The Midnight

The Midnight is an American synthwave duo composed of producer Tim McEwan and singer-songwriter Tyler Lyle. Based out of Los Angeles, California, the band formed after McEwan and Lyle met during an arranged co-writing session in April 2012.^[1]

The Midnight debuted in 2014 with the release of their first EP, Days of Thunder. This was followed by their first album Endless Summer in 2016, after which the duo became firmly established within the synthwave music scene. Nocturnal was released in 2017 and saw The Midnight explore a darker, more noir sound. A trilogy series of albums began in 2018 with Kids, continuing with Monsters in 2020 and Heroes in 2022. The latter two records were noted for moving the band's sound in a different direction and saw them exploring additional genres outside of synthwave. During the trilogy, the band also released the Halloween-themed EP Horror Show in 2020.^[2]

The Midnight performed their first live show in 2017 and have regularly toured since. Known for being lively and energetic, The Midnight's shows have seen increased production value over the years with continuous additions of touring members and live instruments. The band has also made appearances at several notable music festivals, including Austin City Limits, Music Midtown, and Bonnaroo.

With several appearances on Billboard charts, The Midnight have been one of the most commercially successful synthwave acts. Their music has also appeared in various media forms, including video games, podcasts, and TV.

With the exception of two remix albums which were published by Silk Music, The Midnight released music independently until 2020. Beginning with the release of Monsters, the band was signed to Counter Records, an imprint of Ninja Tune. Since the release of Chariot in September 2024, they are signed with Ultra Records, an electronic label owned by Sony Music Entertainment.

Prior to forming The Midnight, Tyler Lyle and Tim McEwan were both established musicians. Lyle was an indie-folk singer-songwriter based in the state of Georgia and gained initial notability with several self-released titles, becoming regionally and nationally known. McEwan was a drummer and producer based in Denmark, later becoming a member of the Danish production group Deekay who has written and produced songs for many popular artists.^[3][4][5]

The pair met for the first time in April 2012 at a songwriter’s workshop in North Hollywood organized by Katie Donovan, Lyle’s A&R representative at the time.[2] Before meeting, McEwan had listened to some of Lyle’s previous work and liked Lyle’s folk sound. Despite differing musical backgrounds, they bonded over a mutual love of 80s rock and began to write songs together. After initially struggling to define their sound, McEwan suggested that they compose songs in the synthwave style. McEwan had previous exposure to the genre and was inspired by the movie Drive. The first song they wrote together was WeMoveForward, and the same day they also wrote the chorus for Gloria. After the initial meeting in 2012, Lyle and McEwan continued writing and recording together over the next two years. Several songs that would ultimately become The Midnight tracks were previewed on McEwan's SoundCloud account throughout 2013 and early 2014, including WeMoveForward, Gloria, Synthetic, and Comet.

In March 2014, Lyle announced on his Twitter that iAmData (McEwan's moniker at the time) and himself were starting a band called "The Midnight". According to Lyle, the name came from McEwan and himself throwing out random names until they found one that stuck. Other band names that they considered were "Lightyears", "Temporary Tigers", and "The Midnight Tigers." Around the same time, The Midnight created their first social media accounts and began teasing an EP. Titled Days of Thunder, the EP was released on July 15, 2014. Receiving positive reviews from electronic music sites DRIVE Radio and NewRetroWave, the EP also caught the attention of several Reddit communities throughout 2014 and 2015. An official description included with Days of Thunder described The Midnight's sound and philosophy:

'There is a Japanese term: Mono no aware. It means basically, the sad beauty of seeing time pass - the aching awareness of impermanence. These are the days that we will return to one day in the future only in memories. How do we capture them? How could we possibly be able to fully appreciate them in the present? This project is our attempt to put time under glass. The Midnight is a marriage between a songwriter from the Deep South and a producer from Denmark who both live in Los Angeles. The songs were written in North Hollywood and Santa Monica over two years and represent the first fruit of The Midnight. This is our love song to our city and a testament to the weight these years can hold.'

The Midnight began work on a follow-up to Days of Thunder in 2015. Teaser clips of songs being worked on for the record were posted to their social media accounts throughout the year. In August 2015, Tim McEwan said on social media that a new record was still several months away, expressing a desire to "push the envelope on the synthwave genre". A new song, The Equaliser (Not Alone), was released on the DRIVE Radio compilation Selection Volume 1 in March 2016.^[6]

Following the release of the singles Sunset and Vampires in May and June, the next The Midnight record was revealed in July 2016 to be a full-length album titled Endless Summer and was released on August 5, 2016. Expanding on their efforts from Days of Thunder, Endless Summer received positive reviews from online media outlets and garnered the band new exposure within the burgeoning synthwave community, with songs like Sunset and Jason becoming staples of the genre. Jason in particular is notable for being The Midnight's first collaboration with singer-songwriter Nikki Flores, who would continue to collaborate with the band in the years to come.^{[7] [8][9]}

The success of Endless Summer established The Midnight as one of the top acts in synthwave and was the precursor to a busy 2017 for the band. Early that year, they began planning their first-ever live show to capitalize on their ubiquity in the synthwave space. While McEwan had previously done some DJ sets in 2017 under The Midnight name, they had yet to do a live show that featured Lyle as well. Announced in May 2017, the debut show was co-headlined with fellow synthwave titan FM-84 and took place at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco in July in front of a sold-out crowd. The show was also notable for the introduction of Jesse Molloy as the band's first live saxophone player, a role he would continue to have until 2022.

While planning the live show, The Midnight also began work on their next record. The band shared a clip from a studio session with Nikki Flores in February 2017 and several weeks later McEwan shared that he was writing songs with Tyler Lyle in New York City, Lyle's home at the time. A new song from the unnamed record was played at the DNA Lounge show, and clips of new songs continued to be shared throughout the summer. During this time, a remix album was announced in July from the label Silk Music, who had previously released remix singles of WeMoveForward and Days of Thunder in 2016. The release of The Midnight Remixed in August was a significant milestone for the band, as it was their first album to be associated with a label and the first to appear on a Billboard chart, peaking at number 22 on the Dance/Electronic Albums Chart.

Also in August 2017, The Midnight's new album Nocturnal was officially announced. Crystalline was released as its only single in September, followed by the album's release on October 13. Featuring collaborations with Nikki Flores and Timecop1983, Nocturnal was noted for having a considerably darker sound compared to previous The Midnight offerings and received mostly positive reviews from critics. Synthwave news site NewRetroWave chose it as their top EP of 2017. In addition to being the top-selling album on Bandcamp for more than a week, Nocturnal also charted at number 17 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums Chart and later peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Heatseekers Album chart in 2018.

The Midnight ended 2017 with another sold out live show in November. Co-headlining with FM-84 again, the show took place at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles and featured Nikki Flores live with the band for the first time.

Shortly after the release of Nocturnal, Tim McEwan revealed that The Midnight's next record was already in development, describing it as a more "summer feeling" EP that they expected to release in the spring or summer of 2018. While work commenced on the new record, the band did a small tour of three shows in March 2018 in the cities of Chicago and New York City. In April, The Midnight's first official tour was announced for the fall, with 18 shows planned across North America. Strong ticket sales prompted The Midnight to announce their first European shows in June, which would take place in the spring of 2019.

In May 2018, The Midnight were featured on the Timecop1983 song Static from his album Night Drive. New singles Lost Boy and America 2 appeared in July and August, and later in August the next The Midnight album was confirmed to be Kids.

Released on September 21, 2018, Kids showcased a more upbeat and lighter tone compared to Nocturnal. The album received more mixed reviews compared to previous The Midnight offerings. While most reviewers praised the overall sound and aesthetics of the album and credited the band for continuing to evolve the synthwave genre, others viewed it as sounding "too commercial". The album was also noted in most reviews for its short length and lack of saxophone, which had become a ubiquitous element of The Midnight's sound on previous releases.

Kids garnered the band more commercial success, debuting at number one on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Album Sales chart, number 12 on the Dance/Electronic Albums chart, number two on the Heatseekers Albums chart, and number 13 on the Independent Albums chart. Kids would be the first release in a trilogy series of albums for The Midnight that continued with Monsters in 2020 and concluded with Heroes in 2022.^[10]

The Fall 2018 Tour commenced in September and was a major success for The Midnight, with almost every show selling out. The first show took place at the North Coast Music Festival in Chicago, which was the band's first music festival appearance. In October, more North American dates were announced for the Spring 2019 Tour, which would supplement the previously revealed European shows. The tour began in February 2019 and featured The Midnight's first appearances in Europe and Australia. Work began on the next entry in the Kids trilogy during the tour, and previously teased America Online was released as a single in May.

The Fall 2019 Tour began in August 2019 and saw the band perform 38 shows across North America and Europe. The November 12 show in London was The Midnight's 100th live show. The tour was notable for the addition of Lelia Broussard to the live band as guitar player. She has remained with the touring band ever since and has also contributed to the writing and production of several The Midnight songs. Several new songs were played during the tour, including Brooklyn, Seventeen, and Monsters, which were all confirmed to be on the upcoming album. In September, Silk Music released The Midnight's second remix album, The Midnight Remixed 02. Preceded by the release of three new remix singles, the album was another commercial success for the band and the Silk Music label, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums Chart.

In March 2020, the world was struck by the COVID-19 pandemic and The Midnight sought to keep fans engaged during stay-at-home orders. A weeklong remix competition took place during the last week of the month, with stems being made available to download for the songs The Comeback Kid, Los Angeles, Explorers, and River of Darkness to remix. Over 500 remixes were submitted and the winners were revealed during a livestream on YouTube in April. A new acoustic version of The Comeback Kid was also released at the end of March, with all proceeds going to support members of the band's tour crew.

In May 2020, the single Deep Blue was released and Monsters was revealed as The Midnight's next album. Dance With Somebody and Prom Night followed as singles before the album released in July. The album was their first associated with the label Counter Records. Noted for moving the band's sound in a different direction and expanding its horizons, Monsters received mostly positive reviews from critics.Also obtaining commercial success, the album charted at number 134 on the Billboard 200, number 12 on the Dance/Electronic Albums chart, and number 18 on the Independent Albums chart.

The Midnight first released their second EP, Horror Show in October 2020 exclusively through Amazon Music. The EP was released to all platforms in March 2021. They followed with the collaborative EP, The Rearview Mirror with Magik*Magik Orchestra in July. The EP features reimagined orchestral versions of songs from Endless Summer to commemorate its fifth anniversary.

The Midnight released their fifth studio album, Heroes in September 2022. It is the third and final album in the Kids trilogy which includes songs that are influenced by hair metal bands and heavy metal, specifically Def Leppard and Mutt Lange.^[11]

The band released their live album, Red, White and Bruised: The Midnight Live in September 2023 which featured performances from their Heroes tours.

The Midnight announced that their first graphic novel, The Midnight: Shadows, would be released by Dark Horse Comics in October 2024. The story and characters are based on The Midnight's music, and the book features writer Zack Kaplan working with artists Stephen Thompson, Johnoy Lindsay, and Thiago Rocha.^[12]

In 2024, the band announced McEwan would step away from touring to focus on producing new music.^[13] The band added drummer Kwesi Robinson to the lineup to fulfill McEwan's role on live drums.

The Midnight made their Ultra Records debut with the single, "Chariot" in September 2024 from their upcoming sixth studio album, Syndicate. The band followed with their second single, "Love is an Ocean" in February 2025. Third single "Digital Dreams" released on May 30, 2025. "Chariot" was featured on the soundtrack for the Codemasters racing video game F1 25 which also released the same day. The fourth single "Shadowverse" was released on August 1, along with the reveal of Syndicate's tracklist and October 3, 2025 release date.^[14] A fifth single, "Summer's Ending Soon", was released on August 29. A sixth single, "Runaways" featuring Bonnie McKee, was released on September 17.

In an interview with Daily Express, McEwan called Syndicate "our version of an apocalypse record" which had gone through a rework after the band and label mutually agreed the first version wasn't there yet. Lyle called Syndicate "the album that we just couldn't help ourselves from making" with both Lyle and McEwan going through personal trauma during the writing process. Lyle calls the album the denouement of the Kids / Monsters / Heroes trilogy, signaling the closing of a chapter.^[15]

Tim McEwan's parents are the musician Tom McEwan and actress Terese Damsholt.^[16]