CURRENT SINGLE: “Sunrise Tells the Story”
The members of Midland are all great songwriters who have a hand in writing virtually every song they record. They often write way more songs than they’ll ever need, but the process of deciding which ones to record and put on their albums is guided by some great advice they once received from legendary songwriter Dean Dillon when they had the privilege of writing with him. “For all you people that don’t know who Dean Dillon is, he’s written a Lord’s share of George Strait’s hits and he’s just an absolutely incredible character,” says lead singer Mark Wystrach. “And also, he used to play with Gary Stewart. And Dean said, ‘Welp, boys. Whatever we’re writin’ and whatever you decide to record, just make sure you’re ready to play it for the next 35 damn years. And I think that’s, for us, a really big deal. The songs have to resonate.”
Just because Midland writes a lot of songs doesn’t mean they’re all great. Mark admits, “We’ve written a bunch of real pieces of sh(bleeped out)it.” But he says, “It happens. You’re exploring, and then when you hit that song there’s not words to describe it. Just the three of us go, ‘Yep.’ And we know that this is the kind of song that we’re gonna wanna play soulfully and with spirit for all of our audiences.”
One such song is Midland’s latest single, “Sunrise Tells the Story,” which was co-written by lead guitarist Jess Carson, with Aaron Raitiere and Jessi Alexander.
Midland – write songs play for life :39
Mark Wystrach – “Our buddy Dean Dillon said this to us when we had the great privilege of getting to write with him – for all you people that don’t know who Dean Dillon is, he’s written a Lord’s share of George Strait’s hits and he’s just an absolutely incredible character. And also, he used to play with Gary Stewart. And Dean said, ‘Welp, boys. Whatever we’re writin’ and whatever you decide to record, just make sure you’re ready to play it for the next 35 damn years. And I think that’s, for us, a really big deal. The songs have to resonate. We’ve written a bunch of real pieces of sh(bleeped out)it. It happens. You’re exploring, and then when you hit that song there’s not words to describe it. Just the three of us go, yep. And we know that this is the kind of song that we’re gonna wanna play soulfully and with spirit for all of our audiences.”