Interview with Midnight Alleys: ‘Sick Clown’ is about pulling yourself out of a place of struggle’

Dundee-based psychedelic rock band Midnight Alleys are working on a new single about mental health, which may come out later this month, with their debut album expected to drop in the first half of 2021.

The band comprises Neil Morrison (lead vocals/guitar), Matthew Kermally (lead guitar), George Mackenzie (bass), Fabio Whyte (keys/vocals) and Ben Connelly (drums).

‘We’re working on a new single at the moment,’ Morrison said. ‘It doesn’t have a name yet but it’s about mental health. It’s similar to ‘Sick Clown’ but poppier. We’ve recorded some of it but we have to go into the studio one by one.’

Sick Clown’ was released last November and Morrison describes it as being about ‘pulling yourself out of a place of struggle and the approach to self-discovery in a fast paced and increasingly demanding world with a conclusion that says doing what you can is okay’. I assumed it was a lockdown song but it turns out that they wrote it beforehand. ‘We played it live the week before lockdown,’ he said. ‘I wrote the chords and lyrics and the others brought their parts to it. The lyrics weren’t written in one piece. We’ve got some references in there to writers like Emily Dickinson and Jack Kerouac, so the ‘Are you nobody, too?’ line in ‘Sick Clown’ comes from her poem ‘I’m Nobody! Who are you?’. The other line ‘tonight the starts will be out’ comes from Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road.’

The internal struggle comes across in the lyrics: ‘You only feel half right even in your right mind but you’re doing your best. I guess it’s sink or swim, that’s if you do anything.’

Next year, they will release a 12-15 track album, according to Morrison, will will include ‘Sick Clown’ and ‘So It Goes’, which they also released as a single last year. ‘We don’t have a release date yet but it’ll be in the first half of the year,’ he goes.

Morrison describes ‘So It Goes’ as ‘a stream of consciousness, about going through a hard time but it’s happier by the end’. As the song goes: ‘Go take a trip for me and I’ll follow the line, I’ve seen this through a thousand times. 
So you ask where I’m going, only backwards fast. Take a backseat to nowhere, you know it gets hard sometimes.’

Their psychedelic rock/indie sound has drawn a following since they got together three years ago, with radio support from Steve Lamacq (BBC Radio 6), Gary Crowley (BBC London), John Kennedy (RadioX) and Jim Gellatly (Amazing Radio). The band have played headline gigs in Glasgow, Dundee and Manchester and have also supported The Wedding Present, Matt Hollywood & the Bad Feelings (Ex The Brian Jonestown Massacre).

He is a big fan of Scottish rock band Del Amitri, glam-rock band Lucia & The Best Boys and local indie rock band, The Medinas. He cites The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground as big influences. ‘My dad plays guitar, I learned from him, although now it’s me teaching him,’ he laughed. ‘It’s nice to jam with him sometimes.’