The Underground Experience: Lurid Midnight

Hey ninjas!! Sorry, I know my posting has absolutely sucked lately, but I've been SO BUSY! Yeah, I know, no excuse, but I've been switching countries again! Aussies- I'm back, baby!

That's all beside the point. Tonight, in case the title didn't give it all away, I have another installment of The Underground Experience! It's about a little band just starting out that I've known about for a while! They're probably the one all-girl band that I know of that aren't all bubblegum pop. They're inspired by bands that I love- think Short Stack, Forever The Sickest Kids, All Time Low... punk meets pop- but with a touch of girl power!

Meet Kione, Lisa, Sian and Amanda- four average teenage girls from New South Wales, Australia with a passion for music and a quest for awesomeness!

So what instruments do they play? Kione is the drummer, Amanda is the lead singer, Sian is a lead guitarist and Lisa rocks out on the bass! They may not have much in the way of songs out and around on the internet yet, but these up-and-coming ladies won't be far off!

 

Plus, the girls were super-lovely enough to do an interview with me especially for you guys! Which means it's time for...

20 Questions... with the ladies of Lurid Midnight!!

1. Where did you all meet? 

Sian: The others met in primary school or grade 7. I moved down to New South Wales from Central Queensland and just happened to stumble across some of the nicest girls ever who shared all my interests :)

Kione: Lisa went to the same primary school as me, Amanda went to a writing work shop and I just happened to be there. Siân just turned up out of no where.
Lisa: I met them at a strip club in the middle of school.
Amanda: We met at high school at the beginning of grade eight. 

2. How did you decide to become a band? 

Sian: It was just something I'd always wanted to do. I wanted to start a band when I lived in Queensland, but no one liked the idea. It just so happened that I moved down here and met Amanda, who wanted to have a music based career as well. 

Kione: It was all Siân and Amanda’s idea, I just tagged along.
Lisa: I wanted to get closer to Alex Gaskarth.

Amanda: Ever since I was 4. I've always wanted to be a musician, it seems like a fun and exciting job.

3. Where did your name come from?
Sian: My older sister is a novelist and is writing a series of vampire books, the third one being called Lurid Midnight. We had been looking for a name, and had been tossing around two or three for about two weeks when she told me we could use the name of her book as long as we gave her credit for it, and the name has just stuck ever since. If you have Wattpad, Mibba or Inkpop,  you should really check her out :) her username is PawLuvzVampirez.

Kione: Paige's book. She's Sian's sister.

Lisa: Paige's vampire book.

Amanda: Sian's sister Paige wrote a book called 'Lurid Midnight'.

4. What bands inspire you?
Sian: Short Stack and Because They Can definitely. Mayday Parade, The Maine, My Chemical Romance, All Time Low, We Are The In Crowd, Tonight Alive, Boys Like Girls, For Our Hero, This Providence, Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows and VersaEmerge are pretty big influences too.

Kione: Short Stack mainly, but Because They Can, All Time Low, Tonight Alive and pretty much any other band that came from nowhere are big inspirations to me. 

Lisa: Because They Can, All Time Low, Short Stack, The Maine, You Me At Six, We The Kings, etc.

Amanda: The Amity Affliction, Jack's Mannequin, Death Cab For Cutie, VersaEmerge, The Maine, All Time Low, Brand New, Forever The Sickest Kids and more. 

5. How would you describe your sound?
Sian: For vocals I'd say we sound a bit like Tonight Alive, and for the music, probably Because They Can or For Our Hero. Possibly throw Jack's Mannequin into the mix too. All in all it's a pretty awesome sound, which you'll all be hearing soon :)

Kione: Amanda's voice is like Jen from Tonight Alive and Hayley Williams put together. 

Lisa: We sound like sh*t bags. 

Amanda: Tonight Alive meets Paramore and VersaEmerge.

6. What do you like doing better; covering songs or writing your own music?
Sian: Covering songs is fun; playing songs that everyone knows and loves, and knowing no matter what people will scream the lyrics back to you is a great feeling, but first you have to figure out how to play the songs, and have to adjust them to fit Amanda's voice. With writing songs, they'll always be in Amanda's range because she's the one writing them and we can add our own music as long as its all in the same key. And it means a whole lot more when people scream the lyrics of a song you helped create, than someone else's song. 

Kione: Covering music would be so much fun, but writing our own is better because we are letting you know what's going on in our life.

Lisa: Covering songs because then I have a reason to scream more about Alex Gaskarth's voice. 

Amanda: I like both. Covering songs is great, but its always nice to write and perform something of our own. 

7. Who does most of your song writing?

Sian: Amanda does, because if anyone else did it, it would be difficult because the song might not be in her range.

Kione: Sian and Amanda because Lisa and I are too lazy.

Lisa: Manda and Sian because me and Kione are lazy sh*ts.

Amanda: I do. I've been writing songs for a few years now. 

8. What inspires your lyrics?

Sian: Basically everything going on in our lives. Our group of friends is almost constantly arguing, and there's always the issue of boys, and sometimes deaths in the family, etc.

Kione: I would guess family, friends and crushes.

Lisa: sh*t.

Amanda: Having crushes on boys (sigh), and anything that just comes to my mind, like friends, cities I want to visit, etc. 

9. How long have you guys been playing your instruments?
Sian: I started learning guitar in March this year when we started. My Dad used to be in a band and he teaches me from home, which is good because it's free, and music lesson prices are tremendous at the moment. 

Kione: I started learning the keyboard at the beginning of this year but I gave up and I'm buying drums soon. 

Lisa: I started learning the electric but gave up because I'm lazy. I've probably been learning bass for about 2 months now.

Amanda: I've had my voice my whole life ;)

10. What are your favourite subjects at school?

Sian: Music and lunch :D
Kione: Music, Tech and Science.

Lisa: Sorry, school's crap so I can't answer that question. The only good thing is how I met my friends at the school strip club. 

Amanda: I like Music, lunch break, and English :)

11. What do you get up to on the weekends?
Sian: Most of the time I just stay at home on my computer all day unless we go out shopping or something. I have my guitar lessons with my Dad for about 3 or 4 hours every Saturday though. 

Kione: In winter I play netball on Saturday mornings, the afternoon I either go shopping or just stay home. Sundays are normally free. 

Lisa: Um, mostly spend time on the computer and I play sports every Saturday.

Amanda: I travel around the state. I go to a new town every weekend. 

12. What other hidden talents do you have?
Sian: I can play the Clarinet. I used to be in the school band in primary school and was 1st Clarinet. If you went through my parents' computer, you'd find about 977365783426858736485 videos of me playing it with the band. I also like writing stories like my sister, and people say I'm a pretty good singer :S

Kione: I'm a great netball player and a pretty good writer as well.

Lisa: You'll have to find out in bed ;)

Amanda: I'm a professional blogger ;) oh, and I'm good at playing pokemon. Do those count as hidden talents? 

13. How long have you all been playing together?
Sian: We've been a band since March 24, 2011. Is it sad that I remember the date? :S

Kione: We haven't officially had a band practise but should have one by Christmas at least.

Lisa: About 5 months now? I don't know!

Amanda: Around April this year. 

14. Where can we hear your music?
Sian: No where yet, we're still learning our instruments and stuff, but we should have a cover of Remembering Sunday by All Time Low up on our YouTube soon so keep a look out :)

Kione: No where yet, but hoping to start doing some covers. We are learning Remembering Sunday by All Time Low.

Lisa: Listen to All Time Low. Alex Gaskarth stole some of my lyrics ;)

Amanda: the internet!!!!!

15. What is your favourite song ever?
Sian: Um, either 17 by Short Stack, Blood & Ice Cream by For Our Hero, You & I (Tonight) by Because They Can, or Where The City Meets The Sea by The Getaway Plan. I can't chose. Its impossible.

Kione: SWEET DECEMBER!! By Short Stack. 

Lisa: Um, I don't know. Probably We'll All Be... by The Maine.

Amanda: I hate Hartley by The Amity Affliction :3

16. What’s your nerdiest habit?
Sian: I've read the whole Harry Potter series at least 5 times each. I've probably read The Deathly Hallows about 8 times to be honest. And I hate when my books get bent. When I moved down from Queensland, and opened the box my books we packed in, I cried for hours. The removalists had packed my books with the spines facing the top of the box, and there was about 3 levels of books in the box, and every one of them got bent in some sort of fashion. They broke the spine of my copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was horrible. 

And I got 100% in my maths test on the Pythagorean Theorem. Pretty stoked about it. 

Kione: I always have to fit my maths note on one page. I hate having two pages of notes!

Lisa: Stressing over tests.

Amanda: I love reading.

17. What’s the craziest thing you guys have done?
Sian: I've done a tone of crazy stuff in my 14 year lifetime, and there's definitely more to come. I think the craziest thing I've done is playing tin can soccer with my friends in Queensland on concrete floor, while it was chucking it down with rain, and I slipped over like 3 times, and we got in trouble with the deputy. Or becoming friends with Kione. That was definitely a crazy idea. 

Kione: Well, whenever someone from our table goes to the toilet at school in the lunch break, we yell their name out when they're walking back. And because we go to a small school, basically the whole school turns around and stares at them.

Lisa: Um, a guy pulled off my bikini top and I turned around and slapped him in the face while I was still topless :S

Amanda: One time I was camping with friends and we wanted phone reception and it was like midnight, so we walked up a cliff right next to water with sparklers just to get on facebook. We risked our lives for the internet. 

18. What’s your biggest ambition musically?
Sian: I don't care about getting big, and touring with huge bands like All Time Low or anything. I'm happy as long as we have a group of faithful fans, no matter how big or small, that will stand up to haters, come to every show, and scream our lyrics back to us at the top of their lungs as if it was the last thing they would say in their life. That would be amazing. Even though touring with All Time Low would be awesome, I like to appreciate the littler things. Sometimes they're more important. 

Kione: To get signed, put out an album and even do a tour. 

Lisa: To become well known, but not famous as such. It would be too much stress.

Amanda: To be able to save people through the lyrics I wrote. I want to make people happy, I want them to be able to make it through tough times. I want to make them feel like life is worth living every day.

19. How would you describe your sense of style?
Sian: In winter, all I wear is skinny jeans, band shirts and leather jackets. I love my leather jacket :3 in summer I don't wear singlets, I just wear t-shirts. Mostly band shirts, hahaha, and shorts. Especially the high waisted ones. Even though I'm skinny I feel uncomfortable wearing singlets. I don't know why. And I wear converse all the time, whether it's summer or winter. The only time I don't wear them is if I'm going to the beach. 

Kione: I love skinny jeans, hoodies and band tees! They are the best, but in summer I tend to wear shorts and singlets. Connies are the BEST!! Haha

Lisa: Different but a little bit of the trends. 

Amanda: I'm not even sure!

20. Any messages to people of general cyber space?

Sian: You're always worth it. Don't bring yourself down. You're absolutely amazing, no matter what anyone says. Self-harm should never be an option, and nothing is worth taking your life over. Be yourself. Don't change for anyone else. If someone picks on you, they don't have a life, and desperately need to get one because they're pathetic. Follow your dreams. If someone tries to stop you they're not worth your time. If you're one of our fans, then thank you. Those two words will never do justice, no matter how many times I say them. I love you all for giving us a chance at this. And if you're one of the people participating in our competition, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. We would not be where we are right now without you guys posting our facebook link everywhere and telling your friends about us. 
Oh, and wherever Lisa mentions Alex Gaskarth or the school strip club, she's joking. Actually, she's joking practically all the way through this interview. 
Kione: Hello, please check us out, we have a competition running RIGHT NOW!! Follow the link >>> http://www.facebook.com/notes/lurid-midnight/our-little-competition/149373428479049 
Lisa: Hi I'm Lisa and I'm single :P

Amanda: Never ever give up on your dreams. You can do whatever you want to do, don't let anything or anyone get in the way of that. I believe in you, you deserve good things. 


So I'm thinking future female Short Stack? Who knows what's in store for these girls! Let's hope they stick to their dreams and become AWESOME!!!

Sayonara, fellow ninjas!! xoxo

P.S.: I'll try and post more often, I promise!