Midnight Peg Are Chasing the Ultimate Connection on Skinning

Midnight Peg. Photo by Cecil Sykes (@beholdersrepository).

Three years after the release of their first record, Edmonton based post-hardcore band, Midnight Peg, return with their sophomore album, Skinning. 

“The songs on Skinning are quite similar to our first record because some of them are a bit old and were written in the same era. In terms of the kinds of riffs, composition, and the basic idea of where the energy and dynamics are, they’re similar, but vocally, it was a very huge advance,” Eric Neilson, the band’s guitarist said. 

Despite the songs being written some time ago, Nielsen said that the main idea is still there, the main instrumental changes are that they “really play up the poly rhythms and the weird count changes.” And, Neilson said that’s becoming a part of the band’s style. 

Rocky Mann, the band’s vox, describes the new record is a lot “moodier” than the last. 

The band has also welcomed a new member, Jasmine Molar on guitar, in early Winter of 2025. With a new writer in the band, Neilson said “it has opened [the writing process] way up. There’s a lot of new ideas in every direction.” 

Originally, Neilson wrote both guitar parts, with Mann playing as well. “I played at the beginning until a surgery, and then I discovered air and not being tied down to an instrument,” Mann said.

If you see Midnight Peg live, you’ll know Mann doesn’t shy away from jumping into the crowd and being a part of the energy.

“My favourite thing at a show is going up to someone, nose-to-nose, full yelling anger with someone, but it's like this ultimate connection. It’s amazing. And I always go up to them after the show and thank them for letting me come so close and having that moment with me … To share that moment of release with somebody that’s normally taboo, and you can both feel it, is the best. It’s like ultimate love,” Mann explained. 

Midnight Peg. Photo by Shannon Johnston (@me_onlylouder).

Neilson said “there’s a catharsis and an engagement with playing aggressive music. There are a lot of points in our set and on the album where there will be a very specific kind of punch you in the face moment, and when we do those parts live, and when I hear them on the album, there’s definitely a guttural enjoyment of it.” 

Neilson noted that there’s been a rise in the hardcore scene, wondering whether that’s in response to world events. “[While] we’re not really a hardcore band, we definitely aspire to deliver what people want out of that kind of music. 

Lyrically, the record tackles topics with dark humour, but in the lyric writing process, most of the focus is on matching to instrumentals. “Over the two years of writing the lyrics, it’s kind of been a really hard time. Not just personally, but in the world,” Mann said. “It’s a lot about aesthetic, tone, and what sounds and looks beautiful together, and the lyrics are last. Usually, on the way to a show, I’ll write what hits my brain and then I’ll spend months making sense out of that,” Mann explained. 

“It’s trying to find humour in this senselessness, and giving weight to that. In the title track, there’s a lot of war imagery, but really, it’s about what happens after. That isolation and frustration. There’s [also] some imagery of people dealing with trauma, maybe by creating more trauma themselves. It’s a little dark, but there’s some funny stuff in there too,” Mann said. 

For example, Mann said “there’s one line [in Politicaster] that touches on violence in a humorous way that goes ‘take a bat and hit your brother, what a twat, pull my hair I’ll tell your mother, what a cunt.’ At the end of the day, a lot of this arguing is just childish.”

One main thing that Mann likes to do in writing is looking for where opposites connect or overlap. “How can you understand someone who is horribly different than you? We’re all fantastic and shitty at the same time. You can have two truths at the same time,” Mann said. 

In looking for opposites overlapping, Mann employs juxtaposition. “In Cleavable Masses, the first part is talking about these two people sort of arguing, having really different perspectives like ‘you hate fascists,’ ‘I make a lot of money on plastic,’ and then it goes into talking about urban sprawl,” she said. 

The band expressed a lot of love for their artistry and wanting to be authentic. Brain Lin, the band’s bassist, noted Charles Boudelaire’s ideas around art reflecting the world around the artist. “I’ve always tried to maintain that. With any kind of work that I do personally, it has to have some kind of meaning that’s important to me. Otherwise, why do it?” Lin said.

Skinning is out now.