Lost And Sound

Eric Pulido – Midlake

• Paul Hanford • Episode 192

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What happens when a band outlives its own legend and keeps the spark anyway? I sat down with Eric Pulido of Midlake to trace how a group known for mythic, pastoral folk found a new centre after a seismic lineup change—and why the music still lands with the same autumnal glow. Eric takes us behind new album A Bridge Too Far, from sketching twenty ideas to recording live with producer Sam Evian, capturing a decades old chemistry.

We talk about stepping into the vocalist role after Tim Smith’s departure and the electric snap that shaped an album that could well have sunk lesser acts – Antiphon. Eric shares how his lyric writing moved toward clarity and truth—naming real people and moments while keeping songs timeless and open to anyone’s story. We go deep on influences too, from West Coast folk and British folk gateways to earlier loves like Björk, and how Denton, Texas, nurtured the band’s early years with a supportive arts scene and real stages to grow on.

I love how he talks about touring with refreshing honesty: the fragile math of mid-level bands, why Europe can be more workable than the vast US, and how thoughtful setlists honour both new work and the gateway songs from The Trials of Van Occupanther. There’s a visual thread as well, with Eric reflecting on Midlake’s cinematic feel and recent collaboration with Ted Lasso’s James Lance.

If you enjoy Lost and Sound and want to help keep it thriving, the best way to support is simple: subscribe, leave a rating, and write a quick review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps others find the show. You can do that here on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen.


Midlake on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/midlakeband/

Midlake on Bandcamp:

https://midlakeband.bandcamp.com/music

Huge thanks to Audio-Technica – makers of beautifully engineered audio gear and sponsors of Lost and Sound. Check them out here: Audio-Technica

My book Coming To Berlin is a journey through the city’s creative underground, and is available via Velocity Press.

You can also follow me on Instagram at @paulhanford for behind-the-scenes bits, guest updates, and whatever else is bubbling up.

Paul:

What happens when a band survives its own mythology? This is something that Eric Pulido from Midlake certainly knows something about. Hello, you're listening to Lost and Sound, the show that goes deep with artists shaping music and culture from the underground up. But before we get going, Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio Technica. For over 60 years, this family-run company has been making the kind of gear that helps artists, DJs, and listeners alike really hear the detail. Headphones, microphones, turntables and cartridges, studio quality, beautifully engineered and designed and built on the belief that great sound should be for everyone. So wherever you are in the world, head on over to Audiotechnica.com to check out all of their range of stuff. Okay, let's do the show. I'm Paul Hamford, I'm your host. I'm an author, a broadcaster, and a lecturer. And each week on the show I have conversations with artists who work outside the box about music, creativity, and about how they're navigating life through their art. So whether you're new here or you've been listening for a while, it's great to have you along. So yeah, apologies about the different day of posting the show over the last few weeks, which has landed the last few weeks on a Wednesday rather than the staple day for the show coming out, which has been Tuesdays. So I'm yet to decide whether Wednesdays is going to be a permanent place for the show, or I'm going to go back to Tuesdays. And the reason for it is just, well, you know, life. So I appreciate your patience and thank you for sticking with me. And I and I hope if it's Wednesday, it's great for you. If it's Tuesday, it's great for you. Whatever. I hope it, whatever day, it's a good one for you. Anyway, so it's really cold here in Berlin right now. I'm sitting on a bench outside a cafe uh near Hermannstrasser U-Bahn in Neukollen in Berlin. And you're gonna zooming over in the conversation today to much sunnier climbs of Denton in Texas, where I speak with Eric Pulido, founding member and since 2012, the front person of the Texan group, Midlake, a group whose music has quietly soundtracked the inner lives of many listeners over the past two decades. And to talk about this, as someone who, myself, who has fond memories of music and I guess the live band alternative indie music sphere of stuff that was around in the mid-nonties. A lot of this deep love that I think people have for Midlate originated from the album The Trials of Van Occupantfer, the band's second album, and a huge, huge breakthrough. Van Occupantfer, going back and listening to it again this morning, still feels unique. It's it mixed an obvious love of 60s and 70s Californian folk rock and harmonies, but with a completely unique American pastoralness that was entirely theirs that felt mythical at the time. It felt like they were making their own myths out of it. And it became a classic and put the group into the stratosphere of folk-influenced artists to emerge from that era like Fleet Fox's, Devendra Banhart, guest on the show last year, that is Devendra, uh, Joanna Newsom and Grizzly Bear. And as an album in its own right, it's one of those albums that has this sort of mysterious quality imbued in the lyrics and the sound, a bit like neutral milk hotels in an aeroplane over the sea, but has itself helped give the album a sort of mythical status over the years. It launched Mid Lake as an international proposition. However, in 2012, original lead singer Tim Smith left the band, and that's something that could often sync a lot of bands. But guitarist and founding member Eric Polito found himself as the singer. And as evidenced with the recent release of the band's sixth album called A Bridge Too Far on their long-term label Bella Union, Midlake, I think, are more than a band. They're like a mood, they're like a feeling. In some ways, you know, and I think this comes across on their current album, A Bridge Too Far. You can kind of like quantify that in quite a literal way. Maybe it's the introspection. There's a sort of literate minor key feeling that's full of like autumnalness that filters through a lot of Midlake's work. But then there's also something a lot less tangible that I mean, as you'll hear in the conversation, that I think, and and I think Eric seems to believe comes from this thing of what happens when a certain combination of people are in a room together and make music together, um, or any kind of art. There's certain kind of or or just life, you know, the way that you you might gel with one person and not another, and that creates its own extra bit of energy. So, yes, I spoke with Eric, who was zooming in from the band's hometown of Denton in Texas, and I do have to say he has a fantastic Texan burr. And we talk about what it means to stay grounded when your work takes on a life far beyond you, about reinvention, about survival, and about what it meant stepping into the role of a band who previously had a different singer and what playing with a group of friends means at different points in your life. Um, so yeah, we talk a bit about like the difficulties of maybe being in a band now compared to like the different social and political uh climate of what being in a band was like when Mid Lake started out. But this isn't the most sort of socio-political discourse-heavy episode of Lost and Sound. This is I I feel like listening back to it this morning, there's a sort of gentle wisdom that comes through in Eric Pulido's words that I really, really enjoyed hearing a second time. Um okay, housekeeping time. If you like the show and you haven't already, please give the show a subscribe, give the show a rating and a review on the platform of your choice. Please, please, please do if you have time. I know none of us have time to do fucking anything these days, but if you are in that position to do that, I'm hugely grateful to you for doing that. So, this is me, Paul Hamford, talking with Eric Pulido from Mid lake, and we had this conversation on January the 19th, 2026. And this is what happened. Hi, Eric. Can you hear me okay? Yeah, hey Paul, how's it going? Yeah, I'm great. How's your year been so far? Is it started off well?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, just gotten off to uh a good start. All in all, we're gearing up, you know, to head over overseas. Um, we're excited about that. And reception's been really well. So uh yeah, we're all in good spirits and excited to get together once again. We played some shows at the end of last year, but um looking forward to coming over for sure.

Paul:

Excellent, excellent. I mean, uh, because the band's been around for some time now. What do you feel like when you get ready to go out on tour again? What's sort of been the biggest changes for you like now compared to say 15 or 20 years ago?

Speaker 1:

Uh, you know, obviously we we all have families now, and that's kind of a new dynamic, of course. But uh I think also, you know, I've said this before, but it it feels like a means to an end sometimes, where of course we know we have a record to promote and play shows and and and um but we don't get to see one another all the time anymore. We don't all live in the same town, and and uh so it's just a good time to to see your buddies and to to travel and you know just be a tourist, you know, as well. So uh I think we've always appreciated that element, but probably more so now than ever, just as time can give you that gift of appreciation, you know, sometimes.

Paul:

Yeah, I I could definitely relate to that in in different ways. Like um, no one tells you when you're younger that you sometimes need a really good excuse to see your best friends, you know. Everyone scatters around, and you know, if I mean if you're not if it's not a wedding or or something like that, then it's it's like being in a band, I guess, is a really good way to guarantee that once every four years you get to hang out with everyone.

Speaker 1:

It really is. It has served us in that way for sure.

Paul:

Yeah, I mean, so like over the last 25 years or so now, Mid-Lake are a group that have weathered a lot of storms, like disappeared, lineup changes, uh re-emergences. Do you feel like there's like a particular central thing that has kept Mid-Lake being mid-lake over that time?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, I mean it's it's a good question in the sense that I I don't think uh I don't think we were necessarily ever uh consistent with the influence. I think it varied from album to album. It's hard to be objective myself, but I hope that there's a commonality. Uh, there is obviously musically a lot of the same members, but of course losing Tim was a huge change in voice, and and uh I definitely have tried my best to know who I'm writing with and what I'm writing for, you know. Uh, because I've done other projects maybe that don't have that uh I don't know if you want to call it a a litmus test, but it's definitely you're you're you're always compared by your you know your own work. And and I appreciate that. I'm not I'm not ignorant to that. Um, but at the same time, I want to be honest, and I think hopefully, not that not that that's a defining element, but I do feel like uh it has helped carry a thread throughout our discography, even paying homage to that discography that I wasn't the singer and I was singing background on live. You know, it's still a great thing to reimagine that and uh know that there's folks that have been there since that time, and there's there's newer folks as well. So it's it's it's a treat for us um as well. But it's hard for me to know the objective element that kind of is a through line outside of obviously several of us still being there from the beginning, but knowing that to your point, it has evolved, and and I think it should, you know. I I appreciate bands kind of doing a very similar thing from album to album. That's just not us. It's always kind of I felt like evolved for better or worse. Yeah, yeah, no, definitely.

Paul:

I mean, like listening uh back to like the the first couple of albums um recently, and like hearing like there's a lot more like electronics that went on, um, a lot more samples, and then obviously there was that sort of big commercial breakthrough with Trials of Vanak Occupant. And I mean, but I think like through all of your work, like I mean, as a listener, I pick up on something that is like, yeah, it does vary album to album, but it's like a sort of intangible feeling. There's like a kind of a mid-ake feeling, and maybe I could like break that down as being like harmonies or sort of minor chords, I don't know, but it sort of feels like there's something that becomes more of the sum of its parts. I mean, is there like I'm I know you can't talk about it too sort of it's hard to talk about it objectively, but like in terms of when you're all together, is there like a kind of a feeling when you know you're hitting the right zone? And it if so, what kind of feeling is that?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, uh, you know, even making this record and even you know, rehearsing or playing shows, it's it has become something after all this time that it's not really something we think about, you know, it's very natural, and and I I love that. Uh, you know, there's most of us, not not all of the band had been there from the beginning, but most of us have since you know the last 15 years. So that carries along with you. Uh you don't need to think about it. It's kind of just intuitive. And if you ever play with other musicians, you get that opportunity to go, oh, it's it's it's different, you know, and it just is. And and I I've always said that we just there's that's been a magical thing for us, is that we just know how to play together, you know, and it's it's it's really a treat to do so. And hopefully that translates both on the album and live as well. The album making the album was was actually quite simple, especially having Sam Evian, our producer at the helm with the engineers and us just in the room and playing. And it's it's really freeing because that's not how we always used to operate, you know.

Paul:

Yeah, I mean, I'm loving a bridge too far. And um what was the sort of genesis point for that? Like, how did that sort of start?

Speaker 1:

Um you know, we were touring the last record of Bethel Woods, and we were kind of getting towards the end of the cycle of touring, and like most of our albums, kind of wondering if it's gonna be the last one or or what, or just how how you make sense out of it, you know, not not to say that we're you know doing rocket science, but just to we always wanted to be able to, if we're gonna make an album, let's not phone it in, let's you know, make sure that we're putting everything into it. And we had had a meeting with our management about goals, and I wrote the song Ghouls after that as kind of like a a funny, you know, uh I always I love a pun, I love kind of playing with with words, and and really it was is just how sometimes those elements can be vilified uh in your life, and it's trying to kind of take hold of that, and and and it it it helped like most of the time kind of put you on a path, you know, um, and start writing, whether that's together or remotely. And we had about 20 songs, you know, uh not fully fleshed out songs, but which I think helped us to be able to say, okay, these are the core 10 that we're gonna go in with, 10 or 11. And I just I just felt we'd kind of gotten to a really good place after, you know, being quicker than we have been in the past, after Bethel Woods of following up, still writing, still staying fresh with the chemistry, and and then uh obviously getting together. We got together several times before the final recording to just like demo or or kind of work on writing, but um a lot of it was remote, you know.

Paul:

Yeah. I kind of wanted to just last like it's a big question about him and because you know, you the the this was like a little period after Van Occupant for this was like a you know, there was like an album afterwards, and uh it's it's very it's we do you know, I'm I'm trying to think there is. I mean, I guess there's Genesis with um Peter Gabriel. Um but in terms of like another member of the band stepping into the role of of like frontman and main singer, like what was the process of that for you? You know, what what firstly I guess like on a sort of like sort of technical form, what what sort of happened there? Like, you know, were you approached, or did you feel like it was you that was the person that should do this?

Speaker 1:

Or so you know, during that final iteration when Tim was still in the band, we actually were playing live while recording an album because we didn't record like we do now, where it was just that was a day job almost like we'd go in and record. So we would go out and play shows some and uh try out new material and just you know, just make money, you know, like try to try to figure out how you do this thing. And on those songs, I was singing a lot with Tim as a melody, and then I would break off and do a harmony. I was usually the one at the center of the stage, I was the one talking with the the audience. So not to take away anything of of the the the uh the gravity of of of what Tim had brought writing-wise and and singing-wise, but it was unbeknownst to me. There was kind of like uh kind of a uh fortuitous uh evolution of I was kind of a little bit more supportive than than than just being a guy in the back, you know. So it helped to answer your question. It helped when he did ultimately quit within 24 hours of us going, do we go get another guy? Do we just hang it up? Or do we give it a go? Nobody knew, wasn't gonna be a public thing, so we could at least give it a try with me. And that's that's what we did ultimately not using any of that material writing new uh album and uh giving it a go. So here we are, still, you know, however, 13 years later. So um 14, uh 13, 14. So yeah.

Paul:

And and did that feel I mean, so I guess like the the certain things that kind of aligned themselves in position for you to give it a go then.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, um, I mean, obviously I had the the confidence and encouragement, at least, uh encouragement and hopeful confidence of the band, you know. Um and I had was working on a solo album, and Tim was working on a solo album as well. So I did use one of those songs. It's called Provider for the the Mid-Lake album that was gonna be a solo uh song, and we just all put our heads together and and and and kind of just kept working. And I think that ultimately got us to where we we landed on Antiphon. And I'm I'm thankful for it. I mean, there definitely was a lot of hurt and anger, uh, stubbornness, probably that that kind of fueled that album. But I was glad that we were able to keep it together and carry on because we're not Genesis, but you know, we are still here, and I'm thankful for that.

Paul:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, because that Anthem album, it does sound sort of remarkably confident, and you know, it it also sounds remarkably mid lake as well, like all of your albums do, if that makes sense. But like, did the band go through a sense of identity crisis leading up to that thinking, okay, you know, is there a sort of place with a different singer? You know, I mean, obviously, it worked really well, and looking back now, but at the time, was there like a level of questioning going on.

Speaker 1:

Well yeah uh you know especially especially coming off of courage of others which was a very British folky melancholy you know um it it was it was different and and I will say the album that we were we were making with Tim called Seven Long Sons that's what it was going to be called um it it was more lively but not as much as Antiphon probably was so there was an authentic transition going on with the band but I think there was an added angst in Antiphon of be like fuck it I'm playing the drums as loud as I want you know like um or whatever that might be so that there was that so you know thinking back now yeah we could have alienated maybe we did you know people for various reasons but I think enough hung on with us and has now have now grown with us through these last three albums that to your point there there might be a common thread but also a an a new set of chapters you know yeah yeah and I and I find with your lyric writing there's a sense of like more I guess maybe it is maybe a subjective thing that I pick up on but more of like directness going on than on the earlier Mid Lake albums.

Paul:

Do you feel like as a songwriter yourself that that's becoming something that you know did you ever feel like you had to sort of you were beholden to the earlier albums or did you feel like okay no this is just this is me and this is going to come out as me?

Speaker 1:

I didn't think about it too much. I mean I know that Mid Lake has a a very pastoral uh subject of or subject of of of lyrics that that I I I like as well it's not like I'm it's forced uh but to your point I think Tim in some ways could be more fantastical about things where I might be more literal or like like I I I mentioned on the last album of writing a song called Noble about McKenzie's son. Like there's no there's that's the truth. Now granted I also do like people to be able to relate to a song irrespective of if their name is is noble or they had a uh a similar type of experience that McKenzie had but also the great thing about noble and his name is there is a meaning behind that and you can still want to be noble and that be a virtuous type of thing. So I'm just thinking out loud but but I know that I've always tried to not hide behind I guess the truth behind a song but also want people to be able to relate themselves as well.

Paul:

Yeah I think that's like the real sweet spot of songwriting I guess isn't it the mixture of personal and relatable when when something that is sort of in you kind of maybe means something else to someone else but there's like a some kind of shared connection going on with it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah no absolutely and I and I I do feel like people have had that experience and I appreciate that and and I and it just I again I think it's I wouldn't write a song about my iPhone you know I just not not to say that I don't have an experience with it and it's old and I probably need a new one and someone's being like oh I mine's old too and I need a new one it's just not really what would would emote in a song for me to be like okay I only have so many lyrics here in a verse chorus bridge and you're trying to get a sentiment across and also I I maybe maybe it's it's uh a bit narcissist of me but I I want songs to be timeless you know I want yeah you to be able to hear it years from now or years ago and it still could resonate you know I mean what I it's funny that like when when it's making like art there is this sort of sense that we have to we feel a bit sort of self-conscious about like saying something like that.

Paul:

Whereas like if you were making tables you would that be part of like the description to make it last for a long time yeah I mean I'm gonna be the first filter and then the guys are going to be the next filter you know and so if I don't catch it they will you know yeah defense yeah yeah exactly do you have a specific memory of of music coming into your life in a particularly vivid way uh yeah you know I mean what's so funny is that when we first started the the influences were different than what came even even before the first album into the first album and then into Van Occupanther.

Speaker 1:

And obviously with Van Occupanther that music the the you know kind of the West Coast folk music of that era that was something that my dad had gotten me into at an early age so I was very familiar with it whereas Tim had like found this new kind of I think genre of influence that wasn't really a part of his childhood as much. And so it was there was a and also to be fair not that we're reinventing the wheel sometimes especially now you can look back and say oh the mid-2000s that was a time that several bands were kind of becoming this indie folk type uh influence or reference and we were a part of that but it didn't seem like pestiche or like cliche at the time it was very authentic of like a new era kind of rediscovering a past era and that happens on and on and on and then you try to put your own you know spin on it but it again I guess all that to be said it there was kind of a a uh a nostalgia even for me at that time of saying oh yeah I I grew up on on on this because my dad had always kind of been into bands of yesteryear so it kind of was cool to to to to that be the influence whereas before that time I think the influences were more modern you know we were into Radiohead and and Bjork and and a lot of that music that we still love it was just more modern at that time you know uh flaming lips you know granddaddy all that yeah and was that do you feel that that's part of like a band sort of settling into being itself you know there's that whole thing about like you know the longer you play together the more you develop a sound and more time you spend on something you like leave your influences was that because like they like in the late 90s early 2000s like you know your your Buaks and Radioheads and flaming ellipses were the sort of the the front line of like I guess boundary pushing commercial alternative music I guess yeah I mean I don't I don't know if it was as thought out obviously when you listen to something especially ad nauseum as we would it comes out it's just gonna naturally kind of come out and we were into that I don't think we were trying to be like fresh or or or hip you know with like oh that's what's left of center and able to make a career out of this so I guess we have to be influenced by these left of center that that that was it was authentic and natural but I think we left it really in a big sense because Tim had left it you know and it was like well he was steering things influentially and then went to to that set of music which then kind of is a gateway drug to British folk you know and Jethro Toll or Zeppelin or Pentangle or Steel Ice Span or Fairport Convention. Again and that and some of that not all of it but what was new to me as well and it was like we're kids in a candy store like oh and you're kind of like just finding new things and kind of wanting to that to come out in a way that was through a voice of of of Midlake.

Paul:

So I don't know you know sometimes I look back and I think man we were all over the place you know that's kind of a nice thing though isn't it it is for me I mean I I I think there's a uh interesting and fun element to that you could make the argument I could make the argument that and many bands do this where we could have followed up with Van Occupant there with a very similar sound and just kind of built upon that and been like that's what they do that's what they are and and and we we didn't it just kind of was like a uh it's it's like a uh not a uh a sequel you know you kind of just kind of you know go on to the to the next yeah knowing knowing where you've been more more a bit like life I guess it's just the different sort of you know phases that we go through that lead from one to another naturally I guess maybe absolutely and like I mean so you know you you formed am I right in thinking you formed in Denton in Texas yes that's correct what was the when about the time you were forming what was the sort of atmosphere about what was it what was the atmosphere like was there like a healthy music scene what was what was going on in Denton at the time yeah you know the outside of me the the the school was what brought everybody uh the the uh for jazz studies i McKenzie the drummer and i actually met and played together in high school before college he he came to den first UNT uh met the guys they were it was not mid-lake at the time they were just kind of doing um kind of jazz like funk type music and Tim played saxophone and I remember as a friend and a fan really you're visiting up here because I went to college south of here and I knew all the guys and and and uh basically after I finished college and Mid Lake had just formed they asked me to join and I kind of was like okay I didn't really have a plan and that's what you do I guess when you graduate from college let's go join a band.

Speaker 1:

And so and I did take some music school here because it's just good a great school and wanted to know the language the guys were speaking in you know but but that that ultimately was kind of the uh I can't I think the impetus of of being here but the community in and of itself obviously it's not just you know jazz or classical it was very natural for folks from that scene to then form a rock band or you know obviously that was a formative time for for that music you know and just indie rock you know and whatever that means um and so we were kind of part of that local scene of a lot of other bands kind of doing the thing and it was a very and is a supportive arts community um two colleges a very cyclical like youth and and and just like uh excitement I think in that way and historic downtown great architecture I think those elements play to it obviously having several venues and stages to even play and then grow and ultimately because of that community another band that was signed to Bella Union shared our music with Bella Union and that's how we got ultimately signed by by them from sharing.

Paul:

So I think it it's very supportive in that that way you know and do you feel like because you do you still live in Denton? I do yeah do you do you still feel that that that sense of community is there?

Speaker 1:

Um I mean obviously you're a different age now but like is there one I I you know you're right I yeah I guess the short answer is yes but I think music and forming a band it still exists I just don't think it is I I think the path is a little more daunting now you know to feel like uh you have the the the the time or ability or know-how to like connect those dots um I feel like we got under the wire in a way in under the wire um but there is a great community of uh art community I just don't know exactly how that plays within the music scene you know um I mainly to your point because I am older now and I'm just not in it like that but I feel like the pendulum swings a lot of times and you'll you'll see these things come and go and it I think it's also um can be contingent on just elements of of of life whether that's living expense economics you know politics you know city uh support um the business as as a whole of like could that venue live or or does it die because it's just can't can't uh survive so I think that has evolved in and of itself as well where it's just um yeah it it makes it a little bit more different if not difficult.

Paul:

Yeah I mean that sentiment uh gets echoed quite a lot in conversations I have with guests on the show that um it I you know I think it's definitely feels that it's a lot harder now for a young group of people to to to form a band perhaps because you know the economics are different now the gentrification has just uh accelerated the cost of living um also like perhaps it's it's a lot more easier and appealing for someone to just pick up like Ableton than to spend time learning an instrument. But then again last year I do feel that the the it almost feels like there's become an oversaturation of non-live sounding music that's sort of become like a bit of a feeling again for people wanting to hear live sounding music and you know hear mistakes made in a room and and atmosphere poured into a room.

Speaker 1:

Yeah I and I hope there's always going to be a segment of the population that appreciates that it it it may be the difference of playing this room versus that room you know um it may be the difference of playing this city or state versus this or that one um because just I it's just different. I mean it's case in point I mean it's harder for us to tour in America than it is in Europe. Part of that is just because we we don't do as well but also it takes a while to get to LA you know or to the West Coast. So that means you gotta play Phoenix on a Tuesday night and it might not be the best you know draw on a Tuesday night in Phoenix. So there's just logistics a part of it that I've if you're talking about a big artist it it's it's different you know like there's that that middle balance of the mid-level band you know um and and and I I do think that that kind of construct of I guess expectation whether that be from the band from the label from the booking agent from even a fan's perspective you you gotta make sure it's all balanced you know and you're checking all the boxes because otherwise it's not a tenable situation.

Paul:

And you say okay well we can't do this or the way that we do it is is compromising something you know yeah yeah yeah you hear a lot about bands that like all scaling down uh with like more of a studio project band where they'll have different members in different cities and and things like that. Yeah I mean I on a one more Texas question I guess is that this is just some random thought I had but I do feel that like it is a massive generalization but I do feel that a lot of the music that I listen to that has a Texan origin to it or Texan members has this sort of cinematic quality going on. And I I feel that very present in Midlake you know I mean do you feel that there is like a connection I mean and I guess like when I say cinematic I could mean almost like sort of something connected to scale and nature and and like the outdoors and and something for a visual language I guess if that makes sense is that is that something that you feel like you and the band relate to or is that something that we just I wish that you meant in cinematic that our music gets placed in films all the time.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah because it would be better but uh no it I I appreciate that no yeah I I do think we've always been a visual band you know I I whether that we in the early days of creating our own videos that we would play live um whether it was you know um just the imagery or lyrics uh and it takes you to a place you know I think we we're drawn to that and and and and even even with the the few kind of videos that we do nowadays because videos just seem kind of a bit like antiquated or unappreciated I I I I feel like you know really I I'm biased but I felt like they captured that really well in days gone by with um James Lance for this latest one. It just yeah it just it it it kind of captured lyrically uh visually you know um what what they did with it you know and I can't take much of any credit for that they they that was their idea and but it was we talked you know but it was beautiful I thought what they did.

Paul:

Yeah I I love that and it was it's I mean as a Brit it was really lovely to see and as a Brit and as someone that's been like a comedy fan in in Britain for decades you know it was a it was lovely to see you know I've loved Midlakes and Van Occupant for and James Lance has got a special role in any British guy of my age's heart you know so seeing him and that was like hey that's too that's like walking to a party and seeing two people that you know that you didn't know knew each other.

Speaker 1:

Right that's cool. Very cool. Yeah he's been a great uh just a great supporter you know of the band coming to shows and obviously wearing the shirt on on Ted Lasso was was just a huge tip of the hat um and then obviously doing the video uh was just it was cool and it was just born of him saying hey I just I I love you guys and I want to do you know some some something with y'all you know so sometimes that's how the best collaborations happen isn't it just casually like that yeah yeah I love it.

Paul:

Yeah I mean um with um with with the new album with going back out on tour like is there something that you're particularly looking forward to from the back catalogue sort of like uh I sorry I hate I can't believe I said the word back catalogue I'm talking about your music that feels very sort of like um you know is it is there something from the past that you're particularly looking forward to playing um I mean we are we are incorporating some music that we haven't played in a long while um and uh and that's always fun um it's it's tough you know now it's like with six albums you gotta kind of be you know choosy of what what you can play you understand like newer stuff can be a a trip to the Lou for folks or whatever.

Speaker 1:

So you gotta kind of touch all the the the bases and we know and understand that Van Occupy Panther was kind of the the the gateway to a lot of folks that know us now. So we we try to to give a lot of love to that that album so I I'm I'm I'm looking forward to it. I it was nice to get to play some before um you know we'll probably throw a cover in um as well um which will be fun uh but yeah I I'm really looking forward to it I'm I'm looking forward to just seeing some now you know it's like there's several people now even though they're fans they they kind of become friends you know because you get to know them they come backstage or give us a bottle of whiskey or some some snacks or something you know like it's like uh you kind of grow together And even though we're grown men now, we still feel like, you know, with some of these folks, like we're kind of these just still Texas boys, just like, you know, needing a bite to eat and a drink from a friend, you know?

Paul:

Unless it is such a unique perspective that bands get when they go on the road like that, isn't it? Like, like you know, it's interesting what you were saying about I I never really thought about it before, about like how it's perhaps easier to tour Europe, you know, with because of the smaller gaps between cities than it is in in the states, you know. Are there any particular places in Europe that you're particularly looking forward forward to to stopping by and grabbing those bites to eat with people?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, obviously the UK has been like a second home to us, and so it's really nice to be able to play several cities that aren't that far from one another, and obviously getting a curry or a pie minister or something, you know, is kind of uh always fun, or to go to the museum, you know. Um, we're not it's not a long tour, and we don't hit a lot of Europe, but Paradiso in Amsterdam, I'm really looking forward to. That's a a larger club venue, and uh I've been just so pleased to see these shows selling out, you know. I it's like you never know what what folks want to come out, spend their money, you know, uh, and even to your point of what of the discography that they're more into. And have you touched those bases and and covered enough ground, you know, and given people a good a good show? And I hope so. Um, I'm gonna enjoy it, you know, all the cities and and uh uh small or large, it's it's it's a joy to us.

Paul:

Oh it's good to hear. And and just finally, I just wanted to ask you like if you could go back and tell yourself, your younger self, just as you were starting out, just as you were joining Midlake, like one thing, like the you now telling you younger self, one thing, what what would that be?

Speaker 1:

Um probably invest your money. Yeah. Save it. Um, no, we've always been pretty frugal, I will say. I I think it's I think a lot of uh whether it's with the band or just in life, is like and it's hard because now I have kids now as well, and you and you're trying to to teach them, but everything matters so much, kind of uh along the way, and and you should give credence to things that matter, but sometimes we give a little bit too much, and it can it can end up I don't know, uh tainting the the joy of it and the smelling of the roses. And I think even the song, the last song in the album, The Valley of the Roseless Thorns, is kind of a a a sentiment of that. I'm just saying, you know, you gotta sometimes just stop and and and take take in a deep breath and be thankful for what you you have, you know, and not let the the weight and the the the understandable weight of the world or the heaviness that can exist to to overtake you, you know. And I think so much of the band's beginning, it was just so serious, you know. And I I do think we grow and you do and can grow from that, but it's it's hard to find that balance when you're in the midst of it, you know. It just everything mattered so much, and we worked so fucking hard that yeah, it can sometimes spoil it, you know, where it's like you you you find a spot of the law of diminishing returns where you're like, wait, wait, you know, like let's not let's not uh screw this up. And that that that can be difficult. And I think my hope with age is is you find a little bit of balance and you you take things in stride and and appreciate them for what what they're worth and uh and forge ahead, you know. And so I know it's a long answer, but but yeah, I think that's that's a really good answer.

Paul:

That's the kind of answer I really like, actually. Yeah, yeah, no, definitely. I I think it's very um I think you know it's it's very easy to live in in uh nostalgia or memory and feel like why didn't I pay enough attention to why didn't I appreciate these things that I was working so hard for at the time, you know? And uh um, but then again, maybe you did, maybe, maybe we did, you know, and that was just that was it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it it and and also you I mean it's it shapes you, you know. I mean, of course, hindsight's 2020. The reality is if I or we didn't conduct ourselves, well, the butterfly effect is I don't I don't know what would have happened. Would it be better, would it be worse? It just is what it is. But I think in the moment, again, now trying to learn from that, it's just kind of saying, I I can only control what I can control. You know, it's a very the stoicism of of life of just saying, you know, let's let's not let all of this be mine to solve because it's just gonna overtake me, you know, and I can just kind of make the world a little bit smaller day to day, and and and hopefully that can make not only me more impactful, but ultimately uh just happier and healthier, you know.

Paul:

Yeah, definite words of wisdom. Yeah, Eric, thank you so much for chatting with me. Thank you. Thanks, Paul. I appreciate it. Great chat. Take care, bye bye. Bye bye, have a good one. Okay, so that was me, Paul Hamford, talking with Eric Polito from Mid Lake, and we had that conversation on January the 19th, 2026. Thank you so much, Eric, for sharing your time and thoughts with me there. Midlake's sixth studio album, A Bridge Too Far, is available now on Bella Union, and it's well worth checking out if you've not already. And if you like the show and you haven't already, please do give it a subscribe. Give the show a rating and a review on the platform of your choice. It really, really, really, really, really does help. Audiotechnica are the sponsors of Lost and Sound. Global but still family-run company that make headphones, turntables, cartridges, and microphones. They make studio quality yet affordable products because they believe that high-quality audio should be accessible to all. So wherever you're in the world, head on over to audiotechnica.com to check out all of their range of stuff. The music that you hear at the beginning, at the end of every episode of Lost and Sound is by Tom Giddens. And yeah, um I hope whatever you're doing, you're having a really fantastic one today, and I'll chat to you soon.