Pick up some Skyline Chili, make a few friendship bracelets and grab your buds as Midwest Friends Fest is returning to the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area for its sophomore year. Midwest Friends Fest is once again taking over the Southgate House Revival in Newport, KY.
The 2-day festival with multiple stages and amazing national and local acts like Signals Midwest, Cinema Stare, The 1984 Draft and Tooth Lures A Fang will take place from 30 & 31 May with tickets available here.
Griffen Holt of Columbus, Ohio’s Manor Gates joined TGEFM to chat a bit about this year’s festival for this installment of our MWFF interview series. Check it out below and we’ll see you at the bonfire in the woods!
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! What should our readers know about Manor Gates; your history, your mission, your sound?
We are an emo rock band from Columbus, OH. We’ve been around since early 2022 and have released an EP, LP, and a single so far. Our motivation has always been to have fun and level up with everything we’ve done whether that be our music, stage show, tours, merch, etc. We’ve been lucky to have the recognition and opportunities so far but hope to continue that trend as we move into our next album cycle.
You are gearing up for Midwest Friends Fest in the coming months, what does the festival circuit mean to artists like yourselves?
Festival season is always a very exciting time of year for us! We get the opportunity to play to larger crowds that may or may not know us and see old and new friends.
What does Manor Gates have planned for us beyond MWFF?
We are currently writing our second LP and plan to record it this fall with Billy Mannino at Two Worlds Studio in Queens, NY. Billy has worked with many of our peers and friends (Oso Oso, Macseal, Equipment, Palette Knife, Townies, Kerosene Heights, etc.), so we are very excited to see what we can come up with together.
What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences with the band so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?
Our most memorable moments have definitely been the people we’ve met after shows that are so psyched and have such nice things to say about what we are doing. It makes all the other hard stuff worth it. One of the weirdest things that has ever happened to us is witnessing a proposal after a very bad show on tour. The whole thing was so awkward and poorly planned that it made a bad show almost hilarious.
Regarding live sets, what are you most excited to bring to the Midwest Friends Fest audience? What do you want the attendees to say about your set when they tell their friends about you?
Very excited to be playing and trying out new material. We’ve had great responses so far. We hope people walk away from our set wanting to hear more. We always try to be put on a show that sets us apart and makes you an instant fan.
We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?
Not sure we have a good answer for this as we’ve been very strategic in everything we’ve done. I’ll say there have been so good tour offers we’ve had to turn down for one reason or another but things always work out in the end.
The punk, ska and indie scenes have almost always been at the forefront of inclusion and diversity within the music scenes. The flipside of course is that the gatekeeping in the scene is also very prevalent? Why do you think the genre brings in such a welcoming community and is so happy to let everyone in and also seems to shut the doors so quickly behind themselves?
Being a part of so many different scenes over the years, I think it comes from a place of fear. Fear of losing what made that thing so special. But what people don’t realize is that things have to evolve and adapt. By letting newcomers experience what you found so special it allows for things to naturally ebb and flow. Gatekeeping something only keeps things stagnant and will never gain the fandom it deserves.
This festival is all about friendships and music. What do you value most in friendships amongst yourself and your stagemates?
Our whole friendship has been rooted in competition and roasting each other. We always say if we can’t roast each other, what’s it all been for? Ya know?
Manor Gates is one of the most well traveled performers on MWFF. What advice do you have for the younger acts coming up in the scene? What has been the biggest change you’ve had to adapt to since starting out?
The best advice we can give new acts is to be yourself whether onstage or online. Don’t try to be someone else. Genuineness is contagious and you can always tell when an act is truly enjoying what they do. The importance of social media can not be understated but it’s just as important to get out of your own city. Do as many weekenders as you can. Try and fail until you get it right.
Last year, you were part of the inaugural Midwest Friends Fest. What made you want to come back and perform with MWFF again? How has it felt being able to watch this thing grow from the inside?
Jared is the main reason we came back. He’s been such a big supporter of us from well before the first MWFF. He made the first fest so much fun and easy going that it felt criminal to not experience what he and his crew could do again. We are super excited to see how far this fest can go and hope to come back again in the future.
What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst? On the flipside to that one… Who are some non-MWFF bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?
When we were first writing the first EP, Carly Cosgrove‘s EP “Woah, Take it Easy Man” really lit a fire under us to finish it.
As for new bands, people should get hip to Bottom Bracket, Mud Whale, Palette Knife, Of Two Minds, Riley, Best Noodles in Town, 95Coralla, Cheem, Yes Yes A Thousand Times Yes, tenmonthsummer, Clipboards, Summerbruise, the list goes on and on and on
I don’t know if you’ve heard about this newcomer by the name of Taylor Swift. Her growing fanbase trades friendship bracelets. If you made a bracelet for MWFF, what word or phrase word you put on it?
It would definitely be something hot dog related
Post show jam session in a large, empty field. What song are you singing around the bonfire? (Pardon my playful biases, but everything I know about the Midwest comes from shitty movies and songs by the Kinsella Bros. so I assume everyone playing here has spent some time at bonfire parties in the fields off some lonely county road)?
Most likely some early Dashboard Confessional
Midwest Friends Fest is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see?
Oh boy, so many homies playing the same day as us. Hoping to catch Leisure Hour, Year Twins, Cinema Stare, Lay Low, Hummus Vacuum, and Life in Idle.
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
You can ask for diced onions instead of the slivers when you order a Quarter Pounder at McDonalds. Don’t be scared.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/