How MIDNIGHT CITY Was Made
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
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#Middle8 #M83 #MidnightCity
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Written, voiced & edited by Frank Furtado
Music by Epidemic Sound
Additional music by Matthew McClelland
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That synth-riff in M83’s “Midnight City” is made of a sample of Anthony Gonzalez’s voice, pitch-shifted and layered in effects. It’s just one of the many techniques Gonzalez uses to evoke a sense of nostalgia in the listener.
The single stems from his 2011 double album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. A massive, 22-track opus that pays tribute to his childhood, California and dreams. A statement. Reminding us of the importance and magic of art. Its ability to last throughout generations.
Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming would become a life changing experience for him. A chance to grow and literally find his voice. In 2010, just before turning 30, Gonzalez moved from his hometown in France to Los Angeles. Alone, looking to evolve as an artist. But something strange happened once he arrived.
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Disclaimer:
I do not own any of the videos, photos or music used in this video. They are used for education and discussion purposes under fair use law.
M83 makes absolutely perfect night-driving music
Sahidable1996 can’t wait to get my license!
Midnight City and Intro by the xx are my top two night driving tracks
Randy Shackleford saame i can’t wait 😩
I don't suppose you've played Forza Horizon? Have you?
Sahidable1996 Kavinsky does it too.
The person who came up with the idea to put the sax solo on the outro is an absolute genius.
Truth
Much like Supertramps Hide in you shell, The dreamy Sax outro seems to fade on forever. They never truly end.
I think it implanted my love for sax as a child. Sax overlays are my weakness in any genre now lol
I feel the energy of that moment flow throw me every single time. Could be my past as a sax player.
Diane F a sax in any band is my weakness. Part of why I love Fitz and the Tantrums and Saint Motel so much. Add a sax and I instantly love a song
Midnight city is just one of the bst song of all time, literally doesn't matter how many times we listen to it, it will always be amazing. And as always, great great great video.
The first time that I heard the first few seconds of that song I immediately downloaded the entire album.
Midnight city isn’t even the best track on the album lol.
Splendor is easily the best
Right up there with MGMT electric feel
I thought I was one of the only ones that thought this is one of the greatest songs ever made. It totally makes me feel and puts me back into my childhood in the 80s 100%. If I didn't know that it was made by current artists I would have totally thought that this was a song made in the 80s. It's such a good song
M83's song "wait" makes me feel sad and happy at the same time
Meloncholy,I get the same feeling with Meloncholy hill
@@redder_ the word you are looking for is ambient
Same as with silent hill: tears of
Honestly I find it pretty relaxing. Most people find it extremely depressing but I’m very calm when I hear it
@@nolanwazni3758 it's supposed to be happy and sad
Okay but why is the 80's nostalgic even to people who weren't born in it?
Because it was the beginning of the end og truly imaginative art
Because the 2000s are so shit.
@@zarlei6048 its not that but i believe its because our parents were from the 80s and our first exposure to music was from them. I grew up with music from michael jackson,kiss, metallica, guns n roses etc so it would make sense that i feel nostalgic with this type of music
Because for some of us that's the music our parents were playing on the radio when we were growing up. So we remember it from our childhood same as them, despite us not being alive in the 80's.
What's interesting is that my parents prefered 90's hiphop, and the other family members I grew up with listened to jazz. No one liked 80's music in my fam but me lol
"You'll never love another song the way you've loved the music of your youth."
Damn...I remember this album, and so specifically Midnight City, coming out when I was a junior in high school. I had just gotten my license and first car and was making late night drives with friends, hanging out with almost no responsibility yet. And now every time I hear it I can only reflect on those days, and having that first experience.
Same- this and other songs that were new when I first got my license will forever hold such a special place in my heart. There are some songs from that time that aren't great music, but I associate them with that first sense of true freedom and driving around with my friends feeling like we had all the time in the world.
I'm so happy that you got that chance to make those nostalgic memories. With that being said, I want to ask you for some help. People who are 17-19 now, during lockdowns especially in Europe, are making no nostalgic memories whatsoever. Our adolescence, our years of freedom before getting on the hamster wheel of life are ruined. We won't get to live them. How, knowing what you know now, would you come to terms with that if you were 17 - 19 now, in 2021? I would appreciate a response so much. God bless ❤️
I love how this channel breaks down songs and explain the things that are somewhat responsible for your bond with that song or artist in a way that you couldn't express before nor explain.
really appreciate you work
Orginal
Midnight City will go down a beautiful Timeless Classic. I’m 17 years old so I’m still kinda young to declare “an album that takes me back”, but one of the earliest albums I fully appreciated when I was 12 was Turn Blue by The Black Keys. I love that album.
Turn Blue is great, but definitely dig into Brothers, every song on there is great
Black Keys was my childhood! I was about 7 when their album Magic Potion came out and learned guitar because of it. Them and Muse's Black Holes and Revelations are what I fully appreciated as a kid. I'm going to be 20 this year which is crazy to think about, since it's been 13 years since those albums impacted me
I remember when Turn Blue came out my senior year of high school! It consumed my life for a long time, and I still have the poster that came with the CD. Rubber Factory is still far and away my favorite album of theirs, but Turn Blue was one of those works that’s stuck with me.
Yesssss same !!!!
Why am I crying goddamn it. I'm literally from the 00s. what the hell
@Alex Lanoux It really does
@Sensible Talk I bet it is exactly that. Glad I'm not the only one :))
M83 is one of those bands that just reaches you deep down.
The eighties were amazing! i'm from 1982 and I remember a lot. You know in those days you had only two flavors in chips: paprika and salt. Things were easier and more laid back then and we didn't worry a lot. But hey, the eighties are back baby! So that we have!
I feel that. I was born in Jan '97 and am a definite 00's kid. But this music still evokes nostalgia because my parents were young adults in the 80's and played alot of 80's music when I was younger.
This song always makes me want to pull a Perks of being a Wallflower moment and just stand up while the roof of my car is down
Lukas The Music Reviewer good way to put it.
Yes! I’ve always said this is my ultimate tunnel song.
Was thinking that same thing
♥️
YES THANK YOU SAME
this song just brings you back so much, reminds me of mgmt also so nostalgic to 2008-2012
dtx dtx this comment is soooo accurate omg
@W 9797 Synth Pop
Mgmt yes! Art is definitely thier inspiration.
Midnight City is one of those songs that just follows me everywhere, ever since I was 12. Like a love letter to urban youth and nostalgia. I drop in and out of contact with if like an appreciated but distant friend
Checkout the vaporwave version. I actually like it more now.
Mid-night, on GTA V, has non-stop-pop on, this pops up. Perfect
First time I heard this song, I sneaked out of my room through the side bedroom window in the middle of the night. Got into my friend's car and we drove to the beach, an alternative station came on and the night was clear. Various off the beaten path songs came on and as the Melbourne street lights zoomed passed. Midnight City came on and I turned the radio loud and sat out the window of the car and the wind blew as the beat vibrated on. The city was asleep and the moon was bright and I felt like the night was endless. That was years ago and I still remember the times of rebellious youth and being a creature of the night.
That's so cool dude
I absolutely love that for you
Funny how this song IS a part of my teen years, so I feel that same nostalgia when I listen to Midnight city that M38 felt when he wrote it.
same here. it's nostalgic for me, but in a different way than it is for him. which is even more impressive
This song is truly a masterpiece. Makes me cry 😢
Checkout the vaporwave version
Big “Drive” vibes
@Omry Goldwasser Nah
Based
Ryan Gosling?
oh wonder?
"Hurry up, We're Dreaming" is one of my favourite albums from the 2010's, is a mixture of feelings, that cannot be properly described with words, just by my heart and soul
I get chills whenever i relate with middle 8's way of emphasizing the context of a song especially when the edits are so good like it makes me feel like im an apprentice and he is a master teaching me the ways of music keep up the great content :)
I always think that this song is one of the songs that open the can of worms of 80s nostalgia that swept away the music industry (even until now) and inadvertently caused the birth of retrowave genre along the way.
Dude Ijust watched m83 for nostalgic purposes and this guy uploads
didn't ask to get this emotional on a friday afternoon but ok
I was in the back of my dads car driving through downtown LA late at night after an exhausting day and Midnight City came on. It sounded so good at that point. For 8 years I couldn’t find the song, then the KSP 2 trailer with M83 Outro playing led to me finding the band.
A year ago when I was visiting some friends in the NYC area, we were driving along the Hudson River at night on New Jersey's side when this song come on the playlist. Looking across the river at the glowing NYC skyline while this song was playing was basically a dream come true. Thank you M83 for making that memory so much better.
Am I the only one who plays this when I’m getting ready to go out?
No
No actually you're not.
Its so random to find someone literally doing the same thing as me.
I have been doing this since about a year.
Literally everytime I go out to Disco, Party, etc. I listen to Outro, Do it Try it, new Map or Midnight City.
Thanks for the Comment you made! Stay Safe dude!
I’m pretty sure I played it every single morning before going to school in 2013
Ooh ur not alone
god hurry up we're dreaming is such an important album to me. it was all I listened to my sophomore year of high school. it was one of the albums that got me into listening to music again, a year after my sister's suicide. music was always something we shared and with her gone I lost... everything. it wasn't until I heard midnight city, and then I downloaded the whole album and was able to get lost in those 22 songs, that i was able to begin healing. ugh wow sorry for rambling. I just have such an appreciation for this album
I feel ya man,this album is so magical
❤️❤️
hurry up we’re dreaming is a masterpiece and that’s all
Finally someone giving M83 the credit the band and their records DESERVE
“it recreates the joy we once knew”
damn. another great video.
Love this comment and ur profile pic hahahha
Yes, its called Synthwave, there’s tons of artists out there still making synthesizer music; Gunship, Timecop1983, The Midnight, New RetroWave, Trevor Something.
Ollie Wride, FM-84, Kalax and many many more great peeps.
I'd maybe call Midnight City synth pop, but it doesn't really matter. Those artists you named are great!
M83 is one of my favorite groups of all time. Something about music that’s so painfully human AND cinematic allows me to step out of my emotions while still feeling them- almost like I were watching a movie.
i love this album so much, it is like the soundtrack to my life. if i were to make a movie, i would just use sounds from this album
me too this album is incredibly underrated
This is the only electronic album I listen to. This thing is a masterpiece
Try Rufus du Sol
You would probably enjoy The Postal Service's album "Give Up" as well
Very very impressed with this my friend. Fantastic exploration of the music and it’s meanings, another subscriber deservedly earned.
Part of what makes this song so special to me it that I heard it in 2011 without knowing what it was or what it was called and it kind of buried itself in the back of my mind. Then 7 years later I rediscovered it realizing that during my entire middle school years this melody was playing on repeat, subconsciously, in the back of my head. This song will forever hold the deepest nostalgia.
Great Video
His story was so beautifully told! What a great storyteller you are!
You made me cry with happiness, this was beautifully narrated
the best way i can describe M83 is that it's the kind of music you'd put on in the car, turn up the volume as loud as you can, and just feel that sound cleanse you. like when you're at a party and the music is extremely loud, and your entire body feels like it's vibrating with it, but somehow not as invasive. you do that, and by the time it's over, you either feel like you blew off all your steam, or you're just bursting with this incredible passion for life and you want to cherish every moment that comes your way. like it's filling you up with so much energy, you want to scream along to the lyrics just to get it out. it's like the musical equivalent of driving really fast in a convertible and feeling the wind on your face. nothing tops that vibe for me, and for that, M83 is one of my favorite bands of all time. i know this video is almost a year old now, but i just got it recommended now and i've been aching to get these thoughts out somewhere.
I’m just driving around Rockford Hills with Michael and this song comes on
This guys makes me realise the thought that goes into music. I always just thought that music was something somebody makes from inside their head.
A lot of it still comes from inside their head, he's analyzing the music by music theory and context from the creator as it would be the best way to follow the composition without leaning too much into conjecture yet many artists organically create songs using pattern recognition rather than going by a structured design; not saying this is the case for M83 as he might have done many things on purpose looking for a specific type of sound such as using old gear or going for loud vocals. Just to give an example HOME created "Resonance" to outstanding success; and when later on MrAmazing did a wonderful breakdown of the many peculiarities inside the song from the perspective of music theory, HOME linked the video on his Twitter saying "somebody just did a detailed analysis of my song that probably took longer to make than the song itself", hinting that he might have just taken minimal conscious choices here and there and fill any gaps between with whatever seemed to fit in organically following patterns familiar to him.
It is VERY hard to create good music without any sort of thought however, just as it is incredibly hard to form an entire piece through pure logical process. Every artist requires to use both knowledge and emotion to form a song, which is how so many songs start as just a simple riff or a catchy adlib lyric with the rest of the piece being built around it as you can easily create an organized structure around the small bit you have following music theory, and then add frills and other odds and ends organically.
There are several artists doing 80's albums. Bat for Lashes 'Lost Girls' is very 80's and also very good. Big Black Delta's albums are so 80's they even got Debbie Gibson to do vocals on some tracks lol.
neon indian's last album has a very 80s feel to it as well
Futurecop is doing it too
The Midnight are also great.
All I can think of is playing gta5 with the bois at 12 AM. So yeah this is definitely nostalgic for me
I never knew that main riff is a vocal sample! It's actually always reminded me of the Forest Temple theme from Ocarina of Time.
Anthony isn't all that proud of Saturdays=Youth, but when I met him I told him it was my favourite. It feels like a John Hughes movie but through the prism of a dream. Coleurs is always fun live too.
I WAS LISTENING TO THIS LIKE A WEEK AGO CAUSE OF THE NOSTALGIA BRUH
"How M83 Evokes Nostalgia" ...well let me think they started out by writing the best song of my youth, lmao. It's hard not to admit this record is truly a classic now, it's ten years on!!
Honestly this video made me cry lockdown really got me feeling fucked up 😂 seriously though such a good message, music really has been an escape in this time xx
Outro might be the greatest song ever made. It makes me feel everything at once and provokes the exact nostalgia and makes me miss memories that i don't remember making. Such a masterpiece. I love this whole album.
Sounds doooope. I guess it's time to check this out. Great video as always dude.
This made me cry. I love videos like this, where we can make sense of the feelings we get from certain types of music. I'm a total sucker for 80s retro synth, because it is indeed very nostalgic. It feels so magical and otherworldly. Honestly, there's a few M83 songs that just make me tear up every time I hear them, and this is one of them.
Midnight city is honesty one of the best songs ever made !!!! I fell in love with the song on the first listen when I was 12!!! It’s an absolute Masterpiece!!!!!!! It calms me down when I’m feeling low or depressed . It gives me hope and strength to fight harder in order to achieve my goals and never give up on myself and my dreams.
I want this song played at my funeral. It’s touched me in ways I can’t describe
The song is tied to my first love. It was a short lived passion, and the summer after its dissolving, I took a weekend trip to Providence, Rhode Island with a friend and her family. We rode around all night (and this song played), eventually landing at a park on a hill overlooking the city. I was heart broken still, but so enamored by my friend and her family, and the music and the mood it evoked that night, that all I can think of now is how wonderful it all was.
This is phenomenal. You somehow explained what I felt about the 80’s (my childhood) when this song came out. One of our local radio DJ’s was talking about this in 2011, and even he described it as sounding like “a song that would play during a John Hughes rite of passage sadness montage while the main character figures out how they’re going to fix everything.” This song is still in my regular rotation 13 years later, and it’s only because it really does connect me with my youth somehow. Absolute magic.
because its literally THE SONG
Now I’m being nostalgic about the song that was made because of nostalgia
Best song of all of the 2010s😍😍
Such an insane album as well!
I deliver papers at night and I'm listening to "Hurry up, we're dreaming" every night ❤
Love the video! You're becoming one of my favorite channels and your editing has always been awesome. I hope you discuss The Strokes new album or maybe another great band such as Modest Mouse or The National!
Every time I hear this song it instantly go back to heading to my high school graduation
Your videos are the only ones in the entire UA-cam that I never allow myself to forget to like. The quality is just unmatched by anything else on the platform. Congrats dude, your work is amazing!
I always look forward to your videos. Not only does it give me a new spin to albums I already love or in this case, discovering wonderful artistes I have never heard of before. Thank you, please keep it up.
I remember vividly listening to this song in a party during a time of complete change in my life in a good sense, changing how I used to see and feel lots of stuff and was beginning to feel more in peace with myself the way I am. Thanks a lot for the video, brought back memories and a discussed perfectly why songs, even dull ones, mean so much to us. Cheers from Brazil.
Love M83 so damn much! Thanks for doing this. I wish you'd explored more of his music before and after this album and maybe talked about what he was upto now and what he is or could be planning for the future.
Hurry Up We're Dreaming is ethereal. When I was 17 we used to camp out on my buddy's acherage and listen to it by the bonfire while we looked up at the stars. I've always interpretated the Intro track as the universe itself talking to the listener, then you get chucked into Midnight City and the dreamy ride begins. It always manages to carry me off, I use the album often to fall asleep. Also, fun facts, the album is a brother/sister album on that each track has a sibling on the second half of the album, Gonzalez tried to envoke the feeling of his childhood and holy shit he somehow does it perfectly. This album feels like what night time felt like as a kid for me, full of wonder and free curiosity into the nature of our universe.
gang
What gang
ThePoopyBaby gang gang strap on me.
Ok
@@milk5002 kinky
gang gang
Hearing those first synths, covers my whole body of chills. I get the feeling of wanting to cry when I hear it. I don’t know if it’s happy or sad tears. Happy tears because I lived through those great moments of my life, and sad tears because I feel I cant ever recreate my younger self. This songs hits harder than any other I’ve ever heard. It’s amazing. I’ve never had such a physical reaction to a piece of art or media.
I dont think I've ever been this early for a video
This song came out during one of the most incredible periods of my life so far. I had gone to New Orleans to meet my dad for the first time at age 21. It was the first time I traveled. This song came on while I was drinking in a dive bar in the French quarter with a high school friend I’d been madly in love with for years. This song transports me back to that moment every single time. Everything and anything was possible. The nostalgia feeling in this song is just so deep and personal for me. Thank you so much for this video man, my heart feels super fucking heavy in the best possible way.
Wow
This episode was essential for quarantine haha
I had friend who loved this song, we were childhood friends till i moved and she got into a automobile accident and passed. she loved the song and all i remember is her when the song plays
I feel like the only thing that evokes more nostalgia than this is resonance - home
The whole album that song is on is fantastic.
M83, Angels & Airwaves, and The 1975 were all found my junior and senior year of high school. Absolute best time to be alive. Really too bad none of those bands are capturing the same glory they did back then.
The first walk the moon record will ALWAYS remind me of high school.
midnight city is the anthem of my childhood. i grew up in the 2010's. its one of the songs that define me as a person. my dad and i listen to this every time we're in a car together. when i get my drivers license the very first song i will blast is midnight city. i honestly think i'll write abt this song in one of the biggest essay im going to write in a couple of years
I felt that outro at like 7 minutes
I was in 7th grade when Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming released. Midnight City is SO important and nostalgic for me bc the middle school I went to was in downtown Austin, across the street from South Congress.
And when Midnight City released I was 13-14.
So when you’re going to school literally right across from and in the heart of downtown Austin nothing really beats that, especially when you’re a teenager.
Midnight City was just _such_ a good coming of age song for so many at that age.
It was also the perfect song to listen to when you’re in the car driving at night through downtown Austin when you’re 13-16. You get to imagine all of the cool things you’ll do when you’re 17/18/19, the memories you’ll make with your friends, what states you’ll travel to, relationships you’ll have, places you’ll live.
And you imagine and fantasize all of these things as you’re looking out your window at the city lights at night, streets bustling with people, buildings illuminated by their lights inside that never turn off.
Midnight City perfectly embodied “Midnight City” lol.
Albums that really shaped my musical taste in my early days were Discovery by Daft Punk and American Idiot by Green Day.
Discovery is my fucking jam. Voyager especially.
@@nsalegit9482 ya... my favourite picks are face to face and digital love
@@autumnisbetterthanspring digital love is amazing. I love the solo at the end.
@@nsalegit9482 that solo is everything
That final thought gave me chills, relatable and artfully produced and written, keep it up!
Whoaa used the same instruments in the 80's to create new music. As an 80's kid, I love M83
I have often ranted and raved for extended amounts of time, probably mostly to people who couldn't care less, about how awesome that damn sax is in the song 'Midnight City'!
Also even though I have only seen it once many years before hearing that song, I immediately, since the first time I heard it, picture that Sergio character that Jon Hamm did on SNL for some reason. Ha
He low key blew Hurry Up, We're Dreaming out of the water with Junk.
Dónal PREACHHHHH, Mai lan has god tier features
"We were YOU before YOU even existed." - Intro, "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming"
Fan of M83 since hearing "On a White lake, near a Green mountain" off of Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts, oh so long ago...
Midnight city makes me happy whenever it's on the gta radio
If there's one song that gives me nostalgia is Coldplay's Viva la Vida.
SAME
For me its every song made by FUN
For me it's Maroon 5 Payphone
This song captures the 80's vibe so good and when it builds up and then explodes into music greatness at the end with the sax solo is so god damn grand
This is the song that everyone had listened to but don't know the name
True
Jessie Frye’s “Faded Memory” hits me right in the teenager/early 20s nostalgia years. It perfectly captures that sense of longing and heartache after a breakup when you’re younger, when everything is intense on a level I just haven’t felt for a long time.
M83 outro is beautiful , and always makes me cry
UNKNOWN404 best track off the album for sure. It hits like a train
The production quality of these videos is just plain insane. Keep it up, dude.
*Pleasseee cover something about Florence + The Machine*
I second this!
Yas!
I cannot say how much I love M83 and How to make it in America was the first place I heard them then I heard them everywhere
I remember M83 there was on particular song I loved from them . . .now I have to find it
Edit: Found it was Do it Try it
Swagless junk absolutely slaps
your editing is so freaking amazing, your vids are perfectly put together.
"You read a thousand comments everyday make sure this is one of them"
Adam MAT
Can we also appreciate how genius the channel owner is! And on so many different levels!
I really hope you make a video on his 2019 album DSVII. It’s really unlike anything that I’ve heard before!
234 Account lowkey a better album than HUWD, soo many great tracks with perfectly unique ideas.
@@janlanser648 I wouldn't go so far as to say better, mostly because HUWD is an artistic behemoth and DSVII is like a side project. Still, I think it's an amazing album with just as much nostalgic value. Really brings back memories of watching anime and playing video games as a teenager.
Maddie Lueck What makes you say it’s a side project? It’s a full length release
As someone with memory loss problems who can't remember a lot of my youth, songs like this just hit so different. It makes me feel like I'm remembering things I lost. Its magical.
Oh this is a good one.
Yes
frfr i found your channel last night and i love it i have binged all your vids and midnight city is frfr a song that always puts me in a mood. Like i always feel like i am seeing my life in a montage when i hear it! great vid
I really wish he would've talked about Junk