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the midway state

ALBUM OUT JULY 22

About Me

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. All you know is that eventually, the combination of youthful drama and mature melodies will tug you under.
Perhaps it helps that, geographically speaking, The Midway State came from a small town in the middle of nowhere. “It’s a little ski town two hours north of Toronto,” singer and songwriter Nathan Ferraro says of his hometown, Collingwood, Ontario. 21 year-old Nathan, eldest of eight children, still splits his time between his family’s house in Collingwood and his apartment in 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 the guitar. When he turned 16, he shifted his focus back to the piano and while keeping up with schoolwork and playing sports like the other Collingwood kids, Nathan found time to write songs - lots 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 from other bands. “Met a Man on Top the Hill” is like pages torn from a fairytale, with lyrics that switch between the perspective of a powerful figure and his object of manipulation.
“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 riffs, has emerged as a crowd favorite. Reaching the audience is a skill that 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 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 relocated a couple of hours south in Toronto. There they were able to find the other half of the band, best friends Michael Wise and Michael Kirsh, through an ad they posted in the University of Toronto’s jazz studies building. Now, The Midway State is poised to reach many more people than Nathan and Daenen could ever have imagined when they first started pounding those songs out after school on the family piano.

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Member Since: 6/12/2004
Band Website: themidwaystate.com
Band Members: Nathan Ferraro - Vocals, Piano
Daenen Bramberger - Drums
Michael Wise - Guitar, Vocals
Mike Kirsh - Bass, Vocals

Latest video
Album photo shoot

Change For You

Record Label: Interscope / Remedy
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

ALBUM OUT JULY 22

We've been getting a lot of messages and e-mails from you guys wondering when our record is coming out. We're happy to tell you our full length album titled "Holes" will be coming out all over North A...
Posted by the midway state on Sat, 17 May 2008 09:23:00 PST

THANKS TO TORONTO

Thanks to everyone who made it out to last nights show in Toronto. We had a great time playing at home and can't wait to do it again. Thanks for the support.- Midway
Posted by the midway state on Fri, 16 May 2008 03:19:00 PST

THE MIDWAY STATE @ SUPERMARKET

Hey everyone, Just a reminder that we will be performing this Thursday night at Supermarket in Toronto. Hope to see you there. We'll be on around 11pm. We're expecting a busy night, see you soon! - Mi...
Posted by the midway state on Tue, 13 May 2008 09:43:00 PST

Toronto shows

Hey everyone,We regret to inform you that due to circumstances beyond our control our show this upcoming Tuesday at the Koolhaus has been canceled and re-scheduled to June 8th. Click here for details....
Posted by the midway state on Thu, 01 May 2008 02:34:00 PST

Baltimore in-store performance

Hey everyone - The band is going to be in Baltimore this Saturday April 19th for a free acoustic in-store performance & CD signing @ the Sound Garden record store located at 1616 Thames Street, Baltim...
Posted by the midway state on Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:32:00 PST

Online videos

We have a new way of sharing all of our online videos with you! Check it out. In there you can watch all of our videos and they are broken up into four categories, each with their own player: On tour,...
Posted by the midway state on Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:40:00 PST

On tour with Mika - Part 2

Hey guys - check out our latest clip from our recent Mika tour! ...
Posted by the midway state on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:32:00 PST

popularity.com interview

Hey all - we recently did an interview with popularity.com.Check it out here....
Posted by the midway state on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:24:00 PST

On tour with Mika - Part 1

Check out this video of our recent North American tour with Mika! ...
Posted by the midway state on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:41:00 PST

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 its great to start seeing familiar faces. Th...
Posted by the midway state on Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:59:00 PST