Introducing: MONAD

Photo credit: Ben Palhov

1. “UDB” captures a feeling of emotional detachment - almost like life unfolding on a distant screen. How did you translate that dissociative experience into sound and texture?

When I was recording the instruments for this song I was going on instinct. I wanted the sounds to feel alien but still recognizable, a bit like having an anxiety attack where reality or things you already know well can feel confusing and weird. The piano is compressed to a point it almost sounds like a synth, the bubbling synth that runs throughout the song almost sounds like someone trying to catch his breath and then there's that saxophone solo - Itay Raiten is a great jazz player. I asked him to play on this without hearing the song. He came down to the studio and I put a mic in front of him and asked him to play freely without listening to the song, I only described the feelings behind the song to him and let him pour it out - he played for about 45 minutes straight and what you hear on the track is the part I picked.

2. You describe Gift as a kind of “weird documentary” of your life over 12 months. What were some of the pivotal moments or shifts that shaped the emotional arc of this EP?

Well, it's a documentary of my feelings and thoughts through that time. So while the songs on Gift lean mostly on the introspective side I think it's more of different snapshots of me at different stages through that time, highs and lows. The world around me was changing rapidly and dramatically and I was responding to that intuitively, trying to capture it while it was happening. I am not sure there was necessarily a singular pivotal moment I can point at, but more of a gradual realization that things around me and dear to me had shifted in a way that can't be undone.

3. Your sound pulls from such a rich spectrum - from Morricone to Broadcast and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. When you’re in the studio, how do you decide what era or aesthetic to lean into without it becoming pastiche?

I'm not sure I'm always making a conscious decision to lean into this or that one, but I do think things can become pastiche when they are stripped of their meaning and are used just as an aesthetic without substance. You hear music like that sometimes, when it's clear people want to sound like something but they don't make you feel anything. It just feels like cosplay, kind of like the current iteration of AI music generators; it sounds like something you know, but it doesn't really mean anything. Like cooking a dish from looking at a picture of it.Morricone, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Broadcast - they were all very deliberate, and not afraid to be weird, unpleasant or direct in order to evoke the feelings they were aiming for. I see an important creative lesson in that.

4. You’ve spoken about Gift being your most direct and honest work to date. Was there anything you had to let go of—technically or emotionally—in order to reach that clarity?

I think I mostly had to work hard not to get in my own way and to put what's best for the song above what's best for me - keep the writing process judgement-free and the editing/production process merciless. Write it like no one is hearing and produce it like everybody's listening. It's like that Lennon thing; you'd have to work hard to find an ounce of fat in a Lennon song, it's like a Jenga tower in that it has exactly all the parts it needs to work and if you start taking things out it just falls apart quickly. Every instrument or lyric is like a knife.

5. There’s a deep sense of purpose in your decision to donate proceeds from “UDB” to Standing Together. How do your personal values and political environment influence the way you release and position your music?

While Monad’s music is not overtly political, and Monad’s art is not a medium for my political opinions (there are oI believe artists have a responsibility to speak up right now, but that responsibility doesn’t come from being an artist - it comes first and foremost from being a human being and from being part of a communityI believe I have a responsibility to be active in my community, to speak out and take action against injustice and fascism, and to work to end this war and build a better future for the people on this land. It's something I try to do through activism in my personal life, and donating the proceeds from this Monad release (Gift EP) is a way to also incorporate that into Monad.

Solidarity is not a privilege reserved for easier times, it is the backbone and the condition that makes resisting the fascist war machine possible - and it is the only way forward.