MIDHEAVEN
Alternative Band - since 2021
ABOUT
Midheaven (also known as Stredneba) is a Slovak alternative band formed in 2021 by Jakub Hudaček and Matej Harhovský, later joined by bassist Julián Jurčík and second guitarist Radoslav Černický. The project emerged from a shared desire to explore heavy sound through restraint, patience, and emotional honesty, gradually shaping a sound rooted in intimacy and atmosphere rather than excess.
At its core, Midheaven focuses on slow-building arrangements and emotionally driven songwriting, often exploring themes of distance, memory, trust, and the quiet aftermath of relationships. Their music balances minimalism with weight, blending acoustic instruments, subdued electric textures, and subtle orchestration to create tension without overwhelming the listener.
Dark tones, unrestrained echo, and a raw, lived-in grit run through their songs, evoking late nights, cigarette smoke, and moments of emotional uncertainty. Rather than offering clear resolution, Midheaven’s music lingers with a feeling, allowing it to unfold naturally and remain unresolved. Their sound reflects transitional moments of growing up, letting go, and learning to live with uncertainty — creating space for listeners to slow down and sit with emotion.
MEMBERS
Jakub Hudaček (born May 4, 2004) is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, musical composer, and graphic designer. He writes, performs, and produces original music with a focus on emotional storytelling and atmospheric arrangements. His work often blends intimate vocals with guitar-driven textures, ranging from stripped-down acoustic songs to fuller band productions. Jakub is the lead singer and guitarist of the band Midheaven, where he is the primary songwriter and creative force behind the project. Through Midheaven, he explores themes of memory, distance, healing, and transition, drawing from personal experiences and seasonal moments. The band’s searly releases marked his first steps into sharing music publicly, gradually building an audience through organic listening and word-of-mouth. In addition to his music releases, Jakub has experience with live performances, music production, and sound engineering. He has collaborated on theatre productions together with his sister, creating original instrumental compositions and handling sound design for live shows.
Matej Harhovský (born March 1, 2004) is a drummer and musician, best known as the drummer of the band Midheaven. His first musical inspirations came from bands such as Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Metallica, whose raw energy and powerful rhythms shaped his early relationship with music. Before he ever owned a drum kit, Matej improvised one at home — arranging pots, buckets, and armchairs around the couch and using them as a full setup. From this homemade “kit,” he taught himself to keep precise rhythm, playing along to his favorite songs and developing a natural sense of timing and groove. This early, self-taught approach laid the foundation for his dynamic and instinctive drumming style.
As a member of Midheaven, Matej brings a balance of power and restraint to the band’s sound, supporting emotionally driven songs with solid, expressive rhythms. His playing is rooted in alternative and rock traditions but shaped by an intuitive feel developed long before formal equipment or rehearsals entered the picture.
Julián Jurčík (born September 4, 2003) is a musician for whom music is far more than sound – it is a way of self-expression. He has been playing the bass guitar since early childhood, developing a strong sense of groove, rhythm, and musical foundation. He has also performed gospel music in church, where he discovered the emotional and unifying power of music.
Alongside his work with Midheaven, he is also a member of the Brazilian folkloric band Batida, where he plays the caixa. Brazilian rhythms have broadened his musical perspective, bringing energy, passion, movement, and joy into his performances. With extensive experience in concerts and live performances, he is comfortable on stage, knows how to connect with an audience, and understands how to channel and return the energy of a live crowd.
Julián loves music in all its forms – from deep bass lines to driving percussion. For him, music is freedom, a universal language, and an essential part of everyday life.
Radoslav Černický (born July 26, 2003) is a guitarist, musician and a producer who joined Midheaven in February 2026 as the band’s second guitarist. His addition expanded the group’s sonic range, allowing for more layered arrangements, interplay between guitars, and a broader dynamic spectrum in both live and recorded settings.
Radoslav’s playing complements the band’s emphasis on atmosphere and restraint, contributing textural depth rather than excess. His integration into Midheaven marked a shift toward a fuller, more dimensional sound while maintaining the project’s core identity.
HISTORY
The initial impulse for Jakub came when his best friend bought a guitar from a wholesale shop in 2018, and just a few months after that, they were already writing ironic songs together. Matej, knowing about that, had an idea of forming a band with Jakub, with himself being the drummer without even having a drum kit. That idea stayed in the back of Jakub’s mind when they were going back home with Matej from London after a school trip where the idea was presented.
During the summer of 2019, Jakub started uploading a few guitar compositions on SoundCloud and YouTube, alongside his best friend, who started producing beats, and together they created a group called Dark Ideas, in which Matej wasn’t yet part of. Having a lot of “free time” from December 2019 until the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, Jakub started exercising his singing along to live performances of Nirvana, an example being Nirvana: Live at the Paramount 1991. Jakub learned every riff, note, and Kurt Cobain’s movements with his guitar pedals. Jakub’s microphone was a small cactus, his guitar an unplugged Fender Stratocaster, later a black Fender Jazzmaster, and his guitar pedals were two of his favorite slippers. During that time, Matej was getting more into playing music, but his idea of rehearsing was arranging pots, buckets, and armchairs around the couch and using them as a full setup. From this homemade “kit,” he taught himself to keep precise rhythm, playing along to his favorite songs and developing a natural sense of timing and groove. During the spring of 2020, they both started talking more about starting a band, coming up with the band name, track lyrics, and the overall vision of the band. Not knowing if they would stick with the name Dark Ideas, Jakub found a connection in the astrological term Midheaven in April 2020, the connection being that Jakub’s, Matej’s, and Rado’s (Jakub’s best friend) astrological signs were under the same Midheaven.
From the basic written text saying “Midheaven” in Jakub’s textbook, Matej created a logo in April 2021, which was the same month he bought his first-ever drum kit. Just four months later, they had their first rehearsal on August 2, 2021. Jakub, having experience playing guitar along to drum tracks for three years, was blown away that Matej had no problem playing along to his already composed tracks without ever hearing them before. Matej easily came up with drum beats and ideas on where to improve. Since then, they rehearsed almost every other week in the comfort of Matej’s room or garage until June 2023, when they switched from rehearsing alone to playing in front of an audience.
At the end of December 2025, Midheaven became a three-piece with the addition of a bassist, Julián. He reached out to Jakub and Matej himself, texting them that he wanted to be a part of the band. Funny enough, he was the first person that came to their minds as early as around 2020 when they were casually thinking about who could play bass, even though they only “knew” him distantly at the time.
At the beginning of 2026, Midheaven continued to evolve its lineup. In February 2026, guitarist Radoslav Černický joined the band as a second guitarist, further expanding their sound and live possibilities. His first rehearsal with the band — alongside bassist Julián Jurčík — took place in an unconventional setting: live on air during a radio broadcast on March 10, 2026. This moment marked the first time the full lineup performed together in real time, reflecting the band’s natural and unfiltered approach to collaboration.
LIVE CONCERTS
In January 2023, Jakub’s cousin started working at a coffee bar, where they came up with the idea of doing their first concert. Their first concert took place on June 3, 2023, in Poprad, Slovakia. Without having a record out, they played covers of a few of their favorite tracks in front of 20–30 people, examples being Feeling Whitney by Post Malone, Wicked Game by Chris Isaak, Loveland by Milky Chance, and their unreleased track Hummingbird. After the concert, they fell in love with being in front of an audience and had the idea of doing one concert per month during the summer of 2023. They did so, with the second one being on July 22 and their third and “biggest” of that era being on August 30, where they played in a packed place with about 40 people watching, with no way of leaving — not just because of the rain. It was the first concert where not only Jakub sang, but their friend Stella joined them for a cover of Wicked Game by Chris Isaak. During those three concerts, Midheaven arranged scenography, audio engineering, graphics, and more. After that, Midheaven returned to rehearsing and coming up with new ideas. Their next concert was at Jakub’s 20th birthday party (May 4, 2024), where they played their own tracks, an example being Night (unreleased), and a few covers, an example being Nothing Else Matters by Metallica, which Jakub wanted to never learn but did so in two hours just to play it for his friend’s dad.
In July 2024, they were invited to play a local festival called Kultúra Ktorá Neexistuje, where they switched genres slightly by replacing acoustic guitar and light drumsticks with a distorted electric guitar and hard drumsticks. During the concert, Jakub had a short monologue about culture being abused in Slovakia by politicians and about how everyone should cherish and support culture so it won’t go away like his childhood home did.
It was the first concert where they played mostly their own tracks, with the only exceptions being three songs: Out Getting Ribs by King Krule, Sappy, and Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam (cover version) by Nirvana. Their set was an hour long during sunset in front of a few dozen people under the High Tatras. They left their signature on the wall inside the building, but sadly the location of the festival Kultúra Ktorá Neexistuje burned down in late 2025.
On January 31, 2026, Midheaven performed in a more intimate setting during Matej’s mother’s 50th birthday celebration. The set consisted of covers of her favorite songs, marking a rare occasion where the band adapted its repertoire to a personal context rather than its usual atmospheric and original material.
In March 2026, Midheaven performed live on air during a radio broadcast, presenting the full lineup in a public setting for the first time. The session captured the band’s raw, unfiltered sound and documented an early stage of their development as a four-piece.
RECORDING AN ALBUM
In December 2024, Jakub went to Ladis, Austria, to work abroad in a hotel, leaving behind the opportunity to be part of another local festival concert that would have taken place in late December that year. He was in Austria for four months, from December 2024 until April 2025, and during that time his idea was, apart from working there, to record a full album. Having just a guitar, microphone, microphone stand, laptop, and sound card, he managed to write and record 11 tracks, eight of which were used on the record.
“The album Not That Far Away dives deeper into themes of distance, longing, and the strange comfort that comes from missing someone. The record reflects nights spent alone, days spent working, and the feeling of being close to love while standing hundreds of kilometers away.”
One thing was missing, though, and that was the drums. Jakub recorded the whole album in tempo by downloading drum beats in certain BPMs but wanted Matej’s drums to be there. During those four months, Jakub and Matej were calling each other, with Matej listening to the tracks along the way, giving tips and improvements, but at the same time giving compliments about the sound. On March 1, 2025, Jakub made Matej a birthday song, just a month before him going back to Slovakia. When Jakub came back to Slovakia, after surprising Matej, who had no idea he would come sooner, they went straight to rehearsing and trying to record the drums. They didn’t have microphones for the drums, so the sound wasn’t even near average, and they both knew they couldn’t finish the full record before May 4, 2025 — Jakub’s birthday and the day he was hosting a listening party for the album. After the listening party, Jakub received a few improvement tips from the people who were there, the main one being the inclusion of Matej’s drum beats, which for him was at the top of the list. A week after that, Jakub and Matej went for a beer in the city where, out of spite, Jakub bought a whole set of drum microphones to record with. When the microphones arrived, they thought the whole drum-recording process would take months, maybe even longer.
They finished recording the entire album one week later.
Since the start of June 2025, Jakub returned to working in the Belianska Cave as a guide, which was his third year working there during June, July, August, and September. During that time, Jakub started learning more about mixing, mastering, and producing records in general. With the help of ChatGPT, he learned how sound works and what to do to make the album listenable on a professional level. During that time, he tried re-recording vocals, but only one re-recorded vocal was used on the record — on the track Sorrow Is Mine. During the summer and the start of the fall, Jakub often visited Matej’s workplace, a tennis court, where he played him new remastered versions of the tracks with Matej’s drums finally included. After September, Jakub moved to Žilina, where he slowly gave the album its final touches. He considered re-recording the vocals again, but the idea of keeping the vocals recorded in Austria felt more fitting. Midheaven finished the album Not That Far Away in November 2025 and released their first single, Stairs You Have to Climb, on November 21, 2025.
CHRISTMAS EP
Before releasing the album, Matej had an idea that it would be better to release it gradually — first a single, then an EP, and then the album. The idea was catchy, and they decided that before Christmas they would create a completely new EP with a Christmas tone. Jakub started writing and composing at the beginning of November and recorded four tracks, three of which ended up on the final record. He finalized all three tracks in mid-November, and they recorded the drums the week after that. Final production touches were made by Jakub at his apartment in Žilina at the end of November.
“The songs don’t celebrate the holiday as a moment of joy, but as a pause — a night where everything slows down enough for loneliness to catch up. Christmas Eve becomes a mirror: the lights are on, the cake is ready, the rituals are in place, yet something essential is missing. There is warmth everywhere, except where it’s needed most. Across the EP, distance is physical and emotional at the same time. Rather than nostalgia, the EP lives in the present moment of missing someone while knowing exactly where you belong. It’s about choosing softness in a season that expects certainty, and about finding meaning in staying — even if only for one night.”
They released the first single from the EP At Least Not Today on December 9, 2025, and the full EP, Glories Streaming from Heaven, on December 17, 2025.
PRESENT
Midheaven are slowly gaining international listeners, some from the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, and more. They have much more to show, which they do not wish to reveal just yet.
MEMBERS AND DISCOGRAPHY
• Jakub Hudaček — Vocals, Strings, Piano, Production
• Matej Harhovský — Drums, Percussion, Production-Assistant
• Julián Jurčík — Bass, Percussion, Production-Assistant
• Radoslav Černický — Guitar, Production-Assistant
Albums
• 2026 — Not That Far Away
EPs
• 2025 — Glories Streaming from Heaven
Singles
• 2026 — Place With a Cave Inside
• 2026 — Trust
• 2025 — At Least Not Today
• 2025 — Stairs You Have To Climb