Interview: Midland reflects on 10 years and new album ‘Stages’ being a full circle moment

Midland – Mark Wystrach, Jess Carson and Cameron Duddy – crashed into our lives in 2016 with debut single “Drinkin' Problem” and they've been keeping us entertained ever since.

The dynamic trio has toured the world tirelessly and released plenty of music over the last decade, including debut album ‘On The Rocks' and number 1 follow-up ‘Let It Roll'. Today the band releases its fifth studio album ‘Stages', which is somewhat of a full circle moment and a reset for the band. Doubling down on the sound they crafted on their debut album, Midland is laying the foundations for another 10 years of music and touring.

I caught up with the band recently in Nashville during CMA Fest to discuss the new record, talk about keeping things fresh a decade in, and to find out what the next 10 years is looking like for Midland…

I can't believe it's been three years since I last saw you guys, which is when you were over for C2C…

Mark: Yeah (it was three years ago) for C2C. We did our largest tour ever last summer in Europe. We did 12 dates. We were out there for almost a month.

‘Stages', the new album, is out and I think this is your best album since ‘On The Rocks'…

All three: Whoa!. Wow

Mark: That's great.

The album feels cohesive and it's like you're going back to where it all began. It's more mature too so tell me about it…

Mark: Funny that you say that because when Cam, Jess, and I got together and started talking about this album, I think that there was a look around what's happening in country music. I feel like there's so many acts that have blown up recently that have been largely inspired by ‘On The Rocks', and the modern traditional sound that we came and busted all the doors down with, which wasn't on the radio. You didn't really hear that music when it came out in 2016. 10 years ago, that was very exotic, and now it's just part of the country music landscape, which is great. I feel like we'd been around and we'd explored.

‘Barely Blue' was an exploration into a lot of the music that we love but I feel like it had a lot of R&B and a rock and roll influence. It was still a Midland album and it's still one of my favorite albums. I think there was a conscientious approach to double down and return to our true modern traditional roots. The idea was how to make it fresh and not to sound like we're just trying to repeat the same thing. With that was the addition of the fiddle and bringing highly featured [00:02:00] fiddle parts, which felt like it should have always been there in a way. It just really elevated that sound. Just speaking for myself, I think that's maybe one of the key factors that's elevated this album and made us even more modern traditional than we were on ‘ On The Rocks; Trent Willmon, who is our producer and our partner on this, he's done all of Cody Johnson's records, is a longtime friend of ours. We used to write with him out in Texas. Trent is a legit Texas cowboy that makes knives and bottle openers in his steelworks at his little farm out here in Nashville. He was just the perfect guy to lead us on this album and to explore what initially inspired us, which is that modern traditional sound. We're just all extremely proud of this album and the way that it turned out.

I appreciate with this album that you've bucked the trend and put out a tight 10-track record rather than a sprawling 20-30 songs, as some artists are doing now. Was that intentional?

Cam: Yeah. I mean, we've always been a band that is trying to do all killer and no filler. It's also just a very practical way of working and creating. It's intentional. Everything's intentional. It has to be intentional. We have been releasing the record slowly for a year and a half. That is an interesting way of putting stuff out. I think the next album we're gonna do too is just gonna be another extension of this sound and finding more ways to do trad country.

How do you keep it fresh after 10 years together and keep it exciting for yourselves? You three have toured the world relentlessly…

Cam: Whips, chains, ball gags…

Mark: Surprise attacks (laughs).

Jess: I don't know if there's a perfect song, but chasing better and better songs, and trying to hone in that craft. You can always get better at playing guitar…

Mark: Not me …

Jess: Cameron is still learning bass…

Cam: I take a lot of pot shots, dude. I'm being targeted.

(the band laughs)

Jess: We're all trying to get better. I think when you lose that interest and that drive, that's when things start to fall off. I think that's something that the three of us are very interested in pursuing is trying to be better in the studio, trying to be better on stage, trying to write the best song, or if we get a song interpreting that in the studio in a way that is exciting to us. We're still hungry. We're still climbing. We're still very, very driven and have the same aspirations that we had when we started this. We haven't gotten to a place where we can coast. We still work basically year round. There's a part of it that's very intentional too with the songs that we choose on the album. What are songs that we're gonna be really excited to play live, that are gonna excite us every night to get up there on stage and perform? We were just rehearsing a bunch of new songs last night and it's fun to be challenged and have songs that have these parts, that push you as a musician and a singer and all the things.

From following your career from the start, and speaking to you over the last 10 years, it seems like you've always followed your own path and carved your own niche. You've never followed trends and you've had a lot of control over the music you make. How have you managed to do that?

Cam: Caving is easy at this point. Sorry, I cut you off with a joke. How do you do it? I don't know! Mark, how do you do it?

Mark: I think it's the advantage of being a group, of being three of us as a trio. We have a built-in bullshit filter with a built-in sounding board. With the three of us, everything goes through that filter. I think with a solo act it's probably easier to have concepts pushed onto an artist from a record label. We just came with such a fully formed idea of the kind of music that we wanted to make, and it circles back to what Jess was saying that we spent a lot of time, we played a lot of shows every year, and you gotta play those [00:07:00] songs every night, so you better be playing the music that you love; songs that resonate with you. I think that's probably why we don't follow trends, if you will. We've always been chasing something that feels timeless – something that can exist now, something that could have existed back then, and been in the realm with all of our heroes and the soundtracks of our lives. We're just trying to chase something that doesn't feel trendy. Something that can exist now and sound great, and when somebody picks that record up in 10 years, hopefully it'll sound even better. That's probably our North Star that keeps us on the line with that stuff.

What does the next 10 years of Midland look like?

Mark: Oh, man. We just had a big convo about it.

Cam: Yeah. We're excited. We're really excited right now. Seems like a changing of the guard and a kind of a rebirth [00:08:00] in a way for us as men, and as friends, and as musicians, and as a band, and writers. We're really in charge of our own destiny in a lot of ways, which you can't say for everybody, and that feels very empowering. With a bit of luck and support from the Almighty, we'll get to continue going around the world and playing country music and touching as many people as possible, legally, with our sound. I'm not gonna lie, we're ambitious. We wanna be as big as possible but the reality is that unless you continue to do something authentic, because the audience is discerning, you can't get there. So the question becomes how do you maintain your authenticity? That really comes from within and that's being honest with each other and having a good relationship and keeping your shit together, and binge and purge and being a good person and all that stuff. All the things that you learn the older that you get. Going on record, I think we're all very excited about the next 10 years and feel in a way, for the first time maybe ever, very capable.

Mark: I think it comes down to we're having more fun or as much fun as we did when we started the band, and it feels exciting and fresh again. It does feel like we've done a full circle, and we're almost back to a position of starting again and creating our own destinies all over again. I'm having more fun hanging out with these guys, and we spend a lot more time apart with our families and stuff. When we do come together on the road or come out to Nashville, it feels like we;re going on a boys' trip. I'm excited to see these guys and excited to see our band, and we've got an awesome job. This is fun. We [00:10:00] worked our asses off yesterday. We were going for almost 10 hours straight of rehearsing and playing music. I was exhausted but in a really good way. I just had the best time working out these new songs, and that's to me, the best indicator of where we're at. If we're having that much fun doing that much work, then I think it's a good sign for things to come.

It's interesting because you're all saying what I felt when I listened to the album, and that's that this is a bit of a reset and a reflection of the last 10 years. It feels like you're raring to go…

Mark: When Jess the name out, ‘Stages', it that whole concept and that idea. It was reflecting on the different stages that we've been through stylistically, musically, and where we've been. It's a play on words, right? It's like the stages of your life but also the different stages that we've played from little tiny honky-tonks to headlining festivals now in Europe, thousands of miles from where we started this band. It's been a pretty wild ride, and there's been many different stages.

Let's look forward to the next 10 years and see what that brings…

Mark: Hell yeah, Pip!

Midland's new album ‘Stages' is available now via Blue Highway Records.