Midnight Red Talk “Take Me Home”, Boy Bands And Working With RedOne: The Idolator Q&A

Midnight Red is the hottest new boy band on the scene. One listen to their brilliant RedOne-produced party anthem “Take Me Home” is all you need to know that One Direction and The Wanted have new competition. We caught up with Thomas Augusto (the well-coiffed hunk on the left) to talk about their new single, its lake house-themed video and the joys of working with arguably the most successful producer in pop music. Read all about it after the jump.

Midnight Red has actually been around for a couple of years before releasing “Take It Home”. Can you talk about those early days? Essentially Midnight Red came together organically and a lot of the prior music we put out like “Hell Yeah” or “One Club At A Time” was really the beginning of our recording process. We were still going through a period of incubation and artistic growth and figuring out who we are.

You know, we were just thrown into the lion’s den with The New Kids On The Block tour. Prior to that first show we had done maybe a block party with 60 people and then our next show is 12,000 people, Mandalay Bay sold-out — so we really just had to roll with the punches and grow as we went.

How did you know that “Take Me Home” would be the song that would really launch you? It was just one of those magical moments. We were in the studio with RedOne and we had heard “Take Me Home” in the studio and we were just like ‘yeah’. It was kind of a grower, it was a great song first listen and it was somewhere around the second time we were like ‘oh let’s hear it again’. It was just magical, we just kind of knew, especially when the chorus kicks back in, there’s just something really anthemic about it and very great, it was easily our favorite song.

You also have a tie-in with Coca Cola? Yeah the Coca Cola promotion is amazing. They selected “Take Me Home” for their song for the summer campaign. It had been submitted and we were chosen and it kind of happened out of nowhere, suddenly we got this news, like alright this is the deal. We were just like oh my god! it’s a big deal, it’s Coca Cola. We’re super excited about it.

With that added push, do you have expectations that the song is going to be really big? That’s a tricky question, I don’t know. I mean I have all kinds of expectations and no expectations, I have faith in the song and I really do expect people to like it. I really hope people like it. It’s difficult to say, to pinpoint where my expectations lay.

Obviously Coca Cola is helping with the exposure because we released the audio for “Take Me Home” a couple weeks ago and some of the feedback was “oh, heard this at the movies during the Coca Cola commercial and I was hunting down the song and I found it” — so definitely reaching a new set of ears with the Coca Cola thing.

Do you think the success of bands like One Direction and The Wanted have helped your cause or harmed it? No, I think it’s totally helped our cause. I think it’s very evident now that the boy band is back and what’s cool about us is that we offer something a bit different from The Wanted or One Direction so that there’s a different flavor out there from what’s available.

What is that point of difference? I really believe that a big difference is we dance, that’s really a big one. Our performance element is pretty strong. So we’re a bit more in the vein of ‘N Sync with but our own take on it. We grew up in that era so we’re very influenced by them. Musically it’s a bit different as well and we were organically put together so we just have this funky chemistry, we’ve known each other for a while and we just all are like brothers, you know?

What kind of music are you listening to right now? There’s so much music out there it’s crazy. No Doubt has always been a really big influence on me since I was a kid. I don’t know that’s actually pretty hard. Believe it or not we’ve been working so much lately and I’m rehearsing so much and promoting “Take Me Home” that I feel like “Take Me Home” is just about the only record that’s been on my mind for the past few weeks to be honest with you.

Fair enough! What’s it like to work with RedOne in the studio? He’s had so many huge hits with amazing people. It’s amazing. It’s an amazing experience to work with RedOne. He has just become like family to us. He’s a kind of a mentor and he’s the executive producer of the album.

He did every song? Every song, yes, every song. It’s very humbling to be in the studio with him because you’re sitting in the room with someone with so many accolades and someone so mentally talented and he’s such a humble guy and he’s just a great guy and he treats us like family and he is so passionate about Midnight Red and the entire project and the sound. He’s always believed in us since day one which is so inspiring.

And it’s inspiring to work with him because his creative juices are flowing and he’s just a genius. When we’re sitting there recording we become better studio vocalists. He’s so picky on takes and what he brings out of you so I think we’ve grown too as singers by working with him.

Do you have any other collaborations on the album? As of yet, no. There is one song we recently recorded that we were in the studio with Red and we did want to get a name on the record but I can’t disclose that and I’m not sure what the status is on that. But potentially there could be a really great feature on a really, really great song on the record but as of now it’s just Midnight Red and you’re going to get to hear a lot of us.

Last but not least, what can we expect from the video? I’m so excited about the video. We just wrapped it up a few days ago. It’s a fun video. It’s very fun, summery sort of video. It takes place at a lake so it’s kind of like a ‘good time at the lake house’. It was just so much fun to shoot, so you can expect that and expect some new choreography in there. It’s shot very clean, so it’s going to be awesome.

You can download “Take It Home” from iTunes now. Let us know in the comments if you’ll be partying to Midnight Red’s new track in the comments.