New York Post – Feature
Heartbreak makes Airborne Toxic Event iTunes
Fave
By Larry GetlenDecember 21, 2008
Indie band the Airborne Toxic Event shocked the music industry when major LA radio stations began playing the song “Sometime Around Midnight,” which the band had hastily recorded and distributed via MP3. Now the song, which describes the heartbreak of running into an ex, has been named the top Alternative Song of 2008 by iTunes. We spoke to singer Mikel Jollett.
The iTunes thing is nice, but . . . “Music is three or four minutes of art where you tell a story and have a melody. The idea of ranking it the way you would the NBA is a little silly. But it was really flattering.”
Events depicted in “Sometime Around Midnight” are true. “That whole thing happened. That was a few months after we had broken up. I got up the next morning, shook off the hangover, and started writing. I didn’t leave the house for three days. I just walked around in my boxers with the acoustic guitar, working out the arrangements, and I emerged with it three days later.
“Your blood boiling, your stomach in ropes” is not a clinical diagnosis. “There’s not a lot of metaphor going on there. That’s just what the night was.”
Everybody hurts. “It’s a fairly universal thing. There are love songs and breakup songs, but not a lot of songs about anxiety and jealousy. I get people from 14-year-old girls to 50-year-old men going, ‘Man, that song got to me.’ ”
My success sandwich. “The next day [after radio stations started playing it], my phone started ringing at 9 a.m., and I didn’t get off the phone for three weeks. Every label, manager and p.r. person called. We were really, really broke, so we were just letting them take us to lunch. We’d ask if we could get an extra sandwich for the road, because my gas had been turned off for nine months at that point, and I had $12 in my bank account.”
8 Comments
I can assure you, that the days of having $12.00 in your account, are over. Your time has arrived.
Success in the Uk is just around the corner, I will be in the Cardiff Barfly on Sunday 01st Feb and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if your single will enter the charts at No.1 during that Gig. Everyone is talking about it.
It is the best song I have heard in a very long time, Thank-you
Heard the brilliant song that is sometime around midnight it really hit home with me, keep listening over and over again.
Your going to be massive over here in the UK!!
Good luck with everything hope you have great success!
When I first heard the Sometime Around Midnight on the radio It was LOVE at first listen! It has that 80’s vibe and emotion and I could swear I heard it before! The stations just kept play continuos music but so I never knew who the artist was, and it seemed that it played at the same time every day one my way home from work. I fell in LOVE with Mikel’s voice. For 2 weeks I tried to figure out who this was until this past Friday on my way home from Los Angeles when a local radio station announced a ATE gig. FINALLY the name of the song was revealed! I wrote it down and as soon as I got home I bought it from i-tunes along with the video!. Angst, Heartbreak,great lyrics and Mikel’s BEAUTIFUL voice (I have a thing for strong manly voices). You guys will go far if you keep this up *Stay strong in your band * and hopefully I will catch you at an L.A gig!!
L.A Fangirl
Cecy
This is the best band I have heard in a long time. I have never downloaded a whole album, but this album I did. My mom, who’s 61, loves the band too. She plays it at her bar all the time. Can’t wait for the next CD to come….Keep it going guys…..
Everybody hurts. “It’s a fairly universal thing. There are love songs and breakup songs, but not a lot of songs about anxiety and jealousy. I get people from 14-year-old girls to 50-year-old men going, ‘Man, that song got to me.’ ”
Got to me too. The Killers also have a great song about anxiety and jealousy, a little ditty called Mr. Brightside.
Anxiety + Jealousy = great songs!! 🙂
I was driving home when I first heard this song and honestly I started crying because it was so relatable to me. There aren’t many songs powerful enough like this to provoke such strong human emotion. I am in love with this song. Thank you Airborne Toxic Event.