MIDGAR - Release New Single "Sunburn" On Year Of The Rat Records and Announce Album Release Details

After 8 years of pursuing a diverse career in the music industry, Andy Wilson - Taylor is once again at the helm of the cinematic rock band Midgar. A composer for TV and film by day, and session vocalist and songwriter by night, Wilson - Taylor has re-kindled his love with larger-than-life, symphonic rock music by creating a long-awaited new album, which pushes the boundaries of Midgar’s signature sound; classical piano and strings colliding head on with epic, modern rock. The new album - ‘Unity’ - was written, produced, mixed and mastered by Andy Wilson - Taylor at his own studio - Sector Seven Studios - during lockdown in 2020.

Midgar became the third band to join Year Of The Rat Records since the companies inception in July 2020, joining Lastelle and The Young Hearts on the labels roster. Previous singles ‘We Don’t Make The Rules’ and ‘Nemesis’ picked up a plethora of coverage with Kerrang Radio as ‘Featured Artist Of The Week’, RTE2XM, Alyx Plays Punk, Amazing Radio, DSCVR, BT TV, Moshville Times, Gig Radar, Crowd Salat, Hardbeat and Total Rock Radio, as well as landing official playlisting with Apple Music, Deezer and Pandora. Third single ‘Sunburn’ is an incredibly vulnerable yet uplifting song, and is complimented with a colourful and ethereal video. Along with the single release the band have also announced their album ‘Unity’ will be released on the 25th June 2021 and have a very limited run of tapes which you can pre order at the link below. The tapes also have a bonus track added to them called ‘Warrens’ which is exclusive to that formatted not available anywhere else.

Speaking about ‘Sunburn’, Andy Wilson Taylor says - “Sunburn is a song about vulnerability, and the idea that no matter how much you’ve been hurt before, the only way to move forward is to open yourself up to being hurt again. It’s about stepping out into the elements once more, as it’s better to see the sun - despite it burning your skin - rather than hiding away in the dark forever. It’s a song about personal growth, and changing the way your brain works so you can try to achieve more positive outcomes. Putting away the fear and doubt, pulling it together and making tough but necessary changes to get your life back on track. For a few years I was caught in a self destructive spiral, and ironically it was all down to me trying to defend myself from being hurt. I could have stayed that way forever, but it was meeting my wife and us both letting our walls down that changed everything for the better, for both of us. For the video, I really wanted to run with the idea of personal change and growth. To ask the question, “how can I make my brain behave differently this time?” I wondered if there was technology that could make that job easier, perhaps automatic. Although I didn’t find such a thing, I did consider how brainwashing techniques are used to change the way people think. I was inspired by the Ludovico Technique in A Clockwork Orange, and a scene from the movie The Island where people are subjected to repeated moving images, sounds and shapes to program their brains into believing certain things, or to believe they have memories of things that actually never happened. I wanted to set the music video almost ‘inside’ one of those machines; with moving images, as if they were designed perhaps to subliminally re-program my brain into a more positive state. I used a projector to cast images of my face back on to myself. It got me thinking about the version of ourselves that we project outwards vs who we really are on the inside. It was also an exercise in film making while working totally solo, from home, as we all know we can’t just go out and make music videos in the more conventional way at the moment. It’s one of the most honest songs I’ve ever written and I wanted to portray some of that vulnerability and sincerity in the video. There are almost no ‘happy’ songs in Midgar’s repertoire but this certainly is a happy song. It’s an unusual and perhaps uncomfortable place for me to be creatively (I’m much more au fait with the dramatic and melancholy), but as the song itself suggests, by putting ourselves out there into a more vulnerable position, we can achieve amazing things.”