Sanjay Michael kickstarted Rocking Into Midnight straight with its title track, a highly ACDC-influenced rocking tune with bluesy solos and a moving flow. It brings back a lot of old-school memories and shows Michael‘s deep rocking roots, and how he mixes them with his touch to create something modern that’s his own. Rattlesnake Shuffle picks up its predecessor’s energy with playful rock riffs, bluesy licks, and pounding drumming, taking the record’s dynamics to the next level. It’s a fast, intense piece with a piercing flow that moves only forward, moving towards a bigger heavier sound that grabs the listeners’ attention, keeping them hooked and entertained. Fly Away takes a different approach with its acoustic intro, it shows a different side of Sanjay Michael‘s writing before blasting its energy into a heavier sound with his distorted riffs. Michael mixes acoustic and distorted electric guitars in an interesting mix within a solid catchy structure leading to a surprising creative outro. Rocking Machine hits next with pure blues rock melodies in an engaging flow and a damn catchy vocal melody. It has a powerful structure with dynamic twists and turns, mellow solos, and singalong engaging parts that I believe would produce some awesome moments when played live. Vampire Girl comes next with a building-up intimidating riff and deep bassline, keeping the energy levels at their highest with its open sound and hard-hitting sound. Sanjay Michael created an unpredictable flow in Vampire Girl that adds to the record’s sound and shakes things off as we reach the middle of the record. Introducing a mellow groovy pace, Backtracks comes next. Michael‘s crunchy distorted guitar added a raw texture to the song’s bluesy vibes, while its smooth chill flow allowed the listener to follow and fully digest each part of it and its flexible structure gave his guitar work the space to shine. Should Have Never Let You Go steers towards a slower sound with deep emotional vibes, showing off Michael’s skills in writing slowed-down ballads. It has detailed writing with multi-layered streaming melodies that smoothly carry the listeners through its chilling flow. It’s Just Business takes us again to a more groovy rocking sound with inviting vibes, and a solid structure with some guitar hero moments by Sanjay Michael. It’s Just Business has some subtle classic rock n roll badass vibes within its steady challenging flow, producing an interesting tune with raw feelings and attitude. With fast-moving riffs and an irresistible groove, Friday Night Drinks kicks in. It has some of Michael‘s best guitar work off this record, mixed with upbeat country-influenced riffs that’ll throw the listeners off their seats. All this with a cool delivery that definitely puts it among Rocking Into Midnight’s top songs. Ending the record on a high note comes City Blues, an open-sounding song with the perfect guitar tone and arrangement, cementing Sanjay Michael‘s style and approach. He cleverly steered his sound keeping things interesting with constant sound shifts, directing the song’s flow to keep the listeners on board and slowly banging their heads to his killer guitar. 

Rocking Into Midnight is an uncompromising rocking journey by Sanjay Michael. It shows his well-knowledge of his sound and direction, and his deep rock roots that he smartly uses to craft such hard-hitting catchy pieces that formed Rocking Into Midnight. Looking forward to more from Sanjay Michael, keep on rocking. Cheers!

• So, first thing out of the door…how did you get into rock?

More like rock got into me! 

I grew up in Malaysia, which was pretty restricted with local popular music at that time, being an Islamic country, and so my family and friends used to just consume Western music and movies.

I used to be heavily into pop, just like everyone else, until I head Def Leppard for the first time… It blew my mind. I mean, here was the sound I was looking for my whole life! Then came Guns ‘N Roses, and showed a different side of rock, showed what was possible.

• Interesting…and what made you decide to create this kind of pure rock?

The simple answer is that there wasn’t enough of it around! When you’ve gone through all of the classics and some undiscovered gems, you find yourself craving new material that no one is producing.

Rock used to be monolithic but it’s splintered into sub-genres. Melodic metal to prog rock and everything in between…  there’s often no common ground. That’s what I wanted to create with my music, a back to basics style that’s hopefully catchy and energetic enough for everyone to enjoy, especially the rockers.

• Tell us more about your latest album “Rocking Into Midnight”…what was the drive for you to make this album a reality?

Initially I just had a lot of time on my hands during the pandemic and I didn’t want to waste it. Then as the writing came along and the riffs, lyrics fell into place, I started to get a sense of being onto something special… I really could plug the gap between what rock I used to listen to and what music was on offer now.

When the recording process started (I had a very understanding producer!) the more I did the more I wanted to learn. I mean, it was a dream come true…. Here I was, doing the same things I had heard my guitar heroes talking about!

• Will you be pursuing other music styles…or are you focusing on bringing classic rock to modern audiences?

Classic rock only, but there will be variations on the theme here and there. For example, pianos, female backup singers, that kind of thing… Definitely no jazz!

• Who is your biggest supporter in life, not just music?

My wife Claudine… Thanks for everything babe!

• Did you perform any notable gigs or are you focusing on recording more?

Recording more for now… There has been a lot of turbulence within the Singapore music community during covid, with many musicians either leaving music or  even leaving the country.

I’ve got a few good men now and I’ve just recently teamed up with a band called The Vessels… they’ll be supporting me on live performances and we’ll play each other’s songs.

Album Review – Rocking Into Midnight by Sanjay Michael

• So what is it like for Sanjay to compose music…what’s your workflow?

Most of new ideas come from fooling around with the guitar… I try to get a good riffs, that’s the most important. Then I see what words would fit or fall into the chorus best, and that becomes the theme of the song. I take my time filling in the rest of the lyrics later. 

When I’ve got the songs ready then I record a demo using Garageband. I play around with the AI drummer (that’s really fun!) until I get the skeleton of the song that’s in my head and I record all the other stuff – rhythm, bass, lead, vocals in that order. This is the time to play around and experiment with, particularly for lead guitar.

• To all the gearheads out there…including me, what’s your go to gear, software, hardware and so on…

The primary signal chain is a Les Paul into a 100w Marshall – why reinvent the wheel?

My Les Pauls are all 59 reissues. I used a True Historic for rhythm and another R9 (with Burstbuckers) for lead.

The Marshall is my own JCM800 (my dream amp for many years!) paired with a 2×12 cabinet)

The acoustic I used on Fly Away is a Yamaha FG, which is also my primary songwriting guitar. I keep it in the living room on a stand, always ready for action.

The bass is a fairly rare Ibanez Black Eagle reissue. Slick neck and very easy to play.

My producer, Anura Selvadurai, recorded on Cubase. The hardware was a partly-analog Steinberg console.

Album Review – Rocking Into Midnight by Sanjay Michael

• In one sentence…tell all of the audiences right reading this right now…why should we hear Sanjay Michael’s music…one sentence, go!

You should listen because my music makes you feel good by connecting with everyone’s simple, positive energy!

• It was a pleasure chatting with Sanjay, we are looking forward to what he will do to keep the rock soul burning with energy and life…wishing you all the best Sanjay!

Thanks and my best to all of you at Rock Era!

The album will be released in phases, starting on the 12th of May, the lead single as released, it will be followed by the 9th of June release of the second single and finally on the 7th of July…the whole album will be released, making all classic rock fans out there in the world quite happy.

Sanjay is an independent artist based in Singapore, he’s a multi instrumentalist…he played everything on he “Rocking Into Midnight” and did all the vocals and all the instruments, except for the drums that were played by Joel Seah…the album was produced by Anura Selvadurai from Spectrum Audio, Singapore.

“Rocking Into Midnight” has 10 songs under its belt, with a great range that covers rock, pop rock, acoustic and blues rock…so you’re in for a treat for sure.

The first song is the album’s title song and it’s a song filled with nostalgia for classic AC/DC energetic riffs…

Going further into the album you come across with a wide spectrum of great classic sounding songs like “Fly Away”…it starts as an acoustic song with guitar and vocals…but then it builds up into a beautiful anthemic rock performance.

“Should Have Never Let You Go” is a good example of an anthemic ballad song, with a performance that feels like it’s being played live in front of a full packed stadium…it’s perfect for the stage.

…if you’re looking for the upbeat rock stuff, you’ll find it here too with “Friday Night Drinks”…the upbeat twelve bar blues rock soul is here, but it’s on steroids…great energy.

The album ends on a high note with “City Blues”…a nod to the classic AC/DC energy that we miss so much in recent years.

Sanjay is an artist keeping the art of rock alive…and as he said, I quote…

“Rock ‘n’ roll never left the party – it was just getting a drink at the bar!”

…Sanjay’s really bringing it with his album.

We wish Sanjay all the best in life, he deserves it.

We’ll be on the lookout for future projects, can’t wait to hear what you have next for the fans.

Cheers!

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