The Midnight Devils On Bringing The Party Back To Rock N Roll

Interview by: Mark Lacey

When Sam ‘Spade’ Morris met Chris ’Sniper’ Hineline through the band ‘3D in your face’, Nebraska’s answer to KISS was born; a musical partnership built on the founding vision of bringing the fun and the party spirit back to rock n roll. The addition of former Pretty Boy Floyd drummer, Jimmy ‘Mess’, to The Midnight Devils’ cemented a line-up that brings a match of energy and showmanship, with tongue-in-cheek lyrics that are centred on real life experiences. Now, with three albums under their belt, and having just completed their third successive yearly visit to the UK, the band are firmly established as one of the most exciting live acts to emerge on the glam party rock scene.

MyGlobalMind.com talks to Sam ’Spade’ Morris.

MGM: You’ve just completed a monumental UK tour, that saw you play up and down the country supporting Kickin’ Valentina. You also played a high energy set at HRH Sleaze in Leicester.

Sam: We had a blast. Our first HRH Sleaze and our first London show! I love those KV guys, but my job and my whole entire goal, if we get put on as an opening act, is to make the headliner give their money’s worth; make them go, oh man, I’ve got to follow this band.

MGM: Many people will have seen Midnight Devils on this tour for the first time. How would you describe yourselves to someone coming to your music for the first time?

Sam: It’s really simple. We’re a party rock n roll band. We’re a glam rock band, but we are a party at heart. The key to what we do, is that we are a fun band, a positive band, very uplifting, and it’s very creative friendly. It’s freedom to everybody, to every person, no matter what music you’re into or what your walk of life is. Everybody likes that good time, and that’s really what we do.

MGM: The three of you are larger than life onstage.

Sam: It’s something that we’ve worked on, just by the sheer amount of shows that we’ve done, opening for bands. We’ve done so many opening tours where we play with these big headlining acts, and it’s like, what are we going to do to grab the attention. We’re not a hair metal band, but we love those bands and those ’80s style influences, those big bands from the ’70s, those glam rock bands that put on great shows. We steal a lot of that from those guys, and I don’t think there’s a whole lot of new bands that do that.

MGM: Music has become very safe for a lot of people, and so it’s refreshing to see the fun being brought back to it. Before Midnight Devils, you were in a band called 3D In Your Face, and you had an album called Midnight Devils which featured you and Chris ‘Sniper’. Was that where it all started?

Sam: Absolutely. It was a long story. 3D In Your Face was a band that I joined as a road manager when I was 20. I worked with that band all the way up until I got bumped up as the bass player. We started writing songs, and ‘Midnight Devils’ was the first album that I had written with 3D In Your Face. Chris ‘Sniper’ and I wrote that album together, and we thought, Midnight Devils was such a great idea, the concept of everybody changes when the sun starts to go down. It’s that feeling on a Friday night, like something’s going to happen. I thought, that’s such a great idea. Sniper and I took it out as just a two-man acoustic group. We travelled around the Midwest just playing acoustic songs, but with full makeup, and full hair. It was brutal, man. It was tough. People did not like it at all. And we were like, we’ve got to get a drummer. We got a drummer from Nebraska that sat in with us. We booked our very first tour, and halfway through the tour, the drummer disappeared. It’s like Spinal Tap stuff. You can’t even make it up. He was on stage, he walked off stage, and was no longer on the tour. We’re like, what are we going to do? We have this giant show, and so we called up Jimmy. He said, I’d love to do the tour. Just come and pick me up in Chicago. We drove from Omaha to Chicago, which is a 14 hour round trip, and got back in the bus and finished the tour. We were like, this feels right. Let’s do this, but on our own terms, and really start pushing our own material. That’s how we got that idea.

MGM: Did you know Chris ‘Sniper’ from a previous life, or was 3D In Your face where you first met each other?

Sam: It was 3D In Your Face. He got in that band because one day the guitar player never showed up. They called up Sniper, and they go, do you wanna come play the show? He rolls in, having never played any of the songs. I was his guitar tech, and we immediately became best friends. It’s been 15 years now of us writing and playing and touring the world together.

MGM: And what about Jimmy? He was in Pretty Boy Floyd at one point. How long have you known him?

Sam: I’ve known him for close to 10 years, too. There’s this big festival in the States called Rocklahoma. It brings thousands of people. While our band, 3D In Your Face, was playing, Jimmy’s other band, Prophets of Addiction, were playing, and we ran into each other. Jimmy was the guy that came up onto our bus smoking a joint and just wanted to hang out. I’m like, this guy seems really cool. I think I’m going to get along with him really well. Lo and behold, Sniper hated him …. “Get off my bus”. But we ended up putting this thing together, and now we’re inseparable like the Three Amigos.

MGM: What’s the music scene like in Nebraska? It’s not widely known for its musicians, other than maybe Buddy Miles, or Eric Turner from Warrant.

Sam: Nebraska is a cool place because it’s in between two major cities, Chicago and Denver. So, as tour routing goes, a lot of bands come through Nebraska, and it’s known as one of those cities that bands will always tour through. It’s cultivated great punk rock. It’s cultivated a lot of underground stuff, and with the arts and the music. But it’s on an island of its own where bands don’t really break out. You play Nebraska, you play Iowa, you play the Midwest, but nobody really ever goes anywhere else after that. My goal as a kid was to put a band together to travel the world and see those things that people wouldn’t have the opportunity to see. We were like, let’s go to LA, let’s go to New York, let’s start doing all these tours and do these cities, and it’ll start growing on its own.

MGM: For many of those early glam rock n roll bands, the perception had always been that if you wanted to break out, you had to be based in LA. Is that still the case?

Sam: I don’t think it’s like that anymore at all. Especially in this glam rock, metal rock n roll scene, there’s pockets all over the USA. And with the advent of the internet, I don’t know that LA is the place. LA has those big iconic venues, but at this point, you almost don’t even have to play LA anymore. There are so many other places that love rock n roll, and in LA you’ve got to work for it really hard. We’ve played there a few times; we’ve done the Whiskey. It’s cool. But let’s go to those pockets where people are going to love this even more.

MGM: When you were originally putting the Midnight Devils together, what did you aspire for it to be?

Sam: We wanted to write great songs with big hooks and play the music that we love, which between the three of us is a melting pot of great artists. Sniper brings that guitar-heavy, virtuoso style Eddie Van Halen; those great rhythms, and those great leads. I love Kiss, and I love punk rock, and I love those great glam rock bands, so I really wanted that mix. But I also love Elvis. So, I wanted to mix all those together into this guitar-driven rock n roll. Jimmy loves the Ramones and loves that style of trash and thrash. Mix all of those together, and we’re onto something that not a whole lot of people are doing. I thought it was really cool that we could put this together and throw back to our heroes, to the ’80s, to the ’70s, but still keep it super modern and super relevant today.

MGM: On stage, you all adopt different characters. Your own personal style is a mix of Paul Stanley and Ziggy Stardust. And you all use stage names; Sam ‘Spade’. Chris ‘Sniper’ and Jimmy ‘Mess’. Where do those names originate from?

Sam: Every good stripper has a great stripper name and an even better story to go with it. When I first joined ‘3D’, they gave me that name, Sam ‘Spade’, from the Maltese Falcon, the old detective. I thought, that’s pretty cool. I’m not going to get any better than that. It’s perfect. It fits. Motorhead, Ace of Spades. Chris was a sniper in the army, and served in Afghanistan, and Iraq. Jimmy was also an army veteran, and he is the mess, like the rock n roll space alien, who’s come to life, touched down and graced us with his presence on Earth.

MGM: Glam sleaze rock was a big deal in the 80’s, but it became something of a cliché. Steel Panther have managed to capture that, and turned it more into a comedy entertainment show. How do you keep the Midnight Devils on the right side of the line, so it remains a cool show, but without becoming a stereotype.

Sam: You’re right on the point. Whilst I love Steel Panther, we know that it’s a comedy routine. I think it’s a great comedy routine, and it does big business. The difference that we have is that ours is all real, and all of the stuff that we talk about is real. There are real stories that have happened to us. The songs, as ridiculous as they are, the lyrics are all true. When we get up there, nothing’s rehearsed. I plan my shows, but nothing’s rehearsed. We don’t have a setlist. Everything’s flying off the cuff. There’s no tracks. We’re riding the line where this could fail or this could succeed with a flip of a coin. It doesn’t really matter. We’re riding the danger, and unpredictability of a great rock and roll band, and it puts you right in that spot. We want to have fun. I think people in the crowd want to have fun. People want to listen to great rock n roll, and have a blast. So, if we’re having a blast, I’m going to talk to the crowd and make sure that they’re having a blast, too.

MGM: It’s interesting that you don’t have a setlist onstage. Do you make it up as you go along and follow the vibe of the crowd? During your recent tour, your set has focussed predominantly around your earlier album, and you’ve only really played ‘Get Laid’ from your most recent album. Is that right?

Sam: Well, we have a spot in the set where I can switch. We’ve played three different songs off the new record. We played ‘Get Laid’, ‘Left Leanin’, and ‘Shock the World’, and we’re working in the title track right now, ‘So Hard It hurt’s. When you’re the opening band, you only get 45 minutes, so we’re running into that problem of what songs do you throw in? We know these are going to work, but we’ve got to play new songs off the new album. You’re weaving in and out and still figuring these songs out live. It’s a cool thing, and I love watching it unfold, playing sound checks with these songs we never played before, and then two weeks later, it’s ready to go and we can put in the setlist whenever we want to.

MGM: This recent tour is the longest run of dates you’ve done in the UK. This is now three years in a row for you. Why do you think you’ve resonated so well with UK fans?

Sam: I think the UK appreciates great rock n roll. As much as I love touring in the US, it’s difficult here because of the distances and the climate. When we go to the UK, the people that come out to the shows are like diehards, and it’s part of their life and it’s part of what they love. They come out and they know the songs. They just love great rock n roll music. It’s really that simple. We just keep coming back and meeting more people and just inviting more people into this crazy Midnight Devil’s family. We can come hang out with our friends in the UK and have these big parties. It’s that cultural love. We’re going to make it a goal to be back every year.

MGM: Chris from Kickin Valentina recently spoke to MyGlobalMind.com, and he said that the UK and Europe is where sleaze rock is currently at. Have you ventured further afield into Europe?

Sam: We’ve done Spain, we’ve done Italy, we’ve done Belgium and the Netherlands. Earlier this year, we did Australia and Japan. We’ve done a lot of shows in a lot of countries, and we’re getting to that really cool point, another milestone, where we’re planning our years out in advance. There are the places we want to hit, and the best way to promote an album is to be on the road playing shows.

MGM: You’re back home now after a long time away. What are your plans for the next few months and into 2025?

Sam: We haven’t been home since the album was released, so we really have a lot to catch up on. We’re going to do a vinyl release. We’re probably going to do another music video, hopefully before the year is over. Next year, we’re going to tour the US, we’re going to tour Europe, we’re going to tour Australia, Japan, and come back to the UK. It’s really that simple. Let’s just make this the best year we can to support this album. I think this album could turn out three or four singles; all the songs are just stellar on it. I don’t know why we couldn’t just shoot music videos for every one of the single songs on the record. I love doing that. I think it’s one of the most fun things ever, creating those ideas and those videos. It’s an art form in itself. But overall, we’re just going to keep pushing the pedal down on this new album and playing as many shows as possible.