Posted on February 9, 2010 - by Mark Zonda

Monzano Speaks

Just when you expect yet another band from Sweden, here you come not even a bit disappointed: a new band from… NORWAY! A revised and refined sound à-la-joydivision 2.0, on the same vague of the coolest indie club bands since the Ferdinand Revolution, a “little cure” behind cages, Monzano is no “Titus Andronicus” and sacrifice the anger and the rebellion of its youth to a clever radiophonic pop ready to please your hears after February the 15th with the release of a new album called “By This Time Last Year Everything Will Seem Younger”. We had the honour to shake hands and exchange some questions with Sjur Lyseid.

Mark Zonda: Monzano from Oslo: what’s the story behind the band?

Sjur: Monzano was originally my bedroom project several years ago, which started after I’d been in band throughout high school, but had no one to play with at the time. Eivind, whom I went to college with, heard the demos and i got him to add some stuff. Soon after we had two more people join and Monzano became a real band.

We played quite a few shows and recorded and self-released our first EP, The Window Was Open but the Smoke Wasn’t Moving, in 2006. After playing at the Norwegian music convention by:larm in 2007, we signed to How is Annie Records, and released our first full length High Horses and One-trick Ponies the same year.  After a change in the lineup, with a new drummer and bassist/guitarist, we’re now just about to release our second album, By This Time Last Year Everything Will Seem Younger, this time on Spoon Train Audio, also a pretty small indie label from Oslo.

Mark Zonda: Is Oslo a good place for starting a pop band and touring?

Sjur: When we started out, it wasn’t. Through the 90′s and early 2000′s, Oslo’s music scene was in the tight grid lock of Scandirock, with bands like Turbonegro and Gluecifer reigning. It was all leather jackets, Marshall stacks and machoism, you know. And so much hostility, it was like bands were competing instead of cooperating. But something happened, I guess people just grew tired of that scene after a while. Now there’s a really healthy environment for music in this city, not just for pop bands. I read somewhere that Oslo has more concerts per inhabitant than any other city in Europe. I’m not sure if that’s true, but there’s certainly a lot more happening here than ten years back.  Plus, all the bands here have started to back each other up in such a great way, there’s a lot of openness and support, regardless of genre. I might just as well go to a hardcore, noise or electronica show, and I even produced some hiphop last year. I think that kind of eclecticism is something everyone can feed off of, and it provides a lot of room for creativity and enthusiasm. Add to the mix a good deal of DIY-ethos, great labels and a growing local consciousness, and I think the main ingredients of a terrific music scene has started to develop here.   As for touring, that’s a bit harder. We’re very much on the periphery of Europe, and getting anywhere is both more of a hassle and more expensive than it would have been if we were on the continent. And Norway is pretty small, you can only play so many places, so there’s hard to do a good tour of more than 10-15 dates. Elsewhere we’re kind of dependent on help in order to set things up.

Mark Zonda: Why only a song on MySpace profile?

Sjur: That’s just for now, we’ll probably stream the full album just before and right after the release, and leave a four or five songs there. So hold your horses, more will be available soon!

Mark Zonda: Was the best song written in the ’80s?
Sjur: I try not to classify music by the decade it was written in. A good song is a good song, and that’s really all that matters. The 80′s certainly had some awful production, but I’m always trying see through that. As for my favourite song, it’s such a tight race. Prefab Sprout – Appetite, The Smiths – This Charming Man, Dinosaur Jr – Little Fury Things, Go-Betweens – Love Goes On. I could, ehm, go on and on, and it would probably change from day to day.

Mark Zonda:  Are you proud of “Cold Waters”?

Sjur: I guess you were really wondering about Islands in the Stream on the last question, since we paraphrase that song, and despite it being frowned upon (and laughed at) by a lot of people, I actually think it’s a good song. The reason we used it the way we do though, is because it’s probably one of the quintessential duets in pop history, along with the Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris version of Love Hurts, and  Don’t You Want Me by Human League (also a great 80′s song!).  When we wrote Cold Waters we always thought of it as a duet. And duets are supposed to be cheesy, which it really is, but the twist is the meta aspect of it. Pretty much the whole song is a paraphrasing of Islands in the Stream. If we’re proud of it? I think it’s cheesy, shamelessly catchy, and a pretty atypical Monzano song. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. So yeah, I guess so.

Monzano -  “Twentynine”

Let it ring on...

• Relaxovision (0)
• Dear Catastrophes (0)
• Give yourself another fountain rag (0)
• Norwegian Good (0)
• Another Sky (0)