Exclusive: Monuments - "Mortality" (Feat. Dan MacMaster) Single Stream, Interview

Monuments is a Pop Punk/Hardcore band from Perth, Australia who are on the verge of releasing their debut EP, The Only Way We Know, via Takedown Records on Jan. 13th. The band recently posted an EP teaser, and today we have an exclusive stream of the track Mortality, featuring Skyway frontman, Dan MacMaster, as well as an interview with vocalist/guitarist, Mark. We hope you enjoyed the track and help support local music! Click the Read More… link to stream the song, read the interview, and stream the teaser.



Firstly, can you state your name and role in the band?

Mark: I'm Mark, and I play guitar…

So the band is quite young; tell us how you guys got together and how the band name was chosen. I understand some of were in the now-defunct band, Here We Ghost.

Mark: You're correct…Carl, Aaron and Caz all previously played together in Here We Ghost for a couple of years. I had known the guys for quite some time already, with Perth being as small as it is. There was a point in time where HWG were down a member and needed someone to fill the spot for a few shows they had upcoming, and being friends with the fellas they asked me. I became a temporary resident as second guitarist, up until the original guitarist had to part ways with the band due to prior commitments. Leading to this point I had started contributing to HWG in respect to writing new material, and it was noticed that my style of writing was quite different to their current sound. It was basically the combination of both the new style, as well as the decision of original guitarist/composer to part ways with the band at which the remaining members decided it would be better to finish with HWG and start Monuments.

With the name…this actually took a while. And I'm sure the other guys will agree with me when I say I think this was mainly my fault. We were looking for something neutral, nothing too cliche and cheesy neither typical of a Pop-Punk band. There were a fair few names tossed around and rejected until Carl somehow threw out the name Monuments. He was that siked on it the rest of us didn't really have a say as Carl had already started telling the world it was what we were called. I guess it was lucky for him we were all cool with it.

Your debut EP, The Only Way We Know, will be out in a few weeks on Takedown Records. I noticed that a few songs have been re-recorded from last year's demo. What it was like writing and recording the EP, having used the demo to gauge a reception?

Mark: We actually re-recorded all the demo songs, and to be honest it was actually my intention from the beginning. I remember when writing the first few songs, it was coming together exactly the way we wanted in respect to the sound we were going for and we were really happy with what we were producing. We thought it would be a waste to discard them as only a demo, which often eventually go unnoticed. So from there we decided we were going to keep writing towards an EP with everything we had written so far. The decision to record the demo with a few of the songs we had recently written was done with the intention of handing them out to labels, mates, members of the public etc to see if we would be lucky enough to have others dig it as much as we did and to have something to show to start playing some gigs. The amount of positive feedback we received blew us away, and it only reinforced our intentions to put in a bit more work and contribute them to a solid release. From here we wrote three more songs in vein of what we had already produced, at the same time trying to step it up as much as we could, using what we believed worked and modifying what we thought would work better.

Looking back on it all I can't say I would change much if anything of how we went about it. It definitely took a lot of pressure off us when preparing for the EP. We had four songs already written, and we were now able to spend a lot more time on them, and focus on the next few to be written.

Tell us what the songs as a whole mean to you and maybe some of the musical influences that helped shape them.

Mark: To keep it as simple as possible, the EP as a whole discusses the idea of a higher existence. The idea that we are all so consumed with our own petty problems and indifferences, and due to this being completely oblivious of such an existence. We have tried to stray away from the usual, girl broke my heart lyrics and gone for something more substantial.

Growing up I've always been a big fan of the Punk/Pop-Punk/Hardcore genres. Having played in Hardcore bands for a number of years as well as some Pop-Punk ones in my earlier years I found I had a lot I could draw from in terms of inspiration. There is a lot of influence from bands such as Lifetime, Set Your Goals (circa Mutiny!), Hot Water Music, etc.

It seems as though Takedown has recruited a solid roster as it's grown and it's great to see how tight Aussie Pop Punk bands are. I was stoked to see that Dan from Skyway lent some vocals on Mortality. What are your thoughts on how the Australian scene has evolved lately?

Mark: I don't think anyone could be more stoked than we were to have Dan on board the release. The band as a whole have always been big fans of Skyway, and we were lucky enough to have the right cards fall in the right places, which allowed both of our bands to become good friends, and friends do friends favours right? Haha. But in all seriousness we were really happy with how it all came out. Initially we were worried our rougher style may not suit his more melodic vocal style but after he laid down the vocals we were overwhelmed with how good the combination was.

How did you guys actually get involved with the label? Did you guys send the demo in or did Drew find you guys first?

Mark: As I mentioned in one of the previous questions… We recorded the demo with the attention of sending it out, Drew @ Takedown being one of them. Lucky for us Drew dug our sound which was more than we hoped for, and it was from here things started to really fall into place for us. We went over to Brisbane to meet both Drew and Dan (Field) as well as to produce the EP. Fortunately it all went well and we came out of the whole experience being part of the growing Takedown family, in which we can't express how happy we are to be a part of.

The band also has an upcoming tour later this month with label mates, Milestones - are there any particular dates you're looking forward to? I'm assuming this is the band's first national tour.

Mark: It is our first, and it's hard to put into words how excited we all are. And what makes it that much more exciting, is that we get to do it with of mates in Milestones, who we were lucky enough to get to hangout with whilst recording the EP… you might even hear vocalist of Milestones, Josh Bellchambers, appear in one of the songs on the EP. There's an Australia Day annual festival which we will be playing in Melbourne with a whole bunch of other rad bands such as The Smiths Street Band, Arrows and Anchors to name a few which we're all super siked for!

Have you guys had any crazy tour/show stories so far that are worth mentioning? Or maybe the most memorable moment while in the band to date.

Mark: With our first tour coming up there's not a lot I can really go on… but what does come to mind was when we supported Heroes For Hire on the Perth leg of their national tour. I'll tell you what… those guys know how to party. Backstage funnels, unexpected nudity and screaming fans… just some of the things I can't say I will forget.

Fresh into 2012, what other plans do you guys have for the rest of the year? Perhaps some new year's resolutions?

Mark: We plan on 2012 being a big year. Besides hopefully being able to get a few more tours under our belt, we do plan to start writing towards a full length. Since recording the EP we have been lucky enough to meet a lot of new people/bands, as well as being exposed to what can be achieved having put in the hard work… and I'm pretty sure I can speak for all of us that this should be more than enough to drive us to put in more effort than we already have.

Thanks for doing this, would you like to add anything else?

Mark: No problem at all! More than happy. If anything, just to make sure you grab a copy of our debut EP The Only Way We Know, and to get amongst any shows you can on our upcoming tour! It'll be a party I can assure you.

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