AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with MONOGOLD

Brooklyn-based indie pop three-piece Monogold, comprised of Keith Kelly (guitar, vocals), Jared Apuzzo (drums), and Michael Falotico (bass), will release their brand new, dreamy, lo-fi gem of an LP Good Heavens this Friday, September 25th.

The band is generally known for its more electronic sound, which the blogosphere has incorrectly pigeon-holed as synth-pop; “I actually spend a lot of time creating guitar loops; people always think it’s a synth, but it’s not.  They’ll say, ‘you’re an electronic synth-y band’ and we’re like, ‘no, not really.'”  No matter how you define their sound, though, the new album is a departure from the Monogold norm: “Good Heavens we did for fun, because we wanted to,” explains Kelly.  “Sometimes you get, I don’t want to call it stagnant, but you have a formula, the formula works, so you keep doing it.  If you have a good recipe that works and it tastes good, you keep making that, you know?  We kind of, for our own sakes and our own enjoyment, decided to write very simply, some acoustic stuff.  It all got started because Nylon asked us to do an acoustic session there in-office.  I had a bunch of songs I’d been messing around with on acoustic, just in-between recording sessions.  We asked our friends to play, we had a harp (which was really fun to haul up flights of stairs to the studio), clarinet, oboe, flute, Jared played piano instead of drums, and it sounded great, people really liked it.  It still sounds like us, like the essence of what we are, it’s just not multi-layered and there’s not all the reverb.”

The longtime friends have, in addition to their individual talent and prowess as musicians, a chemistry and an ease with each other that is evident in the art they create; “Musically, Jared is just like a sick drummer, he can record songs in the studio without any music.  There have been a few times in the studio when our schedules didn’t align; he would be like, ‘oh, i’ll just go on in and record,’ and I’d say ‘but we haven’t recorded our parts yet,’ and he’d say ‘it’s ok, all I need is the click.’ So he’ll play the entire song in one or two takes with no music and get it right.  There’s also a really unique relationship between the guitar and bass sounds in our band; a lot of the things I do are minimal and loopy sound-wise, and in contrast, Mike, our bass player, will then take the melodic side to the song, which is cool.  Between the three of us, it makes an interesting combination.  We also are all friends, and that means a lot.  You can’t fully meet your creative potential if you’re with someone you don’t like.  It makes the music come out in an easy and positive way.  No one’s a diva, no one has problems,” Kelly explains.

While the group considers this an acoustic effort, the record ends with the title track “Good Heavens,” a song which is bigger and louder than the others on the LP: ” It kind of sets the stage for the next album. We’ve almost finished another record that’s closer to our previous stuff, layered and lush, a little more aggressive-sounding,” says Kelly.

The band will celebrate the release with a show at legendary record shop Rough Trade in Brooklyn; Kelly says, “We’re going to do a split set for the release show, and bring our friends out to play the songs from the album.  It was simple to record, we didn’t rely on samples or other external things, so as long as our friends are down to play, we should be ok!  Hopefully people will dig it, it was really fun to make.”

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