“We knew that YouTube was going to be our primary platform to kick off the project. I think we came into it with a good understanding of how to use it to reach fans all over the world,” Bryte said. “We put a lot of time into streaming platforms such as Spotify and Facebook and we’ve seen both results really go up, especially Spotify recently. We never want to only live in one space. We really want to put ourselves everywhere for everyone to hear us.”
“It’s important to notice that music and content are so accessible these days that we need to come up with unique ways to do things,” Slavo said. “Justin and I are always planning out, looking for different social media platforms and other ways to present our content to stick out. These days, everything is so accessible that if you don’t do that, you’re just going to get lost in the shuffle.”
One way they stick out is through filming music videos for everything they put out, both originals and covers. Both Slavo and Bryte mentioned that they pride themselves on the fact that they film all of these by themselves.
“It’s literally us with a camera and we go places and we set it up on a tripod,” Slavo said. “We shoot maybe an hour or two. Everything is DIY, and it really helps because you’d think that it would be too much work, we’d be overwhelmed, but we’re so proficient. We work off each other and we get things done efficiently and creatively, and I think it really shows in our content.”
“Our fans latch on to the fact that it’s DIY,” Bryte said. “I think it says a lot about our brand. In this day and age, people like connecting to something that they know is coming from the artists themselves. We have such a creative hand in everything that it’s never like the higher power manufacturing anything.”
It’s not just their recorded content that is meticulously crafted by the two of them. They also take great care to put together their live shows with a certain vision in mind. “There are things that we have seen growing up that we weren’t necessarily in love with about concerts,” Bryte said. “There’s definitely a disconnect in 2017 where for most pop concerts, it’s usually not about being in the experience, but putting your phone up and recording the experience.”
“It’s not only about us, it’s about how the audience engages with us, how they engage with their friends there, because people want an experience. They don’t want to stare at something because if you could just stare at something, you could go on YouTube and watch that exact same thing,” he continued. “But to really take in that experience and to dance and close your eyes and feel the music, and I know it sounds extremely cliché, but it really is what we’re trying to accomplish where it’s just an overall, everyone in the room’s there for the same thing. We’re not on this higher level, but we’re just kind of accompanying this party experience through the night.”
With the steady stream of online content, as well as regularly performing, Fly By Midnight is happy with the route they’ve been heading on since their inception.
“I’ve never ever felt like we’re slowing down or going in the wrong direction,” Bryte said. “We’ve always continued to get fans. Every video is always received better than the previous one. It’s really cool for us to be putting out more content and to be getting more positive feedback.”
This summer, Fly By Midnight looks to pick up even more speed with new singles, more covers, more touring, and the release of their debut EP Party Favors. But even through all the hard work they put into social media and videos and performing, Bryte had a simple way to describe what Fly By Midnight is really about.
“It really is just two dudes making music that we love,” Bryte said.
Read more Music articles at ClicheMag.com
Photographed by Brittney Panda
