With Voices Changed, Midnight Strangers Drop ​“Odyssey”

A rising band of New Haven pop-rockers had a new album to put out. But first they had to:

• Find a place they could practice and record.
• Factor in the fact that the lead vocalist’s voice was changing.
• In one case, get a ride from mom for the pre-release radio interview.
• In another case, get permission to leave school for an hour.

Such are the extra challenges of making your mark in music if you’re also a bunch of high-school juniors.

The members of Midnight Strangers figured it all out, and more. Now Odyssey, their new (and second) album, is ready to drop Friday morning. And it’s worth all the extra challenges that come with mixing the demands of high school with the pursuit of musical dreams.

The album crackles with upbeat bass, piano and guitar-driven tracks, catchy melodies, smart lyrics, tight harmonies, and crisp production.

The Westville-based band members — bassist Nolan Wazni, lead vocalist Jack Marchand, pianist/cellist/guitarist Ben Card — have played together since first jamming as fifth-graders at Edgewood School. They write their own songs and work and rework them together. They also have merch, not to mention a variety of social media platforms. Their first album, Speed of Light, came out two years ago. (Read about that here.)

They’ve worked on the nine tracks that comprise Odyssey since then. Earlier in the pandemic they needed to develop ideas in isolation, then share and refine them online. Eventually they were able to gather in Jack’s basement.

Jack’s voice, meanwhile, dropped a couple of registers as puberty set in. By the end, he was better positioned for a spot with the Kinks than with the Osmonds. No worries — sometimes he’s harmonizing with himself on the album, and it works. Check it out on the first track, ​“Like Magic”:

The trio made it to WNHH FM’s Elm Street studios this week for a pre-release interview. Coop and Hillhouse High — which Nolan and Jack attend — were on spring break. Ben attends Hopkins, which follows more of a university calendar; he managed to score an hour’s‑leave pass around lunch.

They spoke in the interview about how they develop some of the songs over time — such as ​“The Conman” (“I wish I could tell you …/ It was the con man who got played …”). ​“That song took forever to write,” Ben recalled. He started earlier in the pandemic. ​“I was in virtual school. I had 10 minutes between classes,” Ben recalled. He was sitting near the piano, ​“which was very tempting,” so he found himself snatching that transitional time to develop a chord progression and then the music. The lyrics proved trickier. ​“I went out every morning” on a daily neighborhood walk ​“and tried to think of a chorus. I knew what the rhymes should be,” but needed repeated tries before landing on the ones that sounded right.

Check out the finished product:

To an older listener, the build-up to that chorus, with the final rush of words from the verses, brings ​“All the Young Dudes” to mind. The band members said they actually hadn’t heard that song before, hadn’t listened to Mott the Hoople. Other ​‘60s-‘70s vintage influences seem undeniable to this Boomer, such as Bowie and the Beatles (especially on ​“I’m Fine”, in below video; and Billy Joel on ​“A Second Chance”), trickling generations later to Midnight Strangers through the polymorphic currents of the ever-evolving musicgeist for a new breed of songsters to reshape.

In any case, the final product is their own, the second of what one hopes will be many albums to come as three promising Westville 11th graders continue to find their voices. Click here to order the album. As for watching the band live — there was talking about them playing Westville ArtWalk in two weeks. (They played it virtually in the past.) That plan is currently ​“unclear,” because SATS and AP tests are looming, and those too require preparation.