question! Third would be Jani Lane, he’s been a massive influence on me, and I’d probably go with Elvis for number four! Mix it up a bit!
Mark: If you could have been a fly on the wall for the creation of any classic rock album, just to see how the magic happened, what album would it be for you and why?
Rob: It would have to be “Hysteria” which is my favourite album of all time. I would’ve just loved to see the whole process and what went on, that album is so intense from start to finish, and to see how Mutt Lange worked as well, that would’ve been incredible!
Mark: The sad thing is you would have to have had a lot of flies lives to get through that entire recording session!!
Rob: That’s right, it took a while!! I’d be hanging round for quite a while!!
Mark: The final question is if you could sum up the music of Midnite City in a single sentence, what would it be?
Rob: Good time Rock and Roll!
Mark Thank you so much mate, looking forward to catching up with you soon, have a safe flight.
Rob: Looking forward to it, I’ll see you soon, Cheers bud.
