Monuments: New process, New Vision
MONUMENTS are the kind of band that simply can’t be put down. Through many a lineup changes over the years, the band always remains amicable with past members and remain keen to bestow more tasty progressive metal on the world. The exciting reinstalment of Mike Malyan on drums and the first full record with new vocalist Andy Cizek, In Stasis has seen the biggest shift in mindset yet for the band. We caught up with Andy and Mike to talk working with Mick Gordon, changes in collaborative style, and having fun being vulnerable with ideas.
The record has a huge sound that has become synonymous with MOUNUMENTS, but it has a lot of unexpected ‘resting’ moments wherein the music itself breathes a little and allows for more dynamic changes than you’d expect. “That was kind of a goal going into the album,” Andy agrees. “Both socially and conceptually to have big moments and an ebb and flow of chill moments. It’s like a power struggle within the sound of the album itself, it represents the concepts within the songs.”
“I think it look some bravery, especially for [John] Browne, to take such big space moments,” Mike follows up. “I think this has the most space in some areas that we’ve ever had. But that was strongly influenced by Andy and Mick [Gordon]. We could trust them to collaborate in such a way that that we could send them things with gaps, and they would fill those with things that would inspire us. That was completely new to us, to do with a vocalist. We’d always record an instrumental and the vocalist would slap their voice on top, that was it done. It was so nice to send things out that felt so spacious, that has layers missing, or structures that were working but not quite refined, then throwing them out here and seeing what happened.”
The record has a feel through it that reflects that more fluid collaboration process. It doesn’t detract from the way Browne and co play, but enhances the ideas of MONUMENTS as band making a piece of music rather than many hands working separately to intermingle pre-existing ideas together.
“We definitely tried to make them more songy,” Andy laughs trying to find the words. “It felt like the first singles had something to prove, but the album felt more like we just wanted to make a sick album. There’s more of a vision. Rather than showing everything we’ve got, we wanted to tell the story in the most appropriate manner, so we put the showing off to the side.” It’s an impressive statement that some of their collectively best work is, to the bands eyes, considered less show-off, but speaks to the musical prowess of MONUMENTS and the confidence in their material as a whole.
“It’s a natural process for us,” Mike adds. “We have this great environment where we can push ourselves, step out of our comfort zones, and do not necessarily silly things, but certainly not take ourselves seriously, and go out there and do something that we haven’t done before. I’ve noticed this kind of thing all over the place that we’re challenging ourselves and having fun doing so. Browne was doing stuff I’ve never heard him do, and,” [he addresses Andy directly] “it feels there wasn’t the reciting of the pre-made versions of yourself you had. You had new voices you were discovering within yourself. And I didn’t necessarily mean to go and blast beat all over the fucking thing, but here we are! It felt like what I was eager to do, and felt safe to try.”
MONUMENTS have always been open to collaboration, as is clear with their back catalogue, but it’s even deeper than even the inner working of the band; it’s the collaboration with their wider team too. “We always tried to adopt a mindset with all the lineup changes over the years, that we hold an open spot for someone to come and dictate what their influence will be. It honestly worked really well with this particular team. We got to build up this rapport and have fun discovering it. With George [Lever] our engineer and Mick our co-producer, I really feel like they helped up to strip away the chaos of the process that doesn’t serve the record. One thing that George was really invested in as a long-time listener, was that he really wanted this record to begin anew, with a fresh, consistent starting point. Looking back on it, I can really appreciate how much that influenced the process. It all lead towards us finding out what happens when we all truly communicate and develop together.”
The whole idea of what could be achieved feels like a brand-new chapter for MONUMENTS and what they can be. There seems to be no ego, only friends and musicians who want to make the best music possible without ever coveting a personal glory. “Not having one person making the decision was cool,” Mike concurs. “It ultimately came down to George in the end, but Mick was also amazing, it was like having a producer that didn’t make decisions, he made suggestions. We had this really cool discord server environment that was like our personal, private writing space. Having Mick have his own area and having different song channels, and him putting in MP3’s that he was just messing around with was sick, we wanted to play around with things loads more.”
There’s a sense of excitement on In Stasis that fans will feel through the record and no doubt in live shows. The vulnerability on show feels like a show of strength in each other, and in taking chances. “I think as long as were in a new conceptual moment, because the concepts always come first for us, we can screw up and openly venture into some weird and nasty ideas,” Mike affirms. “But it’s always in a place where together it’s fun and cool. We can’t really make any mistakes because we communicate and make the ideas work. I never really want to go back to having to make a perfect instrumental that a vocalist can just somehow make into a song!”
“Now it’s more collaborative from the ground up, rather than you guys being left to your own devises and a vocalist trying to insert one’s self into it,” Andy agrees. “Now it’s a step-by-step where everyone’s always involved. It’s one of the best albums making experiences I’ve ever had. I got to work with Browne on song concepts rather than just doing that stuff all by myself. And I was able to help with song structure and stuff.”
“You also changed the riffs and harmonics,” Mike notes. “Which lead to Browne in a direction that he could chase even further and those are some of my favourite moments on the record,” Mike continues enigmatically. “And then Mick changed the chord progress in [some songs]. Ultimately this is just completely different kind of collaboration. One that accidentally felt genuinely awesome.”
In Stasis is out now via Century Media Records.
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