After Midnight Project *interview w/ the band*
After Midnight Project
Jason Evigan –vocals
Spencer Bastian – guitar
Danny Morris – drums
TJ Armstrong – bass, vocals
Christian Meadows – guitar
While the boys of After Midnight Project hail to us from Weirdo Capital USA (Hollywood), they are seemingly normal and grounded people. Known for fun, energetic live performances and connecting with their fans, their popularity has continued to grow since their 2004 formation.
With signing to Universal Motown and producers like John Feldmann on their first full-length album, AMP obviously had high expectations. With their growing popularity and recent announcement of going on the entire 2010 Warped Tour bill, they have definitely exceeded any expectations!
Better late than never…. I did get to sit and chat with the boys at last summer’s Warped Tour, while they were still a blooming five-some. Check it out!
*be aware that this is transcribed from an audio recording, so the individual speakers are not easily identified.
with the boys of AMP
Tell me a little about the band. How did you all come together?
I [Jason] started After Midnight Project like, five years ago in my home studio. I had a hard job titled The After Midnight Project.
Where’s home?
Los Angeles. Basically, I would come home after work really late at night and record and I titled my hard drive The After Midnight Project, because I would work all through the night, and then I kind of started using it as a working thing. And then I found Danny on Craig’s List.
Tell me about the Craig’s List search.
(Danny) It was men seeking men. It was 3 in the morning when we met up. And yeah he was holding auditions for a new drummer. I had just moved to LA like four months prior to that, and had no idea what I was getting into and long story short, I dropped everything and joined After Midnight Project.
Ok, so you found Danny and then how did everyone come into the picture?
I was doing a session for a producer that actually consequently had done some work for Jason. And I did some work for him. So that’s the story.
Jason and I are from the same city, family friends. I went to audition in Los Angeles, CA and then met up and we did it.
The two of us are from Michigan
Where in Michigan?
Danny and Spencer are from Detroit/Lansing. TJ is from Canada and I’m [Christian] from LA. Jason, I knew of him from school and I auditioned for his band and got the gig on his band, and now we are all a band and we’ve been together for four years.
After Midnight Project
Do you guys have other jobs?
No, but do you wanna hear some of our worst jobs ever?
Yes.
My job, it was kinda fun. I used to film weddings and edit them. It was fun because women at weddings get completely drunk and you see some pretty crazy things.
And weddings make people horny, right?
They do! They make them really horny, and sometimes I’d miss the main things like walking down the aisle or the first dance with the dad… but I was partying, it was fun.
But you’d miss those moments and you were the videographer?
I couldn’t help it sometimes, it wasn’t my fault it was the aunt’s fault.
Did you video his wedding? You’re married.
No, he would never trust me to film his wedding.
So, my worst job. My next door neighbor had a pigeon coop because he used to raise them and race them. $10 an hour an hour a day, I’d scrape and clean the shit off the coop.
Is that really so bad?
It is bad, because they’re in there while you’re doing it, flying around your head.
Any other bad jobs?
I got fired from a gardener job, haha. I was a gardener. Right when I graduated college, before I moved to LA.
After he graduated with a masters in engineering, he works as gardener…
Seriously?
Electrical Engineering. But I wanted to be outdoors you know? And it was like 10 bucks an hour, a few hours a week. And it was this old German professor and she had a really nice house. And she totally just hired me to look at me with my shirt off, gardening.
Like Desperate Housewives style?
Yeah. But she called me one night and she was like, “You destroyed my garden,” and I was like, what are you talking about? Because I picked out all these sick weeds, I totally cleaned it up. And she was like, those are all my poppy plants. And I was like, no way those are the ugliest plants I’ve ever seen. So she fired me..
A gardener is your worst job? That’s not bad.
It was my worst job experience. I like cried that night, I’d never been fired!
I can see you crying..
I’m a sensitive soul.
Any more bad jobs?
Uh, it’s a toss up between two. One was my first job and it was working for an A&W drive in and everyone I worked with there prepared the food with cigarettes in their hands. So that was so gnarly and filthy, and the guy actually wouldn’t let me quit because he needed the help, but I just stopped going.
Ok, Carrie’s giving us the red light. SO, August 11, Let’s Build Something to Break, comes out on Universal Records. This interview has been very interesting, very fun.
We also have a phone number you can call us at. It’s 310-597-4033.
What happens when you call the number? Is it like a recording?
You can leave a message, or if you follow us on our twitter, which is ampla, you’ll know when our phone is live, and so we can talk to you!
After Midnight Project
***
AMP Official
AMP MySpace
AMP Twitter
About the Author
Denise Borders 39, Los Angeles. Denise founded PWV in 2008 and remains the primary manager and photographer/videographer. She is not secretly obsessed with Joey Cape.
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