Burn the Midnight Oil; New Devizes-Based Band You’ll Be Hearing a Lot About….

Far from burning the midnight oil, it’s a weekday afternoon and I’m with a cuppa, at a rehearsal for a blossoming Devizes-based trio, Burn the Midnight Oil. If you’ve ever thought nothing great comes from open mics, this might be the thing to change your mind….

It’s early days, forming in September, they’ve created a corporate identity, recorded a three-track demo they’re planning to launch, are busy writing more songs, and sound as if they’ve been on the local circuit forever. I wanted to catch up with Burn the Midnight Oil to find out how they’ve come so far so quickly, dig a little deeper into their backgrounds and generally poke my nose into their business.

First clue, they’ve varying areas and degrees of experience in music, but have found common ground through their medical issues. Front girl Chrissy, aka Steen, spoke of her PMDD, GAD and ADHD, and coming to faith during Covid at Devizes’ St James. “There was a day I was like, really, really sobbing my heart out, and praying,” she expressed, claiming she heard the “biggest, boomiest voice ever say ‘sing,’ and two weeks later I was having videocall with a huge hip hop artist who was part of Foreign Beggars, which were massive during the 90s and early noughties.” Landing a deal working for a record label Chrissy liaised with drum and bass producers, who asked her to “jump in on the tracks,” and she supplied vocals on tunes from artists like Beskar.

“It feels a bit serendipitous,” she said, “because I had no experience working as a social media manager, I had no business connecting with somebody who’s quite prestigious and I had no right to just jump on some tracks and with my first EP release going straight onto one of the biggest drum & bass labels in the UK.” To which she compared the unforeseen development to meeting the band members, Andy ‘Big Bird’ Jacobs and bassist Chris Lane.

Chrissy explained Chris has Marfan syndrome, “I’ve known Chris for a while, but he’s very introverted,” she elucidated, progressing onto finding a mutual neurodivergent connection and being a support system for each other. Chrissy formed a duo with a bassist called One Trick Pony, performed at a few open mics and organised charity fundraisers at the Southgate over the past two Christmases. When the bassist was unavailable due to other band commitments Chris stepped in, and they spawned the idea to reform the duo under a new name. Though not present at the beginning of our chat, Chris did turn up toward the end, either shy or forgetful as to just how many bands he’s currently engaged in!

Present and vocal throughout, lead guitarist Andy, told of a car accident which affected his nerves, and most of the dexterity in his fingers. Prior to this, Andy spoke of being a “very successful professional guitarist in London,” a session and theatrical guitar player, citing Shirley Bassey as an artist he had worked with.

“I could still play a bit,” he explained, “but my career was over, which was a bit of a downer.” Playing his part in an amateur blues band, Andy went into social care management, “but Covid triggered an illness in me called Barry Syndrome,” he told me, “Which completely paralysed me from my neck down overnight. I was in hospital for six months. My wife was told I probably wouldn’t last the night. On the two occasions I didn’t see her for six months because there was no access, I was told I’d never walk again.”

Andy put his recovery down to the bicycle in the gym, and though he didn’t imagine he would play guitar again, he expressed, “it was all a bit tragic and horrible, but slowly I got a little bit back and I started picking the guitar up again. After about six months, I came out of hospital. I just started playing again, just acoustic, and I that’s when I went up to The Crown [open mic at The Crown, Bishops Cannings] and I played a couple of pieces there.” Within those pieces, he asked Chrissy to sing them.

They trialled a drummer, “but he wasn’t the right fit and he knew he wasn’t,” Chrissy said. “So he very graciously said I’m going to walk away from this because I’m not the right drummer for you, which is a really nice thing to say. But I think we’re percussive enough with how we play.” Considering their medical tribulations they joked about getting the legendary one-armed drummer from Def Leppard. “You know, like one arm, one leg, not as long as they’re opposite sides of one another, one each side, that would be silly!”

Now, if music is therapeutic, I wanted to gage if that was their reasoning for the band, but burning the midnight oil isn’t best medically advised over a strong cup of coco and an early night! Chrissy explained the band name derived from her staying awake all night drafting the songwriting, rather than the notion they were rock, rolling, and burning the candle at both ends.

Chrissy passionately talked of being a survivor of domestic abuse. “If you’re a woman with ADHD, you’re more likely to attract people with narcissistic tendencies,” she explained, justifying her “horrible cycle” she’s trying to break, “of quite abusive relationships,” and how this is reflected in her songwriting. “There’s a lot of resilience and hope that comes from the songs. I’m on a journey of healing. I think we’re all on a journey of healing, and I’ve always used the music as a form of therapy. If I can get my experiences onto paper, it’s like I’m not affected by it.”

Andy agreed, spoke of his consistent neurological pain, “but when I’m playing it just goes. I don’t think about it. I’m just so intense in the music. I mean, it’s just my passion.” He began reminiscing of his instant attraction to guitar when, on his first day at secondary school, the music teacher putting a guitar in his hand, and that was his calling.  “I wanted to be a professional guitar player, and nothing would stop me.”

If this is all beginning to feel like I’m in a support group here, the proof is the pudding, and the three tracks they’ve put down so far suggests otherwise. With harmonica and wavering strings opening, Lock Up has a rootsy blues feel, Chrissy’s vocals poignantly express the theme of the arrival of mysterious and dubious fellow, expertly, and the whole vibe is nonchalant and smooth.

Scapegoat ushers in a more upbeat bluegrass air, with a deadpan subject, and Werewolf posing similar tenet, yet tips back into blues, and probably contains the most beguiling hook. Throughout though, there’s an intelligent balance between Americana and UK folk-rock, bags of potential, and the stylised promise of a blossoming band heading for something far greater.

In trying to think of a suitable female-fronted comparison, I changed to consider The Doors in the end, for the composition of three individuals with varying influences combining to create a timeless sound is how I’d pitch them both. On songwriting Chrissy connoted a song she was working on called Devil You Know, “because statistically you’re more likely, as a woman, to be raped by somebody you know,” she said. “It’s not about being dragged into the bushes, and that’s been my experience I’m really trying to connect with, those darker sides of life experiences, because life’s hard, it’s not any an easy ride for anyone.” Using a metaphor comparing a paper cut to a broken leg, Chrissy conveyed an expression she said she was fond of, that “pain is pain. I really want to connect with people of over-shared experiences like this, in the hopes that music could be healing.”

It’s the most common conviction of dedicated singer-songwriters to want your audience to identify with your outpourings, otherwise your voice is just an instrument, and you are just a pop singer. Though within the masses of potential for Burn the Midnight Oil I hear scope for commercial viability, it’s through their personal reflections and devotion to support one another which I feel will strengthen their ability to convey the image they desire. After a successful first gig last weekend at The Kings Arms in Amesbury, arranged by Wiltshire Music Events, Burn the Midnight Oil are looking forward to a fundraiser at the Devizes Southgate on Sunday 22nd December. See the poster below, there’s raffle prizes et al.

Chrissy has a solo set at the Lamb in Urchfont this afternoon (15^th Dec) supporting Vince Bell, the most modest of Devizes acoustic legends, who Chrissy cited as assisting her in developing her songwriting talent. Promising things are afoot here, and you’ll be chuffed with yourself to witness it blossoming, I believe.

“Seeing us as a brand and my understanding of working in the industry,” Chrissy figured, “is like, actually the music isn’t the product, we’re the product and I really want to share that journey, make it personal for everybody.”

With folk songs drafted about the origins of tiramisu, odes to Morticia and Gomez Addams, Steen justified her thought processes and random muses, the latter being an “epitome of a really healthy, loving relationship,” in a tenacious yet optimistic manner to direct her developing subjects didn’t all focus on “the bad things that happened to me.” Though I find it’s the ability to use such as metaphoric examples and include them into a combination which will really make the hairs on the back of our necks stand up, and they’ve the greatest potential to do this.

 I’m hoping one day I can write a happy song,” she mused, “but the style is, well, you know, you don’t choose the songs, the songs choose you.” And so ensued a conversation about the differences between the melancholy of Dylan and wild romantic images Springsteen tended to paint, for there’s always exceptions to the rule, they both broke their own style at times, but pictures, I think you’ve got this one now; Burn the Midnight Oil is a name we will be hearing a lot of over next year.

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