The label sent me a copy of the new Monuments album The Amanuensis out now on Century Media Records recently and I was blown away. Pounding riffs, stellar musicianship and a gem of a vocalist in the recently hired Chris Barretto. So what sort of metal are they? The band themselves don’t want their music to be defined, it’s either good or bad depending on who’s listening. So I’m taking a leaf from their book and will only say that this is not only good but really really good.
I jumped on the chance to interview someone from the band and Chris was back with answers lightning fast. So here we go:
1. You have a new vocalist Chris Barretto on the new release,
can you tell us how you found him and was he familiar with the bands
music.
CB: Hey dude! Chris here haha:) Well, we found each other
quite by accident, chance, fate, whatever you’d like to call it. We’ve all had
music profiles for a couple of years, me being with the bands I’ve been involved
with for some time and Monuments being Monuments of course. We didn’t have a
dormal meeting until just last year, however. I was filling in for vocals with
the band “The Haarp Machine” and Monuments was one of the bands that were a part
of that tour. It’s kinda funny actually. They’re some of the most amazing people
I’ve ever met, but they’re fucking mental haha! And I mean that in the best way
possible. I’ve also been a fan of the music they’ve produced for a while now, so
I was no stranger to them. We developed a rapport on that tour that was pretty
good i guess. I knew they were having troubles with their old singer and when I
got home from that tour, they had fired him and were looking for a replacement.
They put up that audition track (which is now “I, The Creator”) and i seriously
just couldn’t stop listening to it. It was way too fun to get out of my head. So
i hit them up and was like…”SUP! So is this a thing possibly?” They were very
cool with the idea and I sent over a demo just like everyone else. I’m fortunate
that they liked my interpretation just as much as we got along, cuz I ended up
getting the gig and here we are!
2. Chris is an incredible singer and can easily go from a
clean vocal style to an aggressive one. I’m often curious, when you have a
vocalist with this range how do you decide what style to use for each song or
part of the song.
CB: Why thank you! Might I say, you have impeccable taste 😉
I really do appreciate the kind words though. Truth be told, the style kind of
writes itself, if that makes sense. It’s partially a feeling and also a little
bit of the thought “what do I want to achieve here”. As far as this record goes,
those decisions were up to me and I feel like i made them, appropriately. To be
fair, I was very conscious of wanting to do a bit more singing on this record,
so that have been my only “pre-meditated” approach for this album. Otherwise,
like I said before, it kind of writes itself.
3. Your first full length release Gnosis was well received.
The follow up is normally more difficult. Did you feel any pressure with this
one.
CB: We felt pressure but not for the reasons you’d expect.
The pressure came form the need to complete this album in a very short time
frame, by our standards. We have about 7 -8 months to get this record done and
out to the people. That includes writing, recording, mastering, packaging. The
whole nine. That was the only pressure we felt. Other than that, Gnosis wasn’t
even a ghost of a thought while doing this record. We just wanted to express our
musical selves as honestly possible, this time around.
4. You went for a more stripped down sound for this one. Did
the material lend itself to this approach or was the decision made well in
advance.
CB: I wouldn’t say stripped down. I would say subtle. There
are some riffs on here that Browne loved to write but, sometimes, hates to play
because of their technical difficulty. There are more harmonically moving
passages on here than I believe were on Gnosis. On this record, we actually
explored almost every key center possible. So in that one sense alone, it was
way more involved than the previous record. Vocally, I honestly feel the same
way. The subtlety of this album is greater and the real craftsmanship comes out
in the little details that the common ear might not pick up because it’s not
whole-heartedly paying attention. Listen again and really pay attention. There’s
so much more going on than you’d initially expect.
5. Consider me a fly on the wall, take me through how a track
is written from the bare bones up and is it the same with all the
songs.
CB: well it would be like this, I suppose. Normally it’s
music first, so whether it’s Browne, or Olly, or Swanny, or even Mike, there’s
always a tune that happens first initially. For Browne, he basically writes
around the way he feels and let’s his hands do the rest. We then arrange the
song a whole bunch of times until we settle on a final version of sorts. then I
come in and lay the vocals on top and provide some further tweak to the
arrangement, should I find it necessary to suit an idea that I have. It’s not
always like that, we don’t have a “definite” formula for writing. this just
happens to be the most common approach we use.
6. We live in an age where everything has to be defined and
have a place and yet in the press release for The Amanuensis you don’t want the
bands music to be classified. Was it one thing that made the band take such
stance.
CB: I guess we’re just holding onto that piece of hope that
people will truly just listen to the album and let the music speak for itself.
There’s all these categories and labels nowadays. To me, or to us, it’s all just
rock n roll or metal. Even that is too much. Just put it on and find out if you
like it or not. That’s all we’re really asking.
7. From a musician’s perspective what is your definition of
success now that cd sales are not what they were.
CB: It’s a multi-dimensional answer for sure. To be fair, cd
sales still matter. They might not be as important in our little corner of
music, but they still count. I guess it also matters how well you feel you did
on the record. Did you really write something that was honest to yourself, as a
musician? people also help shape the success of a record. If you write what you
think is a bangin record, but no one buys it, is it really a success. Honestly,
like a lot of things in life, it really comes down to that old phrase: “time
will tell”. But let me tell you this, if you got a #1 record in the charts and
you can make a nice living off your music, there’s no shame in that and you
better enjoy it! it’s becoming a rarer thing these days. For metal
anyway.
8. You have a lot of upcoming tour dates, do you feel that
this is still the best way to get the bands music heard.
CB: Nothing will ever replace the experience of live music.
Connecting with people will be around long after the internet and electricity
expire (hope that doesn’t happen any time soon). Don’t get me wrong, the
internet has re-shaped the world and may provide a more immediate sense of
connection with new music. But nothing will ever replace the profundity of
hearing something live and having your mind blown.
9. The U.S leg of the tour features Scale The Summit and
Glass Cloud, are you friends with any of those guys and/or familiar with their
music.
CB: Well Josh Travis from Glass Cloud used to be in Monuments
way back when so there’s a little bit of history there! The rest of the guys we
don’t know quite as well but we look forward to the the hangs…if they can
handle us 😉
So there you have it. The band are just starting a run of U.S dates and the full list of shows can be found at:
http://www.centurymedia.com/artist.aspx?IdArtist=570
or say hello on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/thisismonuments
Richie.
