James Cooke of Midnight Graffiti entertaining the crowds. Ciara Jones Photography
YOU MAY have noticed that it’s been all quiet on the ‘midnight’ front over the past number of months.
Indeed, on Saturday past, Fermanagh’s most popular brass-influenced rock ‘n’ roll band rolled in to Blake’s of the Hollow to play their first gig since the turn of the year.
And, ‘MusicFocus’ caught up with trumpet player, and singer of Midnight Graffiti, James, to find out just what’s cooking for the band over the next few months.
“It’s a big year for the band, David’s getting married this year, so we decided for the first half of the year we’d take it easy and give him time to enjoy the build-up to his wedding,” said James.
The band members include: James Cooke on vocals and trumpet, David Fawcett on vocals and guitar. They’re joined by Richard Johnston on keyboard, and Trombone, with Adam Cooke on bass and vocals, and Stephen Crooks on drums.
Back in 2011, the band released their debut EP, ‘Be Your Own Hero’ which contained seven tracks.
“We learned plenty from that release. We definitely think our writing has stepped up because of it,” said James.
“We’ve written some songs since within the band and we do feel that they’re stronger than what we put on the original album.
“We think that we’ve written good songs in the past, but we always think that we can improve and be a better band.”
And the songs from that album still feature on the band’s live set.
“We do play them, people ask for them – and people keep saying that they still listen to the album and it’s great that people are saying that.”
And while another EP or album release may not be in the immediate pipeline, a new song could be on the horizon sooner than you’d think.
“We discussed last year that we’d start writing some more, but we’ve held things a bit. We have written a – what would you call – ‘corny’ song. We decided that we’re going to release it pretty soon. It’ll be released virally over the Internet through the Facebook page.
James went on: “It’s just a bit of a dedication song to the Fermanagh people and the people who come down to the gigs. We tried to make it fun, it’s not meant to be taken seriously.”
And with wedding commitments and such, and it may be a little bit yet before the band get back into the swing of things, the hunger is still there.
“Our first gig back will be in July,” said James, “and we hope to go really at it in the summer.”
“We’ll hopefully feature more and more throughout Enniskillen towards the latter months of the year,” he added.
