The Midway State

When Nathan Ferraro turned 18 and left his family home in the small town of Collingwood Ontario where he had been raised with his 7 younger brothers and sisters to move into a one bedroom appartment in downtown Toronto with his childhood friend Daenen Bramberger and their band, he did it with nothing more than a hope and a dream, yet never for a second did he worry that his efforts would be in vain. Having written his first song at the age of 13 and with over 400 songs in the bank at that time, Nathan never had any doubt what he was going to do in life.

With lots of hard work, blind determination and a little luck it didn’t take long before things started to happen for The Midway State. Shortly after settling in to their new home in Toronto the band quickly began to make inroads. They managed to scrape together enough money to record a few songs with an up and coming local producer and armed with that The Midway State naively went about trying to book their own cross-Canada tour without the benefit of an agent, a label or even a manager - hoping simply to sell enough tshirts and burned copies of their CD along the way that they could afford the gas money they would need to get home. Against all odds however, they did it – not once but twice!

Their endevours attracted the attention of a prominent local independent record label that promptly offered them a modest deal, but the band had their sights set on bigger things and after much debate they reluctantly made the decision to turn down the offer and hold out for something more substantial. A few months later when nothing new had materialized Midway started to wonder if perhpas they had made a mistake. Any doubts they may have had quickly subsided when a copy of their CD landed in the hands of Gavin Brown, the Juno award producer of multi-platinum artists such as Billy Talent, Three Days Grace and The Tea Party. Gavin called the band up one evening and after admitting to haven driven around for hours replaying his favorite parts from the demo decreed that he had to be involved in the project. They began workign together immediately to refine and capture the band’s obviously unique yet immediately accessible sound with influences ranging from Peter Gabriel to Coldplay and comparisons being drawn to bands like Five For Fighting, Ben Folds Five and The Fray.

Over the course of the following year as things started to take shape Nathan and Daenen began to appreciate the scope of what they were setting out to accomplish and the need to reinforce the band’s live performance made itself felt. To complete the line-up they set out to enlist the very best musicians they could find and after scouring the eastern seaboard from the Berkeley School of Music to the University of Toronto's heralded jazz program and auditionning numerous contenders finally decided upon the very talented Tyler Armes (bass), Michael Wise (guitar) and Matt Stevens (guitar) to round out the band.

It's obvious there's something compelling and special about this band. With their own signature style The Midway State has managed to bring familiarity to a genuinely fresh sound and make it look easy. But don’t listen to us, you be the judge. The Midway State will release their debut eponymous EP (mixed by Randy Staub - Avril Lavigne, Metallica, Our Lady Peace) in Canada on September 12th. Look for Sum41 drummer Steve Jocz’s (aka Stevo) directorial debut for the music video to Midway State’s lead off single “Change for You” on air this fall.

The Midway State is signed to the newly formed Remedy Music, a joint venture between producer Gavin Brown and Equator Music. Equator Music is a partnership between Françoise de Grandpre and former Donald K Donald president Mathieu Drouin which operates as a record label, music publisher and artist management firm with interests in several prominent Canadian music companies including The Donald K Donald Entertainment Group: Aquarius Records (Sum41, Danko Jones), Last Gang Records (Metric, Death From Above, MSTRKRFT), Arts & Crafts International (Stars) and more.