With so much new music floating around the interwebs, sometimes it’s hard to dig a little deeper and find out more about a promising artist.

That’s why The Profile is breaking it down for you. The Pitch takes care of the nitty gritty factual bits, The Plot serves as a Q & A with the artist, and The Plug is where you can go for more. 

The Pitch

The Middle Names is Ben (who we chatted with for this profile), Nicko, Ali, Ryan and Jordy – a couple of bar tenders, a florist, a plumber and a tattoo artist. We all met playing music around the Hobart scene and somehow ended up all together in The Middle Names. We have recently released our debut album I Need Space. We are all from Tasmania, although Ali and Nicko have half New Zealander in them!

The cool thing about The Middle Names is that we were all brought up on all sorts of genres, which is often why the music we create changes up a bit. Jordy will tell you he’s a strictly punk man but I know for a fact he got his guitar signed by John Farnham as a young fella.

The Plot

Influences: A lot of singer songwriters when I was growing up. Cat Stevens, Van Morrison and more recently Darren Hanlon and Jonathan Richman. At the time of recording our album I was listening to a lot of Big Scary, Arcade Fire and The National.

First song you ever wrote: I would have been around 14. Had to write a song for music class so I stole one of Dad’s riffs and probably wrote something about how much I disliked teachers.

Favourite local act: 3 way tie.
The Phosphenes – Garage, grunge, psych, I once saw them play a show dressed as chicks.
Enola Fall – I grew up listening to this band, every record they put out is great.
Lincoln Le Fevre – His latest record ‘Resonation’ is one of my favorites of all time.

Favorite local venue: The Poobah – always a loose night, you could read the graffiti in the toilets for hours.

Dream Collaboration: James Murphy in terms of doing a record. I really love that grinding electro but it’s real and it’s lyrically awesome. I imagine it would be a fun time working with him.

Dream rider: Bottle of Sailor Jerry and a heap of dry and lime. Ciggies. Someone throwing down free back rubs wouldn’t go astray either!

Best gig you’ve been to: The Roots at 2013’s Falls Festival was pretty amazing. Those guys are so tight it’s unbelievable. They didn’t stop playing for an hour and a half.

Festival would like to play: Big Day Out tour. Looks like sick fun.

The Plug

We have released our new album I Need Space via Reuban Records, and touring the latest single from it ‘Remember Me At All’. The guys will also be playing in Melbourne this Saturday the 28th at The Penny Black, for more info check out the band’s Facebook event.

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