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After a relentless year, releasing ‘The Amanuensis’, playing numerous American and European tours, as well as playing Soundwave Festival 2015, we managed to catch up with Mike and Olly from Monuments whilst on their current tour with Karnivool. Here’s what they had to say….
Hey guys, how’s it going?
“Good man. It’s pretty damn sick. I’m sure you can probably hear Karnivool in the background absolutely killing it, every single night.”
The crowd tonight went crazy for you guys. How does it feel to get that sort of response when touring with a band like Karnivool?
“It’s great. It’s perfect because, Karnivool fans don’t necessarily know who we are. So to have everyone jumping about at the end of it is pretty much what we came here to do.”
You released ‘THE AMANUENSIS’ in June 2014. 9 months has passed since then, how have your fans reacted, is there a difference in fan favorites between the UK and America?
“I dunno if there is a difference in fan favorites. The reaction’s only been positive. I actually can’t recall a single negative thing that I read. America to start with was just incredible. To take it over there to see what went down and got really into it cause they’ve been waiting for forever. But yeah, they go crazy out there. There’s some angry people out there. If anything, I’d say they went more crazy for it than Germany, but I mean we’ve had some pretty sick shows all over the place.”
What has been you’re favorite show of this tour so far?
“For me, it was last night in Nottingham. No particular reason for that. It took us a while to get into the groove of it, but when we did, it truly happened.”
When you were writing and recording ‘THE AMANUENSIS’, did you think this was going to be something special? Had you noticed a difference in the way it came together from previous records?
“The difference was, because Browne takes care of all of it, like for ‘Gnosis’ he had been writing it for like 5 years. He had all the time in the world to get it all together. ‘The Amanuensis’ was like, ‘okay were gonna start recording drums on this date, so we better have an album ready by then’, but Browne just churns out fucking music out all the time. He came together with the majority of the album pretty quickly.”
How have you progressed from releasing ‘GNOSIS’ through to releasing ‘THE AMANUENSIS’?
“Definitely a more focused group input, for sure. It was great adding Olly to the writing process cause we’d only really done it from a single focus point before, but that’s because we started touring with ‘Gnosis’, and then started an album as a band together. It definitely feels like, for me personally anyway, that the band really started with ‘The Amanuensis’. I was into the band before ‘Gnosis’ was released, and I still love those songs and stuff, but it never really felt that we are the guys that are coming to do the job until this came into the fold. Definitely a more focused vibe.”
For a British band, MONUMENTS have got very strong links with the US. As a band that has toured across the world, what is the main difference between shows in different countries?
“I feel people are more appreciative over in the US. It’s not uncommon to hear people driving 3-4 hours from the next State over, just to come and see you. Obviously were not over there all the time, because were a British based band so, yeah the American shows went down really, really well. We’re going down to play London in a couple of days. We’re not expecting a dead crowd, because that’s where Monuments has kind of built up from. Roundhouse is going to be a real feeling of self-achievement as a musician. Just getting a chance to play in one of these prestigious venues. So excited. A milestone.”
It’s no secret that as a band, MONUMENTS tour relentlessly. Who have you most enjoyed being on tour with?
“That’s the most perfect word to describe us, like, reckless. It’s intense, but it’s insanely rewarding to see so much stuff so quickly. So it’s like sometimes sad to not get enough time to spend somewhere. But like, you’ve passed that pretty quickly when there’s such a rich culture.”
Who have you most enjoyed touring with?
“Karnivool. Karnivool are up there for sure. Umm, we have friends in Dead Letter Circus that we absolutely love, they’re crazy. After The Burial. Yeah, certain people we’ve met from different places over the years like individual sound guys. The entire road crew is like a network of people that get together.”
Who would you say has the worst habits on tour and what are they?
“Instead of singling anyone out right now, I can just tell you everyone’s worst habits. I would say (I’m gonna start with me), I spit a lot. It’s a terrible habit. Chris will take two hours in the shower if he doesn’t get stopped or unless the hot water runs out. He will do that. He will happily just stand in a moment of inspiration and just come up with a story in his head in the shower. And because he’s a creature of the water, he just stays in there. He just needs a haircut. He’s got too much hair to clean. That huge mane!”
Do you have any pre show rituals or anything that you do to prepare yourselves for a show?
“I think I may be the one person with the most regimented kind of warm up thing. Everyone has their own thing. Chris does an hour before. A vocal thing… doing the same scales every day. I’ve got like, one of those new stretching things, trying to keep limber and stuff. It’s like an hour thing. Browne and ‘Swanny’ will just drink like, 4 beers each, and if ‘Swanny’ can get that green, green candy then he’ll do that. Then everything will slow right down.”
You played Soundwave festival earlier this year, and you will be back to play Hevy Festival in a couple of months time. What do you enjoy most about playing festivals?
“Sticking around for these multi-band things is so much better. Like, Soundwave was incredible. Like, we would have 5 days of just enjoying Australia between shows, and recovering as well. It was like, we had a lot of recovery, but on Soundwave its based on two weekends, a week apart. After the show we left the hotel at like… hotel by the way, which is crazy, we never do that, we’re normally just sleeping in our van… We left the hotel at like, 5am, to get an internal flight at 7am, which lands us in the next city, which is on the day of the gig. So we kinda just play on three hours sleep, which is rough, but then again you have a week to do it. Then you just smash it out in two days. You have two intense days, and then you have a week to get it all back together and smash it again. That second 5am call was so rough, the most difficult thing. Everyone was just dead. The Sun’s tiring as well haha! Yeah, the heat for real.”
As a group of musicians, what do you all bring to the writing process/the song as individuals?
“Olly brings the riff, that’s damn sure. Browne brings the riffs. Yeah, I think simply put. Browne will write songs. Browne writes songs, Monuments songs, and then either Mike or me will add riffs. Mike will change drums or patterns or grooves, whatever. Swanny does… Swanny’s thing is arrangement. So he sequences the riffs. With Browne, they work like a sick structure. He also plants seeds into Browne’s head. He goes, ‘You should try this’, so Browne will go away and try it and it will come out sick, then obviously, Chris is lyrics and vocals. The narrative addition is how our concept of albums comes together. Chris’s storytelling is prime to the entire album. You can just Google the long interviews he’s done talking about it. We’re going to be releasing a lyric book shortly, where it’ll have the full story, and have it fleshed out. It’s essentially what it’s become since we’ve toured it. It has a completely different dimension. I see absolute worth in writing an album full of songs that have their own each individual journey/message, whatever. With this one, he just happened. I don’t know if he happened to have it or if it just inspired it to come one, but basically the story came to me and it just worked out perfectly. It became a chapter of this thing. It came out of nowhere, as far as I’m aware. The circle in the artwork depicts the whole story of the album. It’s deep as well. Getting to rearrange the songs live and kind of retell the story, in a strange fashion sometimes, just split the order up is like, yeah. The connotations are deep. Its still kind of like Chris’s secret. He’s got so many stories that are insanely inspiring. I know he wants to work some films.”
Who do you take influence from? Do you take influence from within Metal, or do you look to other genres for inspiration?
“This is a huge part of my musical being, by this point. I’ve listened to KARNIVOOL’s albums, all three albums, so many times. It’s been like my daily base soundtrack. All my drives and long distance travels that I make. I think they’ve been huge. My answer’s a really ‘hippyish’ one. When I started playing guitar it would be I’d follow a guitarist, or a band, or an album, or a drummer. I’d see what parts of those creative minds meant to me. But now it’s more like changing scenario, art, or even listening to hip-hop. Just listening to something that isn’t even music. I could have a shit day, I could have a good day, whatever it is. Maybe not even taking inspiration from stuff that’s not consciously created. It sounds crazy, but like a walk in a park, or a walk down a busy street, can really tick off something. I find that’s way more direct nowadays than going on YouTube and searching a guitarist. That’s like their thing. I’ve gotta find my own thing. There’s some really ‘out there’ stuff. Swanny directs a lot of it, but we often find these strange, odd, Eastern traditional influences. People like Tigran Hamasyan, an Armenian pianist, who is absolutely off the chain. There are a lot of musicians that form this entire sub-scene of Jazz and Hop-Hop. Metal is a strange one, in terms of why a lot of people get into it. In terms of releasing some sort of emotion. The whole thing is a massive, ‘feelings coming out of their soul’ sort of thing. After a point of just living that, you just feel like, yeah I got it out now.”
As far as your writing style is concerned, do you think you have reached a style, which you are happy with, or are you still trying to find ways of taking it to that next level?
“Definitely happy. I mean, that doesn’t dictate what happens next. Just being content with what we set out to do, and the way it came about, is mind blowing. There are a couple of things we want to try still, but it’s kind of the trap with Prog. You wanna do different things all the time, which are not always necessary. Now it’s the story that becomes paramount in everyway. We’ve definitely talked about doing some crazy things for a long, long time, and I wouldn’t expect, obviously the main kind of blueprint is things that are groovy, and/or heavy, that are catchy. We can’t commit to it if it isn’t those things. We’ve talked about a lot of things, like world music, female vocals, and just experimental shit. And we kind of started tapping into that on ‘The Amanuensis’. I wouldn’t be surprised if we go quite deep down that route in the future. But were not for the sake of gimmick. It’ll happen if it suits the song, which is why there is no saxophone which Chris plays live with us. There was a discussion at one point where it was like, we haven’t got time to do sax. We’re doing everything else, there’s no point. We don’t want to just throw it in for the sake of it, because that’s not what it is. It’s his own addition. He can literally go for it anytime he wants to, we welcome that, and because it’s about him being musically open-minded. So we’re open-minded, but were not going to try and force a gimmick. There’s didgeridoo and all sorts of sound effects going on in some of the parts. I want to flesh that out in some ways, but I’m very cautious that I shouldn’t push it, if there isn’t a reason to do it. Material will always come first, but outside influences will always come. Keep searching out of the box. We do listen to some ‘out there’ stuff. Chris has gone massively into classical music and Swan is really into Hip-Hop, and this back to the future stuff.”
You seem to be labeled under the PROG METAL/DJENT blanket. How would you describe yourselves?
“I think this band is borne of that movement, but what I mean by that is, our reach and popularity is borne through that because it’s internet based and DIY. But we have never gone, lets write a ‘djent-y’ riff, because Browne was writing that stuff before that term was even used. I think a lot of these people were there. It’s literally the name of a guitar sound. I can’t believe I’m explaining it. Everyone knows it. I think it goes deeper, the software that’s available to someone for free through certain methods. What it has born is this network of people who make music with their computer, which is a huge movement within recording. What you can now get, when you think certain synthesizers would cost more than a house 30-40 years ago. So then there’s this movement, and the birth of the internet, and essentially you get the combo of the DIY guitarist who can make an album in his room, put it online and a guy in Brazil can say ‘yeah if you come here, I’ll party with you’. And that happens to thousands of people. They want to share it themselves, and that’s how people, all of us, get friends through music and social networks. That’s the name for the scene or the movement but it doesn’t encompass just how big it actually is, to me. I think that word was maybe relevant for a year or two as an all-encompassing thing but it’s just not really a genre. It’s just a movement. For me it’s a milestone musically. That has happened, and I’m not gonna say its past, but its just different now. Like, when was the last time you heard a new ‘djent’ band come out. I don’t think think that’s how it rolls. The problem is, to say that you’re that is to say that you are that sound by definition. Its not like you have room to do anything else because, but it is a useful term to refer to with people you are playing with. It’s literally just like a hashtag. It can chuck you in with a pool of like-minded people, but its not the name of what we are. The thing that you can accomplish from your bedroom is just insane, at the same time that just means you can discover these musicians online. Then everyone collaborates with each other all around the world. The scope is so huge internationally and worldwide that you can’t use one word to describe what we are part of. This is more in terms of relevancy, not to one specific band, I would never say that, but like what happened with the Beatles. Both actually having records to sell, I think this is like, in terms of the independent music scene, and how everyone has come out of the concrete and built backgrounds around things. Where before, financial input brought upon big advances in sales and now it’s all completely different. It’ll become more relevant when its looked back on how insanely progressive. That’s already starting to happen as well. This is just the beginning of something huge. It’s a very beautiful time to be part of for sure.”
You have just announced a headline European tour with No Consequence. Is it a nice change from being in a supporting role, or do you find that you have more pressure?
“Both. Definitely both. Its both, well I will support Karnivool for the rest of my life, you know what I mean. But also there is pressure when you are the headline band but it also means you get to play more. It also means that the draw is more focused on you as apposed to maybe your support band. But also it’s a sign that we are doing something right to be doing a headline tour. It means you have to be getting somewhere hopefully. Also, Kaan from No Consequence has been a part of Monuments for a long time. He sang in the band for a period of time like when ‘Gnosis’ was being written, Kaan was essentially like a lead vocalist. There was Greg and then there was Kaan. At different points they all chipped in. It was always like really hectic but he’s just, that dudes been there like a rock for us and so many other people for such a long time. That whole band is built from the most supportive people in the industry. Like, I started off as a huge fan of them, like back on my first ever tour when I was 17, I was like whoa, what’s this? You can hear this crazy music on YouTube. They’ve just been going from strength to strength and this new record is sounding so sick. They’ve been grueling it out but its become this fucking humongously awesome sounding thing. Kaan is also on this tour as our driver, we’ve hung out with him a lot. He’s our rock right now. His driving, he’s helping with everything. The biggest hero of the whole tour, that’s for damn sure.”
If you could tour with any band in the world who would it be?
“Snarky Puppy. That would be incredible. I imagine no one would get it but I would love it. I’m gonna have to say Gojira. We could play a heavy, simple set with the big riffs. Even if we went down like shit with their fans, I would personally just love it, because they are one of my favorite, if not my favorite heavy band. So that would just be incredible. If it could be Michael Jackson, it would be Michael Jackson. Yeah that’s true. Or Tower Of Power or The Roots, haha!”
If you could have any one person come on tour with you, who would it be and why?
“Kaan. Yeah, I have to say Kaan is a bit of a diamond. Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys would be the best thing ever. Anyone from Trailer Park Boys would be the most hilarious thing. At one point we’ve had their theme song just in the intro as part of a radio function for stupid pop culture references. All sorts of stuff. Went down well in America. That was a lot of fun. It was like starting a Tom And Jerry cartoon style metal gig. I want the Bo Selecta version of Craig David. That would be incredible. Oh my! Haha. Just to see his big face like. ‘Aim for the front garden, aim for the garden. Bo!’ Ah man! Fuck’s Sake! Haha!”
Are there any bands that you feel deserve more attention?
“Definitely No Consequence. We’re playing Hevy fest with old friends of mine in Press To Meco. You need to check those guys out. They are fucking great. I went to college with two of those guys. I did so many stupid collaborations with those guys. If you haven’t heard of Nothing More, check them out. They are Texan. We just played with them on Soundwave and we were really into them. Murdoch, keep an eye on them as well. Yes, my Irish nigs Murdoch. From Dublin and also Red Enemy from Dublin. They’re all amazing dudes and their music is just amazing. They literally put on some of the best live shows that I have ever, ever seen. It’s always been in like small, clubs or bars whatever. These boys tear up. Red Enemy and MURDOCK. Get involved for sure.”
What’s in store for you guys for the rest of the year?
“Are we allowed to talk about that? Well, it depends if it’s been released or not. Do you know what has? Well I know what’s coming out. We’ve got a few gigs, a few shows, bruv. Hit The Deck is announced now, Hevy festival as well. We’ve got some cool shit abroad, but it’s just not time to talk about that yet. We have a large amount of UK and Europe touring to be announced for sure. That will happen in due course.”
Any last words for fans over here in the UK, and Europe?
“Ey, paint! Ey, yes. A lot! Paint! Ah, no. Its been a hell of a ride so far and were just gonna keep smashing this one out. This next one’s gonna be a lot of fun. We’re going to get into the album a lot more than before and take the time to see where some of the development’s gonna come from within playing some other songs that we haven’t played before. Paint!”
Thanks for taking time to talk to us.
“Cheers man.
Paint!”
Monuments head out on Tour again though out May.
Interview By Siôn Roe.
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