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Midnight Empire

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The greatest rock band of our generation is growing!

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Hometown	Dallas, TX
Genres	Modern Rock
Band Members	Jacob Henderson vocals; ; Art Stuck guitar; ; Matt Cook... » more
Achievements	» more
Upcoming Shows	None

Contact Information:	Manager Kevin Huckabee kevin@midnightempireband.com 972-415-1079
# Years Experience Performing Live:	1
# Live Perfomances Past Six-months:	11
Market Draw:	DFW: 51-75
Venue History:	House of Blues - Dallas - Dallas, TX Curtain Club - Dallas, TX The Bone - Dallas, TX The Boiler Room - Dallas, Tx The Jam Station - Plano, Tx Hailey's Club - Denton, TX The Rail Club - Fort Worth, TX Prophet Bar - Dallas, TX
Similar Artists:	ACDC; Aerosmith; Guns N' Roses; The Rolling Stones; Velvet Revolver; Alice in Chains; Led Zeppelin; Foo Fighters; Red Hot Chilli Peppers; Buck Cherry; Jet; The Cult; Slash; Ozzy Osbourne; Van Halen; Rush
Performing Rights Society:	BMI
Discography:	Everything and Nothing LP—2012

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About the Artist

Imagine Guns N' Roses and ACDC had a snotty bastard child. Then you've got the seed of Midnight Empire. Nothing pseudo about this band. The energy blasted from the stage during their live performances can be felt in waves. You Can't Get Enough!

Frontman...

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Music

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Can't Get Enough Official Music Video

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11.30.12 What's It All About Oklahoma Live

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Achievements

Rock Videos Winner, July 2013

Rock Videos Winner, June 2013

Acoustic Winner, December 2012

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Press Coverage

Spotlight on Texas Artists: Midnight Empire by
Take a little soulful swagger from Led Zeppelin, a bit of the psychedelic angst of Oasis and a smidgen of the dark intensity of Stone Temple Pilots and you come up with Dallas' Midnight Empire. The three-man-bandlead singer-bassist Jacob Henderson, guitarist-songwriter Art Struck and drummer Brent Baker- is ready to beef up its North Texas presence. A four-track EP, Soluna, is now finished. It includes the beat-heavy rockers "Borrowed Time" and "Black Eyes." A conceptual clip for "Borrowed Time" will be shot in September. In addition, a live concert Blu-ray shoot at Dallas' Wave Maker Audio is on tap for early 2012. Meanwhile, these dedicated guys are forging ahead. After forming in early 2011, Midnight Empire is doing what every other original musical outfit should do. The group is armed with tunes, promotional material, a website (www.midnightempireband.com) and a burgeoning fan base. The only thing left to do is take the stage.

Dallas band Midnight Empire plays rock ’n’ roll by
Qualifying adjectives are unnecessary: Midnight Empire makes rock music. It isn’t alternative, thrash, indie, punk, pop, electronic or metal. It’s rock ’n’ roll, pure and simple. The Dallas-based band finds creative inspiration in Guns N’ Roses (circa 1987’s Appetite for Destruction ), ’70s-era Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and early Van Halen. Midnight Empire’s core members — Jacob Henderson on lead vocals, Art Struck on guitar and Matt Cook on drums — craft groove-heavy tunes with enough fiery rock swagger to set the stage ablaze. “I wear that as a badge,” says Struck, 25, as he sits inside Deep Ellum’s Boiler Room. “I get out a lot and I see indie, electronica bands. Everybody is staying left and we’re going right.” It might be an uphill climb, since the local music scene comes saturated with groups intent on appealing to young, hipster club dwellers. But the Midnight Empire guys aren’t sitting around waiting for the trendy climate to shift. Formed less than a year ago in spring 2011, the band already has a full-length CD, 2012’s Everything and Nothing. The disc, recorded in November at Dallas’ Crystal Clear Studios, includes Empire staples such as “Black Eyes,” “Misery” and the R&B-dipped “Borrowed Time.” Henderson played bass on Everything and Nothing , as he has since the band’s inception. But the goal was always to give him freedom in concert to do what all memorable rock frontmen do — command the platform. So a recent local search for a permanent bass player turned up 23-year-old Chad McClintock of Plano. He is now officially Midnight Empire’s new bassist. But McClintock is so new that he wasn’t yet on board during our interview and photo shoot. With all the musical pieces in place, and armed with 10 original songs from Everything and Nothing, Midnight Empire craves the opportunity to be seen and heard. But because the sound is so authentically rock, Henderson, Struck and Cook are mindful of being paired with the right headliners and playing locales that fit their style. “A lot of that comes from the fact that we play all our instruments,” says Cook, 20, who joined Midnight Empire last September. “We were born to do this. I started to play drums because my dad liked it and I liked it. I didn’t start doing it to look cool.” That just might be a byproduct, though. Midnight Empire is picking up the pace: “Misery” is spinning on the KEGL-FM (97.1) “Loud and Local” show hosted by Angela Chase. Plus, more homegrown gigs are coming — March 3 at Hailey’s in Denton, March 24 at the Prophet Bar in Deep Ellum and April 7 at the Boiler Room. Rock music — no adjectives — still thrives in Midnight Empire. “We are the last of a dying breed,” Henderson says. “But history will repeat itself. My grass roots are in rock ’n’ roll and I want to play rock ’n’ roll. No apologies.”

Concert review: Dallas band Midnight Empire by Mario Tarradell
I don’t think I’ve ever seen women moshing. It’s always men doing the circling and slamming, egged on by hard rockers cranking onstage. Dallas’ Midnight Empire changed that. At the foot of the stage, a handful of ladies were getting into the shove-and-shuffle. This concert was 75 minutes of pure rock ’n’ roll delivered with feverish energy. It was early Sunday morning, a half-hour past midnight, when Midnight Empire blazed onto the Boiler Room platform. The crowd was compact, but rabid. The electricity flowing between band and audience was palpable. Barely a year since its formation, Midnight Empire sounded as tight as veteran rockers. Lead singer Jacob Henderson, guitarist Art Struck, bassist Chad McClintock and drummer Matthew Cook are well-oiled. There were no stops and starts, no sloppiness and certainly no fear. The material is strong. The Midnight Empire guys write and play no-frills rock ’n’ roll that should never fall out of fashion. Henderson wailed like Axl Rose circa Appetite for Destruction. The rhythm section of Cook, Struck and McClintock whipped up grooves with fiery precision. During “Misery,” “Black Eyes” and “Can’t Get Enough,” staples from Empire’s debut disc Everything and Nothing, the chemistry was as thick and visible as the atmospheric smoke wafting from Cook’s kit. Yet perhaps even more impressive than the music itself was the unabashed freedom. There were no boundaries. Henderson frequently jumped off the riser and landed smack dab among the fans. Several times Struck and McClintock stepped over the monitors and worked their instruments within inches of the moshers. This was rock ’n’ roll as a completely communal experience. Henderson and company took advantage of the free-flowing ambience and uncorked a rare live rendition of the R&B-influenced “Borrowed Time,” covered Steel Panther’s “Tiger Woods” (no, it was not about golf!), and offered a few non-CD tunes such as “Lie to Me,” “Lesson Learned” and “Moving On to Something New.” A couple of other tracks from Everything and Nothing, the Zeppelin-inspired “Under the Table” and the old-school rocker “Sign of the Times,” succinctly defined the band. Rock ’n’ roll, the brand without qualifying adjectives, lives and breathes in the Big D. For that, thank Midnight Empire.

Dallas Band Midnight Empire Out To Make It Big by Debut Release "Everything and Nothing"
With a huge sound, smooth grooves and a high energy punch, Midnight Empire sets their path to make it big on a grand scale. With their recent debut release, "Everything and Nothing", recorded at Crystal Clear Studios, ME is gigging around DFW to prove they have what it takes to be noticed in this town. The band recently received local radio airplay & press from DFW rock station, The Eagle 97.1, which quite frankly is not easy to achieve in Big 'D'. Having seen Midnight Empire perform live at the War Of Rock event last October, I can honestly say this band has potential The tightness, high energy they poured throughout their showcase was what I would call a REAL Rock and Roll experience!

Midnight Empire; Emerging Artist Pick by
Last year around this time, no one had heard of the Dallas-based rock band called Midnight Empire. They were still a few months out from starting a band. Bassist/vocalist Jacob Henderson and guitarist Art Struck hadn't met. And drummer Matt Cook wasn't a glimmer (someone else with sticks came first). And yet, Midnight Empire comes across as a three-piece that has played together for decades. They have a manager. They have a slate of booked shows. They earned some play time on local stations. They have a self-produced album, up on iTunes and stocked at most Dallas record stores. When you look at other local bands, so many seem like they are afraid to do stuff for themselves," says Cook. "They seem like they're waiting around for something to happen." But not this band. Despite a big rock sound that often harkens back to an era that predates grunge and alternative rock, they have a modern tenacity that's hard to ignore. They set their lightning pace early last year, shortly after one of Henderson's friends suggested he call Struck. Struck had recently graduated from the Musicians Institute's GIT Program in Hollywood and moved to Dallas in the hope of starting a band too. When they did meet, it came together naturally. They started writing acoustic arrangements on the same day. They established a definitive direction. They could see who they wanted to be. All they didn't have was a drummer. And it would take several months before they found Cook. In fact, Henderson and Struck still describe their first drummer experience with an intense bitterness. They call him lame. A fucking idiot. A virgin with STDs. We really wanted a band that could collaborate on all ideas," says Henderson. "A lot of times, we piece together stuff and then Art shows up with some chords, and maybe a word or a phrase or a title. And then we all jump in and start dissecting it until something comes out of it that isn't forced."....

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