The last time MONOTONIX came to my hometown (Providence, RI) they stayed at my house. The house was a real small shithole, much like a morgue, drop ceiling, dank, a "so where does the body get washed", formaldehyde type of place. I felt bad. I also had to go to a "job" the next morning so we had to leave MONOTONIX in my house (I gave them the keys). Not only did they eat all my groceries I just bought for the month, they left mounds upon mounds of long curly hair in my bathtub (which I sold on E-Bay a week later - Official MONOTONIX hair). I forgive them, and want you to know, that these guys are the best. Super live, amazing layers-down of Rock riffs and beats and growls. MONOTONIX is hard-working too, touring extensively, making records and moving in a music scene that is difficult to win over at times, but they always seem to bring the fun and keep it real when the calling is there. I love this band and hope you do to. Give it up for MONOTONIX. Go read elsewhere a real review if you need concrete evidence or just get into this humble interview I did with Yonatan Gat axe-master extraordinaire of the best band from Israel and the best band pounding the US tourpath in the year 2010 - MONOTONIX.
MONOTONIX is -
Singer - Ami Shalev
Guitarist - Yonatan Gat
Drummer - Haggai Fershtman
1. What have you guys been up to lately? Got any new material that you'd like to describe for us?
We actually just put out a record 2 months ago.
It's called "Where Were You When It Happened?".
We're gonna work on new songs and do some more recordings in January.
2. How are things at Drag City? What do you think about being on a label these days? It almost seems like DiY is better financially, is there a reason to have a label for you guys?
There are many things I like about Drag City.
One of them is that they let us be our own boss, we're kind of in charge of ourselves and make our own decisions, but they really help us with a lot of the work, and help us get press, distribution and other things.
They are great people and friends, and we're proud to be on their Catalog.
3. Do you notice any trends in underground music scenes these days? A few observations I have is that it is a lot less common to see bands or musicians have a "following" it seems that music fans take it a lot more night to night now. What do you think? It seems Monotonix is one of the few bands going that actually have developed a loyal following.
We live in
Israel, and home, we don't go to shows at all.
When I do go to shows in the US/Europe it's usually our shows, and they happen 200 times a year, so the only trends with live shows I can see are trends at our shows.
There used to be an annoying trend of steel trashcans bouncing from person to the next, but I believe it stopped. Maybe steel trashcans are a 2008 trend.
I think this could turn into an exciting time with all that anarchy in the record business, recorded music becoming free and almost meaningless to people, live shows becoming the one thing that can not be captured digitally, records becoming songs, songs becoming versions of older songs. I know a lot of it sounds shitty. But I think rock'n'roll is getting more boring every day and any revolution is good. I'm hoping these silly, amazing times will maybe lead to one last exciting era in rock and roll.
4. What music are you currently listening to? Anything good coming out of Israel these days?
Not really. I just listened to a bunch of old Israeli stuff. Not too many things I would recommend to someone who's not from Israel and doesn't understand the nostalgia.
Iv'e been listening to a lot of old ska & dancehall. some django reinhardt, and that oh sees record "help".
5. Do you have any advice for kids just starting off in a band?
Tour a lot. Go out and play shows. It's an interesting way of seeing the world.
Plus it makes your band better and you learn some stuff about yourself.
Don't be afraid of American Cops.
6. What is your opinion about Music and Politics? Is there a political message in your music?
No political songs, no.
But I think the world would have been a better place if people thought and learned more about what they form their opinions about.
In my opinion, having a formulated opinion about something you don't know much about is ignorance.
There's also usually something pretty ignorant about rock guitarists going on about politics in zine interviews so i'll just stop here..
