Chugg Music
Midnight Til Morning: From Netflix’s Building the Band to Sydney Live Sessions with Mude
Following Netflix’s Building the Band, Chugg Music taps Mude to produce a suite of stripped-back acoustic live recordings for Midnight Til Morning, ahead of their debut singles, “Bye” and “Ghost of Us.”
In collaboration with Chugg, Mude produced a run of acoustic live performance videos while the band was together in Australia. With no live performances since the Netflix run, the creative stripped it back to necessities – guitar, keys and cello on select songs – jam-circle style: everyone facing in, to highlight connection between the band members and allow for versatile shooting angles.
- 1,470,000+
- combined YouTube views across the five sessions (May 2026 capture)
- 5 of 5 sessions
- included in the official Afterglow Deluxe catalogue release on 21 November 2025
- 40-date
- US debut tour the campaign supported
The band Mude was filming
The band Mude was filming in Sydney in July 2025 had only existed for twelve months. The four members — Conor Smith and Mason Watts from Australia, Shane Appell and Zach Newbould from the US — had stumbled into each other mid-series on Netflix’s Building the Band in July 2024, a blind-booth competition where fifty musicians formed groups on vocal performance before seeing each other, mentored by Nicole Scherzinger, Kelly Rowland and the late Liam Payne.
The series premiered in June 2025 and went on to reach Netflix’s Global Top 10, by which point the band had signed with Chugg Music for global management and label services, joining a roster that includes Lime Cordiale, Sheppard and 2025 Eurovision act Go-Jo, with their debut single Bye cued for release on the 6th of August and a forty-date US tour starting in Orlando announced shortly afterwards.
The shoot landed in the window when the two American members of the band were in Australia for writing sessions and music video work, which made it the band’s first live performance since the Netflix production wrapped. Chugg’s reasoning for commissioning the work was that any fan arriving from the Netflix series would search for a live performance early — to see whether the band that had formed on television could actually play together as one — and the catalogue needed that content already waiting when they did.
The creative direction
The creative direction for the acoustic sessions was shaped by where they were going to live in the band’s catalogue. The studio EP versions of these songs had been built as full-band pop productions, with co-writes and production credits stacked with major contemporary pop names — Benson Boone, Amy Allen, Grammy-nominated JT Daly — confident, chart-shaped arrangements carrying all the sonic furniture you’d expect on a debut record with this kind of production pedigree, and the acoustic sessions needed to sit alongside them as a different mode of the same material.
That meant stripping the production back to guitar, keys, and occasional cello, staging the band in a circle at Château Wah Wah Studio in Sydney with the players facing each other, and building the arrangements to put the writing and the vocals at the front of the mix with everything else dialled down to make room.
Joel Farland came on as music director, shaping the arrangements and coaching the takes, while Robby De Sá — who had also co-written and produced Ghost of Us on the studio side — mixed the live recordings, which meant the same creative ear was sitting across both versions of the songs and the acoustic recordings could carry the same sonic character as the EP.
The shoot crew Mude assembled was the same configuration that had been making the studio’s long-running live music series Mood on the Roof for years — Ben Develin on camera as DOP, Benni Ling on 1st AC, Julia Goyen running audio, Amanda Rieck on hair and makeup.
What the work became
The sessions came out on the band’s YouTube channel through August, September and November 2025 — with Bye on the 13th of August, Ghost of Us the next day, Welcome to LA in mid-September, Navy Eyes at the end of that month, and 17 landing in late November — and by May 2026 had passed 1.47 million views between them, with Bye alone clearing 640,000.
Beyond the YouTube release, the acoustic versions also moved into the band’s official catalogue when Chugg and the band released the Afterglow Deluxe CD on the 21st of November 2025: the package bundled the seven Afterglow EP tracks with five acoustic versions released under the Afterglow (Unplugged) title, the Mude sessions now sitting in the band’s commercial catalogue alongside the studio recordings, with the band touring through October and November to support the release.
Related Projects
View Project
Video, Photography
Amazon Music
View Project
Website
Amazon Music
View Project
Brand, Video
Mood on the Roof
Webby Awards Nominee
2View Project
Website
Tamworth Regional Council
View Project
Campaigns
Mavin Records
View Project
Video
Dan Sultan
View Project
Brand, Photography
3 Keys Records
View Project
Video, Photography
The Rions
Frequently Asked Questions
You were going to ask anyway
Midnight Til Morning is an Australian-American pop band formed on Netflix’s Building the Band in July 2024. The four-piece (Conor Smith and Mason Watts from Australia, Shane Appell and Zach Newbould from the US) signed to Chugg Music for global management and label services in late July 2025, released their debut single “Bye” in August 2025, and put out their debut EP Afterglow in October 2025. By late 2025 the band was touring forty dates across the US and Australia in support of the release.
The four members of Midnight Til Morning are Conor Smith (NSW Central Coast, Australia), Mason Watts (Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia), Shane Appell (upstate New York, US), and Zach Newbould (Boston, US). The band’s lineup spans Australia and the US, and the management deal with Australian label Chugg Music has the band often described as an Aussie-led international pop outfit. The members met on Netflix’s Building the Band in July 2024.
Afterglow is the debut EP from Midnight Til Morning, released on the 8th of October 2025 through Chugg Music with Sony handling global distribution. The seven-track EP includes the singles “Bye”, “Ghost of Us”, “Navy Eyes” and “Welcome to LA”, along with focus track “Heart on Fire” and additional tracks “17” and “Edge of Amazing”. The lead single “Bye” was co-written by the band with Benson Boone, Amy Allen, Scott Harris and Elie Rizk, and produced by Rizk with Grammy-nominated producer JT Daly. The EP supported the band’s debut international tour through October and November 2025.
The Midnight Til Morning live acoustic sessions are published on the band’s official YouTube channel. The five sessions (“Bye”, “Ghost of Us”, “Welcome to LA”, “Navy Eyes” and “17”) were released in stages between August and November 2025 and had passed 1.47 million combined views as of May 2026, with the lead session “Bye” alone clearing 640,000 views. The five sessions also form the Afterglow (Unplugged) component of the band’s Afterglow Deluxe CD. The acoustic sessions were filmed and produced by Sydney and Canberra brand and creative agency Mude for Chugg Music.
Midnight Til Morning’s live acoustic sessions were filmed at Château Wah Wah Studio in Sydney by Mude in July 2025. The shoot was scheduled into the window when the two American members of the band were in Australia for writing sessions and music video work, making the sessions the band’s first live performance since the Netflix Building the Band production wrapped. The band was staged in a circle facing each other to capture the chemistry of a band that had only just formed.
Robby De Sá is an Australian audio engineer and music producer who co-wrote and produced “Ghost of Us” (a track on Midnight Til Morning’s debut EP Afterglow) and mixed the band’s live acoustic sessions filmed by Mude in Sydney in 2025. De Sá has also been the long-term audio engineer on Mude’s Mood on the Roof live music video production series, mixing sessions across five years of the series.
His dual role on the Midnight Til Morning project (writer and producer on the studio side, mix engineer on the live side) gave the band’s acoustic versions sonic continuity with the studio EP.
Live music session production is the capture and post-production of an artist or band performing live in a studio or controlled environment, designed for video release on YouTube, social platforms, or as part of a catalogue release. A live music session production typically covers the shoot (camera, audio capture, lighting, set design), music direction (arranging the songs for the live performance, coaching takes), post-production (picture edit, audio mix, colour grade, motion graphics, title cards), and packaging into multiple deliverable formats for YouTube, Reels, TikTok, and broadcast.
Mude has built live music session production for Chugg Music, Amazon Music, Dan Sultan, and Mude’s own Mood on the Roof series.
The right music video production company in Sydney for a given project depends on the scope and what the artist’s release needs to do commercially. For brand-led music video production in Sydney, where the production decisions sit downstream of the artist’s brand identity and positioning, the city has a small group of strategic brand and creative agencies handling music video and live session production as part of integrated artist development.
Mude is one of them: a Sydney and Canberra brand and creative agency producing music videos and live sessions for international labels and music management companies. Mude’s music video production portfolio in Sydney spans Chugg Music’s Midnight Til Morning, Amazon Music’s Country Heat campaign with Shaboozey, Charley’s live session for Amazon Music, Mavin Records’ Bayanni (in partnership with Jason Derulo), Dan Sultan, The Rions, and Mude’s own Mood on the Roof series.
The framing Mude brings to music video production is brand as a competitive lever: the production decisions follow from what the artist’s brand needs to do in market.
Midnight Til Morning formed mid-series on Netflix’s Building the Band, a blind-booth reality competition where fifty musicians had to form bands based on vocal performance alone before seeing each other. The series was filmed in July 2024 and premiered on Netflix in June 2025, reaching the platform’s Global Top 10. Conor Smith, Mason Watts, Shane Appell and Zach Newbould met mid-show, decided to form a group, and stayed together as a working band after the production wrapped.
The mentors and judges on Netflix’s Building the Band were Nicole Scherzinger, Kelly Rowland and the late Liam Payne. Building the Band was Payne’s final television project, filmed in July 2024 around four months before his death in October 2024 at the age of 31. Netflix released the series in June 2025 with the agreement of Payne’s family, and it went on to reach the platform’s Global Top 10.
Afterglow (Unplugged) is the acoustic companion to Midnight Til Morning’s debut EP Afterglow. Released on the 21st of November 2025 as part of the Afterglow Deluxe CD, the Unplugged package bundles the seven Afterglow EP tracks with five acoustic versions of those songs. These are the live acoustic sessions Mude filmed for Chugg Music in Sydney in July 2025. The acoustic recordings were mixed by Robby De Sá, who also co-wrote and produced “Ghost of Us” on the studio EP version, which kept the acoustic versions sitting within the same sonic world as the studio recordings.
The Midnight Til Morning live acoustic sessions were filmed and produced by Mude, a strategic brand and creative agency based in Sydney and Canberra. Mude was commissioned by Chugg Music to capture the band’s first live performances since the Netflix Building the Band production wrapped. The shoot was directed by Ben Develin as DOP, with Benni Ling on 1st AC, Julia Goyen running audio, and Amanda Rieck on hair and makeup, alongside music direction from Joel Farland and live audio mixing by Robby De Sá. The sessions were filmed at Château Wah Wah Studio in Sydney.
Chugg Music is an Australian music management and label company founded by Michael Chugg AM, with Andrew Stone serving as CEO. The company provides global management and label services across an artist roster that includes Lime Cordiale, Sheppard, 2025 Eurovision act Go-Jo, and Midnight Til Morning. Chugg Music signed Midnight Til Morning in late July 2025, with Sony handling global distribution of the band’s catalogue to partners. The company sits inside the wide Chugg Entertainment group, which has been active in Australian touring and artist management for decades.
Mood on the Roof is Mude’s own live music video production series, filmed on the studio rooftop in Sydney since August 2020. The series captures intimate live performances from Australian and international artists in stripped-back arrangements, with the same core crew running each session (DOP Ben Develin, 1st AC Benni Ling, audio engineer Julia Goyen) and mix engineer Robby De Sá handling audio post for five years.
The series has been a Webby Awards nominee, and the same crew configuration was deployed on the Midnight Til Morning sessions for Chugg Music, with Mood on the Roof’s audio engineer mixing the acoustic recordings.
A music video is a directed video accompanying a studio recording of a song, designed to support the song’s commercial release with a creative interpretation that often runs to scripted narrative, choreography, or conceptual treatment. A live session captures an artist or band performing a song in real time, usually in a stripped-back arrangement, with the audio mixed from the live take.
Live sessions are designed to show musicianship and the artist’s relationship to the material directly. Music videos amplify the song’s creative concept and visual identity. Mude produces both formats from its Sydney and Canberra studios.
Yes. Mude works with international artists, major labels, and global music management companies alongside its Australian portfolio. International music industry clients include Amazon Music (the Country Heat campaign, live sessions, and campaign websites) and Mavin Records (the Nigerian label whose roster includes Rema and Tems), with the Mavin work delivered in partnership with Jason Derulo. Mude’s work with Chugg Music on Midnight Til Morning supported the band’s international release with Sony distribution across global partners and a forty-date US tour.
Australian artists with international ambitions can engage Mude on music video production and live session work that treats brand as a competitive lever, with assets sized for both the local market and international release.