Midfield Workhorse are one of those bands that seem to have sprung up from nowhere and now have everyone talking about them. But when you realise the band is basically a super-group –four-piece formed of mistakes.in.animation and Tellison members, it’s easy to understand why they have so much hype surrounding them before they’ve even played a show. I spoke to Del Noble, front man and creator of the band, about their past, present and future.
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Hey Del! A lot of people already seem pretty excited to hear Midfield Workhorse and see them in action – but you haven’t played any gigs or even released any demos. I think this is also your first interview as well! How have you managed to create so much excitement with so little effort?
I think some of it has passed over by association – Dave (our drummer) and I used to play in a band called mistakes.in.animation who split up 2 years ago and I feel like we have some unfinished business, plus Andy (our other guitarist) plays bass in Tellison. We’ve also managed to get onto some pretty sweet bills for our first couple of shows – so there’s possibly that collective excitement when you see a cool headliner and maybe the prospect of the opening band being new and worth checking out.
Your first show as Midfield Workhorse is in the Lexington supporting Jetplane Landing. Did it come as a shock to you knowing that you would be opening for such an influential band?
Yeah, total shock actually. When the tour was announced we reckoned we could maybe jump on the London bill, definitely a case of knowing the right people, etc. After some discussion we dismissed it as something we couldn’t do for various reasons… then the promoter emailed, offering us the opening slot and Dave had to re-arrange his life (he’s coming straight down to London after a wedding in Manchester that day) but it’s happening, we’re all huge fans of the band and we are STOKED. Aside from JPL, I personally am looking forward to the other supports (Mayors Of Miyazaki, I’m told) and seeing a lot of old friends from shows in the early 00s. Although it was a shock, it definitely feels like the sort of show we should be playing.
Midfield Workhorse is an… interesting name. What made you choose it and are the other members keen on it?
As a long-time fan of most ball-orientated sport I have mostly favoured the hard-working individuals in a team rather than those with flair. I think this also reflects in other areas of my life, I have most admiration of people who work hard to achieve their goals – be it in a musical sense, a business sense or whatever. Midfield Workhorse is a name I’d toyed with for a while, it’s an embodiment of that hard-working ethos… I think one day I just decided with Dave that it was going to be the name of the band, then Andy and Rick joined afterwards so they didn’t really have a say in the matter. Plus, I’m kinda looking forward to people just talking to me about football after all our gigs.
Your band is a bit of a super-group! How did you get such a group of people together and was there any problems or ‘artistic differences’ that arose?
“Super group” is being VERY kind to us. MIA hardly set the world on fire, though I am pretty proud of the EP we released. Dave and Andy played in a band together when they were at college (called Disarm, also featuring Rhys out of Good Shoes), so it seemed like a bit of a no-brainer to get him involved, he actually jammed with us a few times in the MIA days. In Rick’s case, I met him through mutual friends then realised we’d probably been in the same room at a million different points over the past 10 years and never been introduced. He’s been an excellent final piece in the puzzle.
As I mentioned before, you guys haven’t yet released any music publicly but will there be any recordings available any time soon?
I’d like to think so but these things always take much longer than expected. Hopefully we’ll be in a studio within the next couple of months to get some tracks properly recorded, and maybe an EP of some sort in the New Year. We have quite a sweet setup in our practice room so if we get some decent room recordings, I might just send them onto a bunch of people, give them license to spread the word and see what happens.
One last question! Do you have any guilty music pleasures that you’re just a little bit ashamed of?
It’s not well-documented, but Andy listens almost exclusively to Bhangra music in his spare time, whilst Rick’s favourite album is the Best of Belinda Carlisle. Dave has an alarming penchant for Kunt And The Gang and you’re most likely to find me blasting out Avicii, Swedish House Mafia or Conor Maynard in my car. I’m not even ashamed (and neither is Dave, probably).
Dave’s Guilty Love Pleasure
Where can you catch the band?
You can catch Midfield Workhorse on the following dates:
6th September @ The Lexington with Jetplane Landing
23rd September @ The Old Blue Last with Freeze the Atlantic
5th October @ The Fighting Cocks with Anison
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