Review Fix chats with Midnight Vesta’s Nicholas Posthumus, who discusses the band’s origin and goals for the rest of 2020.
Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?
Nicholas Posthumus: My father ran a music school out of a studio he built in our garage. We learned so that we could teach for him at a bargain!
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Posthumus: I feel like I only write in cloudbursts and tectonic shifts. It’s either a matter of massive unexpected outpouring or slow and nearly imperceptible progression that reaches its end years after it began. This new record was fun because it was made up of so many partial songs that existed before we knew each other, and felt complete once we had all added something of ourselves to them. They all feel new, but they’re a part of our individual past musical experiences. It’s almost like thrifting music.
Review Fix: What inspires you?
Posthumus: Collin (guitar) and Robbie (drums) have only ever given me the impression that the purpose of music is to play it well and live and with people you like. That inspires me. That feels like total creative freedom.
Review Fix: What does music mean to you?
Posthumus: If you can pull it off, music can teach an entire crowd of people the same language for a few minutes. It can travel farther and faster than those who created it, to make other people feel like there is someone out there who feels what they feel and understands what it means to be a human like you, even if you never meet.
Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?
Posthumus: Not really a folk band, and not a country band either. It’s not rock, but they go hard sometimes. You can hear the influence of past generations but feel the youthful energy. These guys probably like Band of Horses, but also own a Gordon Lightfoot record.
Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?
Posthumus: The consistent piece of positive feedback we receive is how much fun people see us having together. Not every show is your best one, and you can’t always be at the peak of your powers. However, if you can truly enjoy sharing the chance to play with the right group of people, then that runs over the edge of the stage into the audience and wins the room. Have the kind of fun you want your listeners to have. Let every kind of person know that it’s okay to smile and move a little.
Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?
Posthumus: A bit of heartbreak, a few Pilsners and several years of healing.
Review Fix: What are your goals for 2020?
Posthumus: In a perfect world, we’d like to play a show again. That’s probably a given for any performing artist, but it’s such a noticeable and aching hole in our lives right now.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Posthumus: We’ve managed to play some live Instagram shows (@midnightvesta) with some great support from our fans and friends, and that will be our way of staying in touch until we release a third single sometime in the next couple months.
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
Posthumus: It’s really hard to know what your role is as an aspiring performer in a world without crowds. The one thing that becomes abundantly clear is how grateful you are for even the smallest of audiences you’ve had in your life that earnestly and honestly listened. Thank you. If we never played another show again in our lives we could sleep knowing that there were nights where we made someone feel something spectacular and magical. We felt spectacular and magical too, and we can’t wait to see you again.
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