Bassrush

Midnight Tyrannosaurus, the Florida-based producer responsible for some of the rawest sounds in bass music, has been working hard in the lab producing his most monumental release to date: The Fossil EP. Since his start in 2011, the producer quickly gained recognition from some of the scenes heaviest hitters with a series of high-profile releases on labels like I.Am.Audio and Prime Audio. Centered on a distinct and unique dinosaur-driven sound, Midnight has most recently leveled up with an exclusive signing to the Never Say Die: Black Label family and the soon-to-be-released The Fossil EP that caps off what has no doubt been an epic year for the young producer.

Packing unrelenting, raw bass into three original tracks and one massive remix, the EP surfaces on November 28 so be sure to lock your pre-order in here and get “Mudmen!” as an immediate download before checking out our in-depth interview.

We exist in an industry full of carbon copies, so I'm just trying to bring a new flavor to the table!

You killed it at EDC Orlando! What was it like from your side of things?
EDC Orlando was absolutely life changing. I showed up at 12:30 in the afternoon not knowing what to expect. I’d never played a major festival like that before, so I was nervous for the first time in years. I got up on the circuitGROUNDS stage at 1pm and began my set to a nonexistent crowd, since doors had just opened.

At first I was a little demoralized, but I didn’t lose hope! Lo and behold, about two minutes into the set one person ran up, then two, then 10, then before I knew I was jamming out on stage with almost 3,000 people at 1:30 in the afternoon! Bassrush informed me that we had everyone at Tinker Field at our stage while every other stage was empty for an hour, so that really gave me an insane amount of inspiration and newfound confidence in our little bass community. It’s truly growing into something amazing, and I couldn’t be more honored to be a part of it.

Let’s talk about this massive EP you’re about to drop. What’s the meaning behind the title?
The Fossil is something pretty special to me. It’s been almost three years since my last proper label release, so in a sense lots of my fans have been “hunting” the new Midnight Tyrannosaurus like a team of archaeologists looking for that big discovery. With that in mind, I wanted to make something that truly encapsulates who I am as both a person and a producer.

A lot of the inspiration for the EP draws on my love for video games and film. Throughout my whole career, I’ve always stuck to a theme, and the theme starts with the sample for me. The structure for the rest of the tune is then inspired by what I think that character would sound like if they’d made a dubstep tune. In my opinion it really adds a different level of depth to it that I really enjoy.

What does your typical writing process look like?
Gather a vocal sample, write a drum line, then flip flop between about 100 different ideas for bass and rhythms until I finally find something that fits the theme I’m shooting for.

Because this project is being released on NSD: Black Label should fans expect some of your heaviest tunes to date?
Not exactly the heaviest per-say but definitely some of my personal favorites. I’ve been trying to really find the happy medium between the heavy heavy and the more flowy stuff.

How did that relationship with Never Say Die come to be?
Black Label is an amazing team of people. SKisM and TJ reached out to me earlier in the year asking if I wanted to work with them and I was literally shaking with excitement! I don’t know how many times I’ve fanboyed over SKisM even liking my stuff, let alone signing it. We’ve become good friends since then and I couldn’t be happier to be in the family.

Do each of your tracks have a special story to tell?
In a sense, yes! I’ve never personally structured a dubstep track to express the hardships I’ve had in life or any kind of personal story, really, but I really get a lot of enjoyment out of taking vocal samples from things we grew up loving and currently love and structuring a whole new narrative with them; putting the listener in the character’s shoes for a few minutes and taking them both on a journey through sound. We exist in an industry full of carbon copies, so I’m just trying to bring a new flavor to the table!

Do you have a favorite track on the EP?
“Rat Jazz” without a doubt! I had such a blast working on that tune. I feel like it’s such a good balance of the heavy side and the fun side of Midnight Tyrannosaurus while still maintaining my “signature” style. Plus, Junkrat from Overwatch is easily one of the funniest characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of sampling.

You also just launched your hip-hop side project, Manhattan Mongoose. Tell us about that.
It’s project that is extremely near and dear to me. Believe it or not, outside of making dubstep, you really won’t catch me listening to it very often. Electronic music has always had a place in my heart, but classic hip-hop will always be my first love. Originally, I was just going to make beats on my own time and just have them to jam out to, because I feel like finding new good quality hip-hop is nearly impossible. But then I got inspired and decided that I want to help breathe new life into the beautiful culture that is hip-hop, so I went public with it. I figured at this stage with Midnight Tyrannosaurus, I could afford to actually express myself a little bit and show people there’s a whole lot more to MT than just angry noises.

Anything in the works for 2017 you can speak about?
Unfortunately nothing I can exactly talk about just yet, but I can assure you that there’s plenty of awesome shit being cooked up behind the scenes for next year and I’m really excited!

Any special shout outs before we go?
Shouts out to Bassrush for being fucking awesome!