Though it hit shelves back in late 2017, it was only last week that we came across Last Days of May by Midweek Blues. The Bendigo five-piece serve up blues rock at its most raw… these jams will stick with you for weeks.
After spinning the album a few times, we wanted to know more. So we reached out to Midweek Blues for a track-by-track rundown.
Back in May 2017, Midweek Blues retired to Bald Hill Studios with Mark Woods at the helm to record what would become the debut album Last Days of May. Here’s the band’s take.
The Man Who Has It All
Some of our songs start with jams at rehearsal, and some start with a riff brought in from home. This song came about when Jayd brought the main riff into rehearsal one week. The next step is to see how it sounds in a jam situation where extra layers like the drum rhythm, lead guitar licks and harmonica are added.
Mick is great at ad-libbing melodies over these jams and that’s when we’ll know if we’ve got a song worth pursuing. This song is a story of a man who arguably has it all in wealth and possessions and relationships, but then loses it all, only to rediscover himself as a musician and redefine what it means to have it all by the final verse.
Everybody Wants
This song is mainly about fame, a subject that none of us know anything about! Taking a darker tone from its minor key chord-based riff, the lyrics only further drive the feeling that the subject matter isn’t a nice one.
The sound of camera clicks to open the song were added in the studio marking an extra instrument credit for Paul and Jayd, now they can’t go anywhere without offers from major studios to repeat this instrumentation work for all the large names.
Black Dog
This song is about that voice that many of us have in our heads to varying degrees. The one that tells us we’re not good enough. The one that tells us someone’s words mean something different to their face value. The song talks about making a stand against that voice and winning. Being one of the heavier tracks both musically and lyrically, it’s always a favourite to play live.
Funny Way
When we first started writing songs, some of the lyrics being thrown around were a bit too lovey for a blues band, so the lyrics to Funny Way were written as an antidote to that. It was never meant to be a real song but we turned up to rehearsal and Mick had married the words with a riff we had been jamming on and it stuck.
It’s about a young couple that drift apart over time. Instead of walking away the guy responds with evil.
River Of Tears
The longest track on the album! The riff in this song was inspired by a Gary Clark Jr track. For a long time it was known as ‘the kissing song’. One of two songs on the album that were the result of sitting down to write a good old fashioned blues song. The lyrics are about a couple that have been through thick and thin and for reasons unknown are forced apart.
Little Man
Little Man was one of the early songs written by the band which started out innocent enough when Mick came up with the initial lyrics. John took the song in a more serious direction using a prominent Australian politician as inspiration for the final two verses. Little Man has become a political anthem about the current state of Australian politics.
Twisted
This song is about a frustrated crossdressing office worker. Given that all five band members work in the same office, this begs the question – who wrote it? Well it started with a riff that Paul came up with and quickly developed into a song without lyrics.
Mick came up with the idea of the bloke who dresses up in women’s clothes on the weekend and wrote the chorus and then John stepped in and wrote the verses. For the record, none of the band members actually admit to stepping out in high heels on the weekends (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Old Dog
Old Dog is the other track which came from a concerted effort to write a blues song. Having bought a new guitar, Paul sat down to see if it had any riffs in it and this one came out. The lyrics are about being in a long term relationship and having a partner think they can change who you are.
Run & Hide
This was the first song we wrote, born out of a jam at band rehearsal. Jayd started playing a chord progression, Paul was having pickup issues and absent-mindedly playing with his effects which brought in the staccato riff and delay, the rest of the band joined in and Mick started singing some random lyrics.
Fortunately Mick brought the Run & Hide lyrics along to rehearsal the following week otherwise the song title could have been ‘Johnny’s Got The Whooping Cough’. Everyone in the band was surprised at how easily this song had come together which inspired them to keep writing more original songs.
Last Days of May is out now.
