About MONA
Devotion. Faith. Abandonment. The ecstasy of salvation, the salvation of ecstasy
Theres a thin line between rocknroll and religion, and nowhere thinner than in the intense, sharp, sweat-drenched, duelling-guitar euphoria of Mona. The four-piece Nashville-based band or family, or gang, or band of brothers are young, charismatic punk preachers. Theyll testify to the thrill they get from hunkering down in a Nashville, Tennessee basement, writing and recording the best debut album of 2011. Theyll hymn the praises of visceral rock with heavenly fireworks in its soul. They want to convert everyone they come across.
This, by the way, isnt the old God-and-the-devil schticky music-biz hyperbole. Three-quarters of Mona did learn their music how to play, how to perform, how to work a crowd in church: frontman/guitarist Nick Brown and drummer Vince Gard in a Pentecostal Charismatic congregation, bass player Zach Lindsey in a Southern Baptist congregation. For all three, while they were growing up, secular music was frowned upon, and transporting an audience the congregation was paramount. For all four guitarist Jordan Young completes the line-up imbuing secular music with honest passion and true grit is what Mona are all about.
Mona keep the faith, but its definitely our own brand, Weve had to walk away from a lot of the bullshit of church, says Nick, as verbally forthright offstage as he is forcefully charismatic onstage. Were all family people. Were all mamas boys. We all try to be good brothers, to be good sons. The same thing with the band were a family. But obviously with the band were more like a family in the Mafia sense. Were a fucking gang as well. Its all hugs and kisses on the cheek but if you fuck with us, were vicious, adds the singer who dispensed with the services of his previous lead guitarist by breaking my fist on his face. With in-band fraternalism this zealous little wonder, perhaps, that Monas never lost a bar fight.
Mona are Sun Studios Million Dollar Quartet (Presley, Perkins, Lewis, Cash) rebooted 54 years on. Theyre rock revivalists, in the sense that they like, as Nick puts it, the golden age of the United States the James Dean, Marilyn Monroe type stuff. This iconography and idealism, he says, informed the writing of Listen To Your Love and the reasons why it became their first single.
It felt kinda reminiscent of some of the old stuff, he says of the song, released on already-rare and already-pricey seven-inch vinyl only. Even Roy Orbison-type melodies. But still, a little bit of a punk thing in there. It just felt like a good first introduction, a first impression.
Nick and Vince grew up in Dayton, Ohio. They met via their church musical group. Says Nick, I needed a drummer and Vince needed an outlet. We didnt even get along as people, as friends, at all, it was more of a musical connection at first. The friendship thing developed much later. But at first, growing up in church and having a little bit of a chip on your shoulder, you want someone thats gonna play aggressively and have fun with it. And both of us were very zealous, even in the church, very passionate people. He beat the shit out of the drums and I used to break pianos.
As musical support act to the pastor, they learnt how to improvise, and jam, to follow the flow of the service. Thats kinda how we view rocknroll now. I know theres a lot of stuff thats about scheduling with radio and TV and the market now, they want you to fit in to a thing. But weve always prided ourselves on the timelessness of the experience. Just let it happen. Even when we write we dont book writing sessions or schedule time to write. We just get together and whatever happens, happens.
Zach Lindsey is from Bowling Green, located in a dry (booze-free) country in Kentucky. Whereas for Nick and Vince non-religious music was banned (Vince: but my mom would play me Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Police and tell me not to tell my dad ), in the bassists church non-religious music was tolerated. I was born listening to The Beatles.
With musical options dead in the water in Dayton, Nick and Vince moved to Nashville. Why? Nick: It was five hours drive away as opposed to 14 hours to New York or 26 hours to LA. And way cheaper. Were a bunch of poor kids.
Once relocated to Americas Music City, they ran into Zach on the local gig scene. He in turn introduced them to Jordan Young, an old Kentucky friend who had grown up in the farm town of Breeding. Having gone through serial line-up upheaval including the bust-up with the unfortunate guitarist with the broken face Mona was complete.
Now were four horses pulling the carriage, says Nick, whos worked on the idea for Mona for years not least because the band is named after his grandmother. Theres a lot of people that wanted to be in this band. Theres a lot of people that locally support this band. But as far as having people that understand their roles, and being happy with their roles, its chemistry, man. Its just like a relationship. Its a marriage.
Nicks top-to-bottom vision for Mona encompasses everything from the archive pictures picked to feature on the largely monochromatic design of their Myspace; to only making the odd song available, and briefly (too many people have artistic bulimia, he spits, eat and puke it up and theyre onto the next thing. So we made people saviour it); to creating their own label Zion Noiz; to hammering out a major record company deal that, unusually, stacks things in the bands favour.
At the end of 2010 a debut TV gold performance on ‘Later with Jools ‘ set things up for 2011 . It ended up being an incredible and whirlwind year for Mona. The bands debut album was released to acclaim in the UK and singles ‘Listen To Your Love’ , ‘Trouble On The Way ‘,Teenager’ and ‘Shooting The Moon’ proved to be massive fan favourites on the live scene.
From early gigs at 150 capacity venues such as the legendary Flowerpot and Rough Trade East, they went on to headline and sell out a number of shows in the UK including London’s premiere music venues The Shephers Bush Empire, Electric Ballroom and Brixton Academy as part of XFM’s Winter Wonderland show.
MTV invited Mona to play Koko in London as part of their Brand New For 2011 competition, the band went on to win this beating off competition from artists such as Jessie J and The Vaccines.
In the Summer of 2011 the band joined the Kings Of Leon on the road on their stadium tour, playing some incredible venues such as Ireland’s Slane Castle and London’s Hyde Park. For all the fans that missed the stand alone shows they had the opportunity to catch the band at some of the worlds biggest Festivals. Mona played to huge crowds at Reading & Leeds Festivals and of course Glastonbury to name just two.
It was not just the UK that were treated to the energy and sheer power of Mona. 2011 saw the band play over 150 shows that covered Germany, Japan, France, Spain, Australia and many more.
Sights now set on conquering home – the US. Mona having already toured with The Airbourne Toxic Event, The Joy Formidable and joint headlined shows with Funeral Party release the album debut with a debut headline tour on February 28th 2012 .
The only thing slick about Mona is their hair. The rest is arm-pumping, vein-throbbing, knee-jittering, raw-throated, singalong rocknroll. Thank God theyve come.
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