by brenton crozier bdcrozier@gmail.com
WHAT: Mono Live with Grails
WHEN: Tuesday, 05/08/07
WHERE: TSI
Mono is a four-piece instrumental band from Japan that does not easily conform to the rock genre. They have been together since 2000 and have already worked with some of experimental music’s biggest names. From releasing their debut album on John Zorn’s label Tzadik, to recording their last two albums with Steve Albini as producer, Mono has quickly become a who’s-who of noise rock.
Mono captures the dynamic awareness of Mogwai, the melodic sensibility of Explosions in the Sky, and the modern compositional structure of The Rachels with songs that have a distinctive film-score feel. They were nice enough to answer some questions via e-mail for their upcoming show at TSI.
EU: Is your music experimental?
Mono: What I’m trying to do is to create good music in terms of melody, rhythm, dynamics and arrangement that people can share the emotion and feeling. Considering that, I think our music is a little different from experimental music in general.
EU: Does choosing to play instrumental music put a ceiling on your industry success?
Mono: No, I don’t think so. I have never felt playing instrumental music is an obstacle to success. I have no idea how much profit the mainstream bands are making, but I know there are a lot of great successful bands who consciously stay in the underground, independent music scene. We feel we are very fortunate we have a lot of fans who are supporting us. Without their support, we are not able to do what we are doing.
EU: What was it like to work with Steve Albini compared to past producers?
Mono: For us, Steve is the best sound engineer who can capture the band’s raw emotion live on the tapes. He doesn’t do any excess editing or overdubbing. He understands the band’s vision, taste and personality, and gets the 100% real sound of the band in the studio. No matter how terribly or beautifully the band plays, he records the sound “as is”. No frill at all. For us, that’s miracle magic.
EU: How would you describe Mono’s music to someone that has never heard it?
Mono: Instrumental rock band whose music is cinematic and emotional.
EU: Are your songs musical landscapes?
Mono: Joy and sorrow… I want to express the emotional landscape that all of us are feeling in our life.
EU: Are your pieces more compositions than songs? What is the difference?
Mono: Actually we have never been aware that we are instrumental band. With or without words or singing, only good music touches our heart. I just want to write good music. That’s all.
EU: Are vocals ever going to be an option for Mono?
Mono: I like church choir. I’m listening to the folk music, too. We don’t have any specific plan to work with a choir or collaboration with any singer though.
EU: Who are your biggest influences?
Mono: There are many, but I have to say the film maker Lars Von Trier, if I choose one.
EU: How different is the perception of Mono in Japan versus the United States?
Mono: I don’t see any difference anymore these days. People are always listening to our music intensely wherever we play. I often tell the interviewer that people in the US used to speak loud during the set, when we started touring about 5, 6 years ago. So we raised our volume higher.
EU: Listening to You Are There, it feels like the guitar lines often play the part of a vocalist. Do you think of the guitar lines in that way?
Mono: Yes. For us, the melody is most important. When I write, I’m very conscious of melody.
EU: With such textured sounds, the temptation to layer instrumentation infinitely must be great. How do you keep from saturating a song with “too much?”
Mono: It could probably be possible to expand the arrangement infinitely but we write and arrange our music based on the condition that the songs should be able to be played live by four of us. We don’t make the music we cannot play live.
|
