Brooklyn-based ’80s funk act Rush Midnight invades Soda Bar
By Logan Broyles | SDUN Reporter
With a style reminiscent of M83 or Passion Pit, Brooklyn-based musician Russ Manning has a very funky and disco-inspired sound for his solo project, Rush Midnight.
Manning will be hitting up the Soda Bar on Tuesday, Aug. 6 as Rush Midnight, with Manning handling vocals and playing all instruments in the studio during recording sessions. A rotating cast of drummers will accompany him during the live shows.
“I would call it ‘80s funk or R&B, with a lot of bass and guitar,” Manning said. “Definitely a lot of dance music, but the newer stuff is a little darker so it’s a kind of tragic disco.”
Manning went to school for jazz when he was younger, and then played in a bunch of different acts in New York City before settling on Twin Shadow, an alt-rock band that he played bass in for several years before striking out on his own.
“I was influenced by a lot of my dad’s old funk records: The Police, the Bee Gees [and] a lot of old New York funk,” he said. “So I took stuff like that and kind of put my own new spin on it while staying true to those roots. At its core it’s music that makes people want to dance.”
During his travels across Europe, Australia and Brazil while playing with fellow Twin Shadow band mate George Lewis Jr., Manning began percolating the ideas and sounds that would eventually become Rush Midnight.
“Over a couple years I started working on this stuff as demos while I was on the road with Twin Shadow, and eventually it just seemed like time to push it and go ahead with this solo stuff,” Manning said.
“I got more comfortable singing and playing all of the instruments myself, and once I started passing those demos around, my friends all kept encouraging me to put it out so eventually I found a label and made an EP.”
Clearly there are no hard feelings between Manning and Lewis after the former decided to go solo, since Lewis helped produce two of the tracks on the EP and may have some involvement with future recordings.
Rush Midnight released the debut EP “+1” in October 2012, and has a longer release due out in the next few months.
“We’re aiming for January to put out a full-length album. The album’s pretty much all done now, but there’s a lot of narrowing down that needs to happen with the album artwork and distribution and press for it,” Manning said.
He said after releasing the album, he hopes to tour more, “play some great shows and shoot some videos” for potential release.
“Right now everything we’re doing is really about tapping into more audiences,” he said.
Manning came up with the name Rush Midnight as something of a play on words with his first and last name.
“The name is kind of an alter ego for me,” he said. “I was kind of into the super hero allusion and style that it made me think of, so it really fits me.”
After starting out playing in more traditional rock bands, Manning says that the overall theme of this music is very different from what he’s done in the past.
“There’s a lot of romance and adventure and a little bit of mystery to it. I kind of apply that theme to every song so that kind of ties it all together,” he said. “There’s definitely more of a focus on bass and vocals. I’m hoping that it stays really simple; Those are the two necessary upfront elements and I don’t really want to do too much on top of it.”
Manning said he is excited for Rush Midnight’s first show in San Diego after having played at The Casbah while touring with Twin Shadow. For him, the live shows bring more edge than the type of music you will find recorded online.
“The live shows are a bit more raw than the recordings because there’s a live bass and a live drummer,” he said. “It’s a bit more abrasive but still relaxed at the same time. A lot of people like it more than the recordings.”
Psychic Rites and Blacktop Royalty open for Rush Midnight on Tuesday, Aug. 6. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. and tickets are $7. Soda Bar is located at 3615 El Cajon Blvd. For more information visit sodabarmusic.com or call 619-255-7224.
