After their show with Enuff Z’Nuff in Madrid we fell in love with The Midnight Devils, that’s why we spoke with their singer/bassist Sam Spades to introduce us to the band and find out much more about them and if we can see them live again . This is what he tells us…
M.S: It is a pleasure to spend some time with you… who is speaking to us?
Sam Spade – Hello Metal Symphony. It’s a great pleasure to speak with you. My name is Sam Spade and I am the lead singer and bass player for the band The Midnight Devils out of Omaha, NE and Chicago, IL USA.
M.S: To get to know about you a little more, tell us how the idea of creating the band … your musical style, etc…
Sam Spade – The Midnight Devils came together initially in 2016 as a two piece acoustic act that Chris ‘Sniper’ Hineline and I put together to play a few extra gigs. We were in an 80’s cover band and we wanted to start traveling more and doing our own thing instead of just covers. We found a drummer and started putting together original songs for what would be our 2018 debut Something Bigger. On our first tour our drummer bailed on us halfway through the tour. We called up Jimmy Mess in Chicago and he was in-like-flint. He learned all our songs and we finished the tour at Rocklahoma. That was the beginning of the massive crazy ride we’ve been on for the last 7 years.
M.S: In case there is someone who does not know you yet, Where does the name of the band come from?
Sam Spade – The name of the band came from a song and album we put out in our former band. We like the possibilities of the name “Midnight Devils” but we threw “The” in front just to copy The Rolling Stones, The Clash, The Misfits. The name actually comes from that feeling you get on a Friday night as the sun starts going down. Riding around with your friends looking for trouble or whatever action you can find. It’s that indestructible urge to go crazy and blow off steam any way possible.
M.S: From your words, what can you bring to the rock scene that other groups have not done?
Sam Spade – There’s not a lot that hasn’t been done. We live in a very different musical landscape but then again we weren’t setting out to reinvent the wheel. We are rock n roll fans at heart and that’s exactly what we set out to play every night. The big difference with us is that we bring the party and we bring the real rock n roll energy. I think somewhere down the line it became ok to go up onstage and be boring.
It became ok to settle for mediocre. I’ve never agreed with that. We are entertainers and people listen with their eyes. We aren’t putting on costumes when we walk on stage; this is really who we are. Slap on some glitter, a neon pink prom dress, and crank it through a 100 watt guitar amplifier and you have The Midnight Devils.
We are a no-holds-barred rock n roll party that was set into motion and won’t be slowing down for anyone. We are freedom of expression, freedom from judgment, and freedom from the normal boring everyday world.
M.S: It is something natural that musicians are influenced by other musicians and take them as references. What are your main musical influences? What are your favorite bands?
Sam Spade – I love this question. I grew up listening to Elvis and The Beach Boys and steadily grew into FM classic rock radio. The band that did it for me and still does to this day is The Hottest Band in the World, KISS. KISS gave me everything I was looking for and made me feel like I actually belonged to something.
From there I discovered punk rock in The Misfits, Ramones, and The Sex Pistols. So my musical taste is very much a mix between 50’s rockabilly, punk, and glam. With The Midnight Devils we mix it all together with a brilliant guitar player Sniper. He’s a Van Halen guy and it shows but he isn’t an EVH clone.
Sniper is our musical director and pushes us daily to play and perform our best. Jimmy Mess our drummer is the real-deal rock n roll guy and he has more musical knowledge than anyone I’ve ever met. He can sit and talk about The Dictators and then switch into Abba without missing a beat. He is the heart of the band and there’s no one else like him.
M.S: Where can you buy your albums?
Sam Spade – Our latest release Never Beg For It came out July 1st via Pavement Records and was produced by Chip Znuff. For a signed physical copy you can go to our website www.themidnightdevils.com and order directly from us. We will ship CDs anywhere in the world if you order. All of our music is also available on every streaming platform including Google Play, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
M.S: We saw you at the concerts you gave with Enuff Z Nuff in Spain, what memories do you have of those concerts?
Sam Spade – We always have a great time touring with Enuff Z’Nuff. Chip and the rest of the boys are incredible to watch and I almost never miss their set. Chip is a real life Rock N Roll legend so I try to soak up as much knowledge and wisdom as I can from him. We always hang out after the shows and there have been some incredible adventures traveling around the world with Chip.
Spain was absolutely amazing to The Midnight Devils. As soon as we landed everyone was so nice and went completely above and beyond for us. We hadn’t even been in the country for an hour and people on the streets were taking pictures with us and singing Queen songs at the top of their lungs.
It really felt like Spain was waiting for us with open arms. Everyone was ready to bring it so I really felt like we had to match that level of energy and push ourselves even harder. It was an absolute blast and we can’t wait to tour Spain again.
M.S: After having played in Spain, is it likely that you will return on one of your tours?
Sam Spade – We will 100% be back to Spain as soon as we can. Robert Mills took a chance on us and we can’t thank him enough. I really think the gamble paid off and we proved it.
M.S: What plans do you have for this new year?
Sam Spade – One plan and that’s world domination. Just kidding but we have some big stuff lined up already for 2023. The first thing will be the Winter Wonder-Glam Tour kicking off in a few days through the Southeastern USA down to Key West, Florida. We will be reuniting with Enuff Znuff for this run and maybe even something with them in Feb.
During the May-June we will be supporting Japanese heavy metal legends Loudness from coast to coast on their first USA tour in 5 years. Then we are making plans to return to Europe in the late summer fall of 2023. In February our first official vinyl 12” etched single will be released on a limited edition 300 copies.
We will also begin work and hopefully have some new music out to follow up Never Beg For It. There are some very exciting things happening this year and we have the most amazing people supporting us and pushing us through all of this.
M.S: Thanks for everything, if you want to leave a last message for your followers, this is the moment … good luck with this new album.
Sam Spade – Thank you for the kind words. It was so cool speaking with you and thank you for the great questions and for featuring The Midnight Devils in Metal Symphony. We are so excited and can’t wait to return to Spain and party with all of the wild rock n roll maniacs. We couldn’t do this without you. This is more than an ordinary rock n roll band, this is a movement of people pushing the party to extraordinary heights.