On a scorching Saturday afternoon, a lull hangs over Bonnaroo as festivalgoers cling to the shade under their campsite canopies and nap beneath trees in the venue. But as the 1PM hour wanes, they stir from their slumber, beckoned to the main stage by a tractor beam of funky grooves piercing the Tennessee heat. The Midnight Generation “Mothership” has landed on the Farm to move the bodies and lift the spirits of Bonnaroovians braving the midday sun.
Pulling the crowd to prove it in their festival debut, the five-piece electro-funk outfit from Chihuahua, Mexico, and its famous fusion of disco, synth-pop, and retrofuturistic sounds have become one of electronic music’s most exciting international success stories in recent years. After a decade of evolution at the hands of founder Fernando Mares, the band’s studio jam sessions went viral in 2024, launching them to a lengthy breakthrough world tour in support of their 2025 album, Tender Love, months later.
With Mares on vocals, keys, and guitar, joined by Luis Carlos “Bica” Valderrama on keys and backing vocals, Carlos Amaya on bass and keys, Samuel “Sammy” Márquez on drums and backing vocals, and Diego Bustillos on percussion, Midnight Generation played 89 shows for over 200,000 fans in 15 countries last year. Now, the MG “Mothership”—the name given to their intricate, 14-synthesizer live setup—is back on the road for another huge summer run, where the band’s TalkBox melodies, choreographed dance moves, and matching tracksuits are once again storming festivals on both sides of the Atlantic—and redefining the global possibilities of alternative Latin music in the process.
As they roll on to more major festivals like Electric Forest, Madrid’s Mad Cool, and Switzerland’s heralded Montreux Jazz Festival before joining modern indie-dance and disco legends Empire Of The Sun, Jamiroquai, and Purple Disco Machine on tour later this year, Midnight Generation connected with EDM Maniac after their Bonnaroo set to talk about their growing global profile, signing with Sony Music, and their new album, coming soon.
EDM Maniac: How are you guys feeling to be here at Bonnaroo?
Fernando: We’re doing good, man. Good vibes. It was a great set, great start. We did a couple of festivals in the last days, and we are ready to start the rest of the tour. We’re happy to be here.
EDM Maniac: Are there any particular moments from this set that stand out to you most?
Fernando: From the beginning, when the people were waiting to see us, they were looking forward to our set. They were going out to see which songs were we going to play. That was really cool.
EDM Maniac: You guys also brought out a cool little dance number in the front half of the set. Do you pull that out every show? How did you choreograph the moves?
Carlos: We do it every time, but this came up when we were at the hotel room in Europe one day. We decided let’s make a dance, and then we did it like the very next show. We just went out there and did it. So yeah, it’s about keeping it simple, fun. I think people love it.
Fernando: It’s also something that we’ve been doing in the last four or five years, but in a different way. It’s been evolving over time, so it’s really fun. We always try to bring fun moments, moments for the people, so they can have fun and laugh.
EDM Maniac: For those who may not have a background in live electronic music hardware, walk us through “the Mothership” for Dummies.
Fernando: A lot of synthesizers. It’s really similar if you think in an electronic way or like a DJ setup. It’s just more channels. We have different synthesizers on one side, and we have everything connected via MIDI. We have a computer in the back, and we control the program changes, and we can also send MIDI sounds to every synthesizer.
And also one important thing is the drum section, or the percussion section. In our music, it’s really important to have good rhythm, like disco. And of course, we have at least three synths that only do bass sounds. We have the Voyager, which is the most powerful synthesizer in my opinion, and then we have another Moog for the basslines, and the electric guitar, which is a bass.
EDM Maniac: How many total pieces of hardware is that?
Fernando: It’s 14 pieces that we pack in checked bags at the airport.
EDM Maniac: Oh my gosh.
Fernando: Yeah, there are like small things in it, so a total of like 40 channels.
EDM Maniac: The TalkBox is a fixture of the setup. Tell us a little about how you use that instrument and how it works.
Fernando: A TalkBox is literally a speaker, and you make a sound with a synthesizer that goes into the speaker, and then you connect the tube to the speaker, and the sound that you play in the synthesizer goes to the tube. With your mouth, it’s like replacing your vowels and just using the synthesizer as the sound. The sound, you can make whatever you want with. In your voice, you can make any sound or any word with your mouth, so that’s basically what we do.
The TalkBox is not a new thing, but it’s a really fun part of the show. And we really like the people that play with it. Back in the days with Stevie Wonder, Roger Troutman. Daft Punk did a lot of vocoder. Many artists. Chromeo.
EDM Maniac: Your sound has been frequently compared to the last two acts you mentioned. But to you personally, what styles or influences make up the musical backbone of Midnight Generation?
Sammy: Each one of us has different likes or influences. Everyone is talking about “the Mexican Daft Punk” or whatever. It’s an honor to be compared with those artists, and obviously those are very big influences for us, but we always try to bring our own stuff, our own style, to our music and to our live show. I think it’s a very distinctive way to see us, you know, as a band.
Fernando: The thing is that your references are always changing. Of course, we all listen to Elton John, we all listen to the Bee Gees, Nile Rogers. But the interesting thing is to live your life and kind of look for what you like and how you can develop your sound and have something new, which is the most challenging thing.
EDM Maniac: What do you think are your biggest strengths, and besides jamming, where do you get your on-stage chemistry from?
Bica: I think from the music for starters, and we’re all good friends, so we enjoy our company. We hang out all the time, we go and have some food. We hang out at the Airbnb, at the hotel, so we try to maintain a good relationship between us, so that it can show the chemistry on the stage.
Fernando: We are simple guys. We all like to have fun. We love to go and drink alcohol too, [laughs] just everything with measure. But we are good friends, because that’s the most important thing.
EDM Maniac: Fernando, the project starts with you, but how did you all eventually come together?
Bica: Well, I got a text message from Fernando. He was planning on doing a live session with the Odyssey album, so he chose a few songs, and he invited those three. Diego joined us maybe two years ago, and it all started from there. From that live session, we kept rehearsing. We had a couple of shows, a couple of weddings, and it all started kind of small, but it kept growing and growing.
Sammy: We all are from Chihuahua, so it’s a small town in the north.
EDM Maniac: What is the music scene like in Chihuahua?
Fernando: It’s really interesting. It’s a lot of rock and folk, that kind of stuff, but not much. There are not so many artists, but there are many artists that are really good.
Sammy: You need to move to another big city in order to try to make it. It’s hard, but there are a lot of really cool bands there. The Soulcasters. A lot of great musicians, artists, actors. There’s history there.
EDM Maniac: You guys have been at it for a decade. How has the vision for Midnight Generation changed over time?
Fernando: To be honest, nothing has changed for that. You never know where you are going. You just know what you want to do in terms of music, but to be honest, I wasn’t expecting to do this for a living. It’s been crazy. A lot of good news for us last year, this year. It’s been great, unbelievable. But I think it’s still the same as it started. Make music. Make music that makes you smile, to have fun. For you.
The other thing is that if the music gets good views and, I don’t know, success, that’s a great thing. But it all starts from enjoying what you do without expecting anything.
EDM Maniac: When and how did the tracksuits come into play?
Fernando: To be honest, we always look for Pinterest ideas. We talk about what should we do next. It’s also really helpful for us because we don’t have to think about our dress ideas every time, so we just put on our uniform.
EDM Maniac: Much easier to pack when you’re traveling, I’m sure. When you’re not on the road, you’re often seen on the internet jamming together in your home studio. Where is that setup, and how did it come together?
Fernando: We actually just moved our studio. We are starting a new one, but we are really grateful for that studio, because we did a lot of music, we did lot of videos. There are a lot of stories over there. We have that studio in Mexico City, but we are moving the studio to Guadalajara, Mexico, and, definitely, I think it’s going to be a really cool spot.
EDM Maniac: What went into the decision to move it?
Fernando: It was in my house. I wanted to be closer to my girlfriend. [All laugh] We were always traveling because of the shows, and I was going to be traveling all the way to see her, and also these guys live in Chihuahua, so for them, exactly the same.
EDM Maniac: And is that the same space where you have recorded most of your albums?
Fernando: The last album, yes. The other one was in Chihuahua.
EDM Maniac: You’ve begun recording the next album as well. What can you share about that project?
Fernando: We actually recorded a couple of videos this week, and it’s a really fun album. It has really interesting songs. We really like it. Also, it is going to go out with Sony, so that’s a huge thing for us also, because it’s a big label. We have really good sensations about this album.
EDM Maniac: Bonnaroo is just part of your massive tour this summer. From Gov Ball last weekend to returning to Mexico City next weekend, and then heading off to Europe with Empire Of The Sun, Jamiroquai, and Purple Disco Machine, what are you most looking forward to on this tour?
Carlos: That’s a great question. I think I can speak for everyone. We’re very excited to go back to Europe, especially because we’re visiting smaller towns, but really big festivals as well. Like the Montreux Jazz Festival, for example, that’s huge. And also to share the road with Empire Of The Sun, that’s super exciting.
Fernando: To be supporting Jamiroquai for a show, yeah, it’s going to be dope, and it’s also an opportunity to bring our music to good stages.
EDM Maniac: Looking at the calendar, it’s a lot of different kinds of festival plays. Bonnaroo or Electric Forest is very different from the Montreux Jazz Festival, and you’re also playing smaller, underground electronic events. What is it like to move between those different performance spaces?
Fernando: It’s kind of the same. For us, backstage, we always do the same thing. But to be in a different place, like in Europe, it’s a really cool thing, because the people, the energy, it’s different. You have fun.
Sammy: We always love to play small venues too, like the intimacy with the people. But also, big festivals are always like a surprise, you know? It’s a different energy, but definitely both are amazing energies.
EDM Maniac: What does it mean to you to be sharing the stage with so many modern disco legends?
Bica: I still cannot believe that we are opening for Jamiroquai. That’s an artist that I listened to a long time ago, and to be opening his show in Luxembourg, it’s like I still can’t wrap my head around it, really. It’s really exciting, and I’m sure we’re gonna learn a lot about this show, and we’re gonna learn a lot about our performance and how to bring it even more to the next level.
Sammy: We always keep our heads on the ground, and we try to be humble. It’s a blessing, definitely, to play with those artists that you listened to when you were young. We are thrilled. We are very excited. We want to get to another level as musicians, as a band too, so this is a blessing, definitely.
EDM Maniac: After your first big North American tour last summer, what feels different this time around?
Fernando: Most of the shows are festivals. It feels different, but the same vibes, you know? It’s really fun. We’re happy for this because we were waiting to be in this festival for a long time. Now we’re here, and we have to do it right.
EDM Maniac: As you continue touring internationally, what does it mean to you to represent Mexico on the global stage?
Fernando: That feels really good because I don’t think there are many bands that play or do what we do from Mexico, so for us it’s a really cool thing. It’s a really cool feeling to be playing in the U.S. or in Europe and showing off our kind of music.
EDM Maniac: As your profile grows is there any sort of legacy you hope to leave?
Fernando: I think it’ll just happen. We don’t have control of what it’s going to be in the future, but we are just making what we think is best and what we like, and we’ll leave the rest to the people and see in the future what happens with what we did.
Featured image courtesy: Bonnaroo. Credit: Phill McDonald.