Eton Messy Records starts 2021 with an almighty bang, thanks to this killer new single from Mona Vale.
Part idiosyncratic production outfit, part Indie-meets-Electronica live act – Mona Vale’s forthcoming EP, ‘Solis’, is a sprawling and quite exceptional 4 track debut, due to land in its entirely, late Spring; but with each component part being lovingly drip-fed in the run-up.
We caught up with Mona Vale to talk about ‘Solis’ and other musical topics.
Electronic Groove: Hi guys, how are you today? It’s a pleasure to have you here. Tell us, where are you based? How is the whole pandemic situation over there? Did you guys cope well with it during the past year?
Mona Vale: Very well thanks! We’re both based in London, It’s not been the best over here, we are not going to lie, but in terms of our music we’ve been really proactive, I think we would have really struggled with everything if we didn’t have our music to focus on. With everything stopping it made us sit back and really think about where we were heading and what music we wanted to make, which was ultimately more club-focused music that could be played out by DJs a bit more. If the pandemic didn’t happen I think we would have gone down a path we had started down for a while longer which was a bit more for home listening to music and would have delayed the inevitable of us wanting to change things up eventually.
Electronic Groove: Can you tell us a bit more about your first contacts with music? How did you meet and why did you decide to come together as Mona Vale?
Mona Vale: Lew and I have been best mates since we were about 12, going to the same school and playing in lots of different bands together growing up. Mona Vale actually started just me (Jamie) as Lew was living in New Zealand, when I started the project in 2016. I always had in the back of my mind Lew was going to be apart of it if he came back… and thankfully he did! so it’s been the two of us for the past 2 and a half years. We know each other so well musically it was pretty seamless him coming into the fold. We complement each other when it comes to what our strengths are as producers and songwriters and have the same musical DNA as we’ve gone through all the musical phases together as you do in your teens and early 20s, so naturally are on a level when writing together.
Electronic Groove: So, you’re dropping your anticipated 4-tracker ‘Solis’ on Eton Messy this late spring. How did that come about? What are the plans for the EP on the run to its full release?
Mona Vale: Yeh, they will all be out before Summer starts which we’re very excited to show everyone! Eton Messy has been really supportive of the project from the get-go and we were in contact with each other in 2017 about potentially releasing with them then but wasn’t the right time for either of us. We were going to self-release the EP this November and I sent ‘Solis’ over to Charlie at EM to see what he thought a week before the intended release and see if there could be any support on their Youtube channel, or other. They loved it and the whole EP and said they would love to release it, so there was a mad rush for us to try to stop ‘Solis’ from going live a couple of days before it was supposed to be released… which thankfully we just about got there in time (laughter).
You could split the EP in half in terms of the sound, It’s a good representation of our overall sound and the diversity of it. ‘Solis’ and new one ‘Maasai’ which is out on the 26th Feb is more funk flecked and disco-inspired with the main focus to get people dancing and feel-good vibes. Then the other two are a bit moodier and show the emotive side of the project, they bookend our sound nicely.
We’ve recorded some live videos of us playing the EP which was really fun to do so will be rolling those out as and when in the lead up to the releases.
Electronic Groove: Were these created during lockdown? Was it hard for inspiration to come by with all the chaos outside? Did the pandemic change or affect in any way how you create?
Mona Vale: They were written in Autumn, yeh. They came together in the space of a couple of months from start to finish, it all came out very naturally and quickly which was amazing. I know a lot of people who are struggling a lot getting creative… Or feeling motivated to do anything for that matter in lockdown but that wasn’t the case for us. We felt really inspired and reinvigorated from having a clear idea and plan of the new direction we were wanting to go in. It made writing music fun again and not thinking too much and just going with it. It was obviously the right decision as the music came instantly and the reception we’ve got from ‘Solis’ the last couple of weeks has been amazing so far, everything is feeling like it’s flowing really nicely.
“We felt really inspired and reinvigorated from having a clear idea and plan of the new direction we were wanting to go in”
Electronic Groove: How would you define the sounds of ‘Solis’?
Mona Vale: ‘Solis’ has definitely got that disco tinge which is what we were going for. We wanted to write something that made us feel happy to keep us sane in lockdown, and it’s cool because we’ve had lots of people message us saying how much it’s helping them at the moment. Funky bass lines and natural-sounding live drums have always been what we gravitate towards, which has probably come from us playing in bands growing up. We’ve always had a hard time with the never-ending list of sub genres in dance music. Never really had any interest in knowing what characterizes a certain niche genre or anything like that. It’s house music at the end of the day, it might be influenced by other types of music but it’s meant to make you dance and feel something, I’ve never really wanted to dive into a certain sub-genre… you’ll just sound like everyone else in that category cos the ‘criteria’ for that genre is so specific. We are Indie kids at heart, so We’ve taken our background of live instrumentation and mixed it with our love for dance music, which hopefully produces something a little different.
Electronic Groove: We know you guys perform as a live act. What roles do take on when on stage? Do you guys write your tracks live or do you process a lot of your tracks with different studio techniques? Do you make compromises when playing live or are you able to recreate a lot of that ‘record’ sound?
Mona Vale: So I sing, play guitar, keyboards, and play samples on sample pads, Lew plays bass and plays synths along with all the FX builds on various synths and takes on more of the electronic elements and transitioning songs into one another. It’s really important to us we play instruments when playing live, even if it means we have to change the songs a bit to allow that to happen. We think of the recorded versions and live versions as two separate things and it allows our indie roots to come out in a live situation with guitars and live bass that wouldn’t really work on the recorded versions. Obviously, it will have all the essential parts to the tunes but we aren’t afraid of changing things up and adding parts in to make it a legit live performance and unique every time. The songs almost keep morphing and developing after the songs have been released which makes it really exciting for us. We DJ too so it’s nice to have both those outlets as they are so different in our eyes, two very different skill sets.
Electronic Groove: What can we expect from Mona Vale for 2021? What are your next goals moving forward? Do you have any upcoming gigs lined up?
Mona Vale: We’re going to be releasing lots of music throughout the year and trying to build momentum that way as obviously the live side of things is so up in the air at the moment. Lots of gigs penciled in but nothing firm as we are all just waiting for the green light on that front. We have our set ready to go and always working on improving it and can’t wait to play lots of DJ sets to. Please, go back to normal soon world… we’re raring to go!
Electronic Groove: Thank you so much for sitting down with us guys! We wish you the best going forward and hope you have a great year!
Mona Vale: Our pleasure, thanks for having us!
Mona Vale’s ‘Solis’ is now available via Etton Messy. Stream and buy here.
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