Midnight Channel Finds a Voice with the Lush, Longing “Must Be Nice”

LISTEN TO “MUST BE NICE” HERE

After years of rich instrumental experimentation, Lethbridge-based jazz collective Midnight Channel has done something wholly unexpected: they’ve added vocals. With the release of their newest single, “Must Be Nice,” the band offers a tender, rhythm-forward track that fuses bossa nova melancholy with subtle jazz dissonance and a heavy emotional undercurrent. Featuring a captivating vocal performance by Geneva Murphy, “Must Be Nice” marks a shift for the group—one that invites both longtime fans and new listeners into something more intimate and lyrically resonant.

For a collective that’s earned a reputation for genre-blending, this release feels like both a bold leap and a natural evolution. “Must Be Nice” is full of the rich textures and heady arrangements fans have come to expect, but the addition of voice adds a raw, direct connection to the themes that Midnight Channel has long explored instrumentally—loneliness, longing, cosmic yearning.

“‘Must Be Nice’ is a love song about how hard it is to get a date, let alone meet people,” says bassist Matthew Erdmann. “It's meant to remind you of third-wheeling your best friend and his girl in high school while seeing everyone around you connect while you're stuck doing all the self-improvement people tell you to do.”

That sense of yearning—deep, emotional, and slightly sardonic—runs throughout the track. With lyrics that trace the ache of watching others find love while you’re left behind, “Must Be Nice” captures a specific kind of heartbreak: the ache of invisibility, the loneliness of doing “the work” with no promise of reward. It’s not a song about bitter rejection so much as it is about the quiet sadness of being overlooked.

Musically, “Must Be Nice” is a lush, layered composition that pulls from a wide palette of sounds. Midnight Channel continues their tradition of genre alchemy, weaving soft Latin rhythms with warped jazz harmony and meditative textures. Geneva Murphy’s vocals feel both dreamy and grounded, floating over a backdrop of cuíca and berimbau percussion, twinkling synths, and upside-down guitar voicings.

Guitarist Austin Phillips adds a particularly inventive touch by flipping his strings upside down—literally—to create chord voicings that mimic piano harmonies, adding a slightly disoriented but beautiful element to the track’s overall sound. Erdmann’s production also pays homage to the experimental legacy of artists like Sun Ra, utilizing a Yamaha YC-30 portamento strip to create subtle, cosmic effects that gently pull the track into new dimensions.

The result is a track that feels sonically weightless but emotionally heavy. “Must Be Nice” doesn’t explode; it drifts. It simmers in its sorrow, allowing space for reflection, movement, and just the faintest hint of hope. The arrangement breathes like a meditation, pulling listeners into its orbit and holding them there.

Lyrically and musically, the single taps into a shared human experience—the sense of watching love happen for everyone else while wondering when it’ll be your turn. That experience is universal, but the way Midnight Channel expresses it—through jazz, experimental electronics, and now vocals—feels entirely their own.

The track also marks a new phase for the group, who made waves with their 2023 debut Gemini Sunrise, an album that reached #10 on the National Earshot! Jazz Charts. Known for their shape-shifting lineup and collaborative spirit, Midnight Channel isn’t just a band—they’re a revolving constellation of musicians, each bringing something unique to the table. “Must Be Nice” is a clear result of that synergy, blending individual talents into a cohesive, emotionally potent whole.

With “Must Be Nice,” Midnight Channel expands their sonic universe without losing sight of what made them compelling to begin with. It’s introspective yet inviting, jazz-forward but genre-fluid, and filled with a quiet urgency that lingers long after the final note.

This is music for the romantics who never get the last dance, for the dreamers doing the “self-work,” for the listeners caught between planets. It’s the sound of longing, layered with rhythm, soaked in vulnerability—and it’s a beautiful new direction for one of Canada’s most exciting modern jazz acts.