The Midnight are on the eve of the release of their sixth album, Syndicate. And, like any good band, they have gone through a series of metamorphoses to reach this new era. Just in recent years, producer Tim McEwan and frontman Tyler Lyle endured multiple Covid-19 releases, tours with bare minimum resources and have jumped between various record labels in the process. And, despite all this, bringing Syndicate to life was one of their most difficult tasks yet, Lyle and McEwan exclusively told Express.co.uk. And it’s plain to hear in the final product.
There’s a profound melancholy within each track of Syndicate. The two-parter Afterglow has Lyle crooning: « What was to be could have never been » as McEwan’s sullen mix drones on beneath it all in a style which continues throughout the Goliath 17-track record. Between the Blade Runner-styled instrumentals and bleeding heart lyrics, Syndicate reads as the perfect middle-ground between the poetic Lyle and the meticulous McEwan. But it took some personal trauma to get to that halfway point. « My wife was going through cancer treatment, » Lyle remembered. « And Tim was in the aftermath, and the end of, a breakup. »
After the release of their previous record, Heroes, and tour around the world, Lyle and McEwan separately told me they were in « pretty desolate, desperate head spaces ». As a result, Syndicate was written with one eye on an apocalypse – but not how fans might initially expect. « This is sort of our version of an apocalypse record, right? » McEwan smiled. « With the end of the world type of thing, because it sort of feels like it’s the end of something. I don’t know what it is, or what it’s the beginning of, but we’ll see. »
While Lyle assured me this certainly wasn’t the end of the band, it’s easy to see how fans may have had that thought cross their mind in recent years. In 2023, after a few years of hard touring as the band’s live drummer, and just before the band played Bonnaroo Festival, McEwan decided to take a step back. And that winter, The Midnight confirmed he would be stepping back from performing live with The Midnight.
Looking back, McEwan confessed: « I think Tyler could sense that I was pretty depleted. I was just kind of exhausted and done. And I think it was actually on a phone call with [Tyler]. He suggested it. He just kind of reminded me, like, hey this is our thing, and we can design it to fit what we want to do with it. » After mulling it over, McEwan realised: « You know what? You’re right. » Quick to quash any rumours, however, McEwan assured me that it had nothing to do with the band in any way hating one another. « Actually the opposite, » he chuckled. « It means that we can be more effective as a band. And I think this album is the result of that. »
While fans were likely scared of what this meant for the future of The Midnight, it had more of an impact on Lyle. « I do [feel his absence], » he said. « I miss him. I love him – 15 years in and Tim and I are in the best spot that we’ve ever been. He’s my work wife, » before adding their new set-up is a « win-win ».
So, set with a new half-working-from-home half-touring-band relationship, The Midnight were reborn, refreshed, anew – and so started the work on their next album. After finding a new record label in Ultra and blitzing through the writing and recording process, McEwan and Lyle sat down with their new bosses to listen to the finished record. Once the final track had played, though, they all agreed: It wasn’t good enough. « We felt it was underwhelming, » McEwan said. « And I think they felt the same way. » Lyle concurred: « Tim and I looked at each other and we knew. We knew it wasn’t there and we knew it was such an important record, as well. We felt like it needed to be a strong outing after Heroes. »
While The Midnight’s fifth album, Heroes, shot them to the highest point in the UK Album Charts yet, it was a divisive record. The usually symphonic, synthetic and beat-based collective transformed into what resembled a hair-metal band. While it was a fantastic album, one could see why the fanbase might schism. « I think Heroes was the record that we thought we wanted to play live once the pandemic was over, » Lyle looked back. « It was written during lockdown, and it was nice to hear those songs sung back at us. » McEwan agreed: « I know there were dissenters, dissenting opinions about Heroes, and that’s totally fine. I totally get it. But we’re proud of that album and what it means. »
So then, after that, The Midnight went back to the drawing board. And, together, over the coming months, McEwan and Lyle « kept throwing stuff at the wall ». Those previously finished tracks were not scrapped, but repurposed, and remade with brand new ideas. McEwan casually mentioned the ballpark number of writing « around 40 songs » before Syndicate’s track 17-hit list was finalised. « We didn’t just wipe the slate clean, » he reminisced. « But we kept a lot of the same DNA and same songs – but, production wise, it was expanded. I dug deeper over the next year or so. » Lyle added: « I think syndicate was the album that we just couldn’t help ourselves from making. »
Now, Syndicate is here – despite itself. Despite The Midnight having already written an entire album; despite them dealing with touring line-up changes; despite the cancer and the break-ups and the moving across the world in the process after a global pandemic. And, honestly, to me they’ve never seemed happier.
« We are all alive right now – for such a short amount of time, » Lyle mused. « We get to decide if it matters and why, and and then we get to choose to go forward with that.
« And I think that that has always been kind of the double-edge of nostalgia, right? People go into this kind of music or concert experience or record as an escape, but actually the true ending point of this, you know, ‘synthwave, nostalgic’ journey is to wake up on your feet where you’re standing right here, in real time, not in some other time. To be here now and and be forced to ask yourself the question: What? Why? Why does my life matter? Yeah, it does, but I have to give it that meaning. »
Lyle went on: « I think that’s the cherry on top at the end of this long ‘Kids, Monsters, Heroes’ [album] trilogy. This is kind of the denouement. This is the end. The Summer Is Ending Soon – the ‘Endless Summer’ – the thing that we thought would never end is ending. Make peace with how the story ends … Life must be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. »
With one more breath, Lyle added: « I think that’s the ending point for this record: To go, okay, I’m here right now. Let’s figure out why it matters. It’s my choice. »
With that, we return to the concept of the apocalypse; not necessarily the world’s ending, but The Midnight’s as we know it. « I think this signals a closing of a chapter, » Lyle said. « And I’m excited to open a new one with The Midnight. »
The Midnight – Syndicate will be released on October 3, 2025.
