MIDRIFT

It's one of those stories that sounds almost too smooth to be true: a teenager sits in his room in San Francisco, writes songs between a laptop and a rumpled bed, uploads them to TikTok and suddenly the world is listening. Gus Mehrkam, frontman of Midrift, has experienced exactly that. Together with brothers Kai and Manoa Neukermans, he founded the band in 2022, which is now regarded as one of the most exciting young voices in alternative rock.

Midrift represent a generation that no longer cares about traditional career paths. No years of bullock tours through small clubs, no hard-earned fan base. Instead: one song, one algorithm, one momentum. Their self-titled debut EP was released in the same year the band was founded and hit a nerve. Within a very short space of time, the band amassed an audience of millions on streaming platforms. The sound they developed was anything but random. Shoegaze, this often introverted genre, is broken up by Midrift. The shimmering guitar pads are reminiscent of Deftones or The Smashing Pumpkins, but underneath lies a restlessness fed by emo and pop-punk. It is music that sounds simultaneously dreamy and urgent, as if it wants to push itself forward again and again.

The fact that Midrift are more than just a viral fluke became apparent in 2023 at the latest. They cemented their reputation with the EPs "Elysian" and "Leave" while playing their first tours at the same time. And this is where a chapter begins that seems almost old-fashioned in the age of digital careers: the stage. Because as much as their songs were created online, they really come into their own in the live moment. The concerts are loud, dense, physical. The guitars pile up into walls, the drums drive relentlessly forward and the audience generates a collective energy that cannot be streamed.

Their first headlining tour through California and Texas was sold out, as were their support shows for bands such as Fiddlehead and Momma. These are evenings where you can sense that something is in the making here. A band that has only just formed and yet already knows exactly where it wants to go. Perhaps this is precisely the appeal of Midrift: In the simultaneity of youthful immediacy and astonishing single-mindedness. They don't sound like a nostalgic look back at past indie eras, but like an update that takes the present seriously. Midrift will be coming to Berlin for a concert in the summer of 2026.