Header photo credit: Chill Life Photography
There’s something magnetic about a band that forms not out of ambition, but out of genuine love for their music and the community it cultivates. The Midnight Still, a six-piece indie “dark-folk” band out of Raleigh, NC, are exactly that kind of band. Formed in 2025, they blend banjo, fiddle, pedal steel, upright bass, and warm, layered vocals into a sound that sits somewhere between a campfire and a mosh pit — and somehow feels completely at home in both.
The band came together through a mix of old friendships, Facebook forums, and a shared hunger to make something real. Vocalist Katie and upright bassist Sean reconnected two decades after high school when he stumbled across her solo videos online. Guitarist Lee brought the jamgrass obsession. Banjo player Tracy drove in from Clarksville, Virginia, to rehearse — and kept driving. The result is a group that, by all accounts, genuinely enjoys being in the same room, and it shows in their debut EP, Echoes Through The Pines, produced by their own pedal steel player, Tom.
Since forming, The Midnight Still have been steadily staking their claim on the North Carolina music scene — sharing stages with the likes of Superchunk and Green Jellÿ at Port City Blitz in Wilmington, launching their own DIY festival Folk It Up Fest, and playing everywhere from Raleigh to Asheville.
What is something y’all have been listening to lately?
Tracy (banjo/vocals): I listen to Sierra Ferrell all the time. That’s one of my favorite artists. So there’s my answer.
Sean (upright bass): I am listening to a lot of Bridge City Sinners and Days N Daze lately.
Katie (vocals): I like to listen to anything that’s local around here. There are so many people playing around this area, so just trying to listen to all the stuff that’s going on.
Lee (guitar/vocals): I got bit by the jamgrass bug. I’ve been listening to a lot of Billy Strings, Shadowgrass, and Mountain Grass Unit. I’m an ex-Deadhead, too, so it makes sense, I guess.
What was the first musician or band that y’all remember discovering on your own and like becoming obsessed with?
Sean: Operation Ivy. Their energy completely pulled me in. The fusion of punk and ska felt fresh and exciting, unlike anything I had heard before.
Lee: As a kid, I was obsessed with Elvis Presley for a really long time. I had Elvis pajamas and toys, and would play this toy guitar and pretend to be Elvis all the time. I was really big on that and Johnny Cash in my early years.
Tracy: I’ve liked so many different kinds of music. Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac stand out for me. Same with Madonna. As the years went on, I got more into bluegrassy things.
Katie: The person who stands out the most and whom I was enamored with is Dolly Parton. I absolutely love her, her music, her energy, and just the amount of time that she’s been able to create music and be so epic.
What led y’all to come together and start the band?
Sean: Lee and I played in a punk band called Poison Anthem, where we opened for legends like Agent Orange, Murphy’s Law, The Independents, Calabrese, The Vibrators, and Argyle Goolsby. The sound was straight-up old school AFI energy, fast, catchy, and drenched in dark, singalong-worthy lyrics.
When COVID hit, that chapter wrapped up, and around the same time, I became a dad. Once my son turned three, I finally felt like I had the space to dive back into music. I reached out to Lee, grabbed my upright bass, and leaned into something I’d always wanted to do: start a band with that Flogging Molly energy. Then I fell down the rabbit hole of folk punk and realized, this is it. This is the sound.
Katie and I went to high school together, but I had actually never heard her sing back then. About 20 years later, I saw her posting videos of her solo material and was honestly blown away. Her voice was incredible, and I immediately knew it would be a perfect fit for the sound we were building.
We found Tracy after I posted in one of the Raleigh music forums on Facebook, looking for a banjo player. She’s based in Clarksville, Virginia, and drives to rehearse with us, which says everything about her commitment.
That’s quite the origin story!
Katie: And we’re also a six-piece! Our pedal steel player, Tom, and our fiddle player, David, aren’t with us tonight, but they’re both huge parts of our sound. Tom fronts his own solo project, Tom Murphy Music, and that songwriter’s edge shines through in every note he plays, giving our music a whole new dimension.
David, who also rips it up with Purebred Mutts, brings fierce energy and fiery fiddle lines that instantly command the stage. He’ll be playing his first show with us on the 21st at Cannonball Music Hall, and with both of them in the lineup, the energy is going to be absolutely explosive!
I don’t think there has been a band that’s had that high school connection coming back down the line. Katie, what was your experience getting that message and joining the band?
Katie: Oh, it was amazing. I had been living in Tennessee for nearly a decade until about five years ago. And when I moved back, I started doing more music and was posting my solo stuff. When Sean reached out to me, my immediate reaction was “Yeah, I would love to!” And it’s been so much fun. It’s been really awesome to do this with a group of people who are so talented and passionate about music. I couldn’t have guessed we’d reconnect and do something we all love together.
Tell me about your debut EP: what was the process for writing, recording, and releasing it?
Lee: One of the songs I brought was “Hollow Hills of Surry County”, which is about my childhood and the town that my mother grew up in, which I was partially raised in. Overall, the songwriting came easily. Learning them all together was the hard part.
Recording was kind of easy, too. Sean and I have recorded in punk bands before, and back then it was always a grueling process we kind of dreaded. But recording with this band, especially with Tom producing it, we did songs in one take, and everything seemed like we were just working out perfectly.
It gave us a template to practice on and get better. We were changing things around a bit, but once we finally got a good format for the songs, we really came together as a band and brought us to the next level, too.
Katie: Tom is incredibly talented as a producer and musician. The way he hears things, is receptive to what we want the sound to be, and adds in elements we had no idea would even enhance the song, which is amazing. He just poured everything he had into it, and it’s incredible that we were able to get that not only with a home studio, but with our band member. I feel like it brought us a lot closer as a band when we did that together, so we’re excited to do it again.
What was it like to perform at Port City Blitz?
Lee: The Wilmington music scene is incredible — friendly, supportive, and full of energy. This festival was really well put together, and having folk bands in a punk-leaning lineup could have been risky—but it worked. I was nervous we might be the black sheep, but the crowd loved it, and it felt amazing to see people really digging what we were doing.
Sean: I’ve got to give a shout-out to Mike Grindstaff from Rocket 77. They’re an amazing punk rock band from Wilmington, and Mike is the one who puts together this incredible festival. It’s like a mini Warped Tour with local bands front and center with a few killer headliners and it was seriously awesome to be a part of it.
Katie: I grew up around here, but I never really knew about the local punk scene until I met Sean and then started listening to it. But just the amount of setup and time it took to create something like that, to support so many local and non-local artists — not only just musicians, but artists that brought stuff to sell there — was just incredible.
Tracy: We had quite a good crowd that gathered around us, and they had to choose which band to go listen to at like five playing at the same time. I felt like we drew in a good crowd, especially when it was our second show. We had to be really loud. [laughs]
Looking back on 2025, what else stood out as a highlight for y’all?
Sean: We started a new DIY festival called Folk It Up Fest and put together two shows — one in Raleigh at Pine State Coffee (shout out to Lars!) and another in Charlotte at Tommy’s Pub (shout out to Jamie!). The festival highlights folk and bluegrass, with even touches of punk and rockabilly. We usually book six to eight bands and keep the events free or no more than five to ten dollars, making it easy for locals to get exposure and for everyone to come together. The goal is simple: build a community, support each other, and grow the scene like one big family.
Katie: The Folk It Up Fest was something we put together ourselves. We had two shows — one at Pine State Coffee in Raleigh and the other at Tommy’s Pub in Charlotte. It was a lineup of local folk bands, and it turned into an amazing community event. Bringing all these different folk acts together for a night of music was such a rewarding experience, and it was great to see everyone coming together around the music.
Any other goals that y’all are hoping for in the new year?
Sean: We’re planning to drop another EP later this year and keep hitting different cities across North Carolina. Next up, we’re at Cannonball Music Hall in Raleigh on February 21st, followed by a St. Patrick’s celebration on March 14th at Old Armor Beer Company in Kannapolis. It’s going to be a blast, and we can’t wait to get out there and play.
Katie: We’re just hoping to get more places to play and reach more people. Because every show, whether it’s a small crowd or a larger crowd, has been amazing. It’s been so much fun, and we just want to keep it going.
Tracy: And playing some more festivals!
Who are your favorite local/North Carolina bands?
Sean: For me, it’d be Tan and Sober Gentlemen. That band just puts on one hell of a show.
Katie: Purebred Mutts is amazing; we’re really excited to play with them at Cannonball. I absolutely love Andrew Kane from Wilmington. He brings such a beautiful energy to whatever space he’s in, and we’ve played with him several times. He’s become a good friend of ours.
Sean: Big shout-out to all the venues that support local bands — not just chasing national acts. It’s awesome to see these spaces investing in the local scene and helping it grow.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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