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pipeline5.interview:monotract
Monotract are a three-piece musical unit from Miami, Florida, whose ever-growing musical pallatte is an unpredictable mix of "traditional" guitar and drum experimentation and forays into electronic music and sampling. In short, they seem to have no qualms about using almost any fruit that falls out of the musical cornucopia and squashing it until it fits their needs. Add that willingness to experiment to their open-minded and positive attitude about music, and you've got a three-headed, noise-making monster, the nature of whose fiery breath is as hard to forecast as that meteorite that the movies say will someday kill us all.
interview by Adam Strohm
Adam: How did the group begin? What sparked the formation of Monotract?
Nancy:Two friends moved to Atlanta (who me and Roger played with as monotract), and we'd met Carlos through them. Me and Roger played duo for a little bit, and we wanted a third party. We thought of Carlos and it worked out.
Carlos: I moved to Miami a little over 4 years ago from venezuela for school and started to look into interesting music things going on, I'd been doing band stuff back there since I was 16, and I found about churchill's(where rat bastard does a thursday experimental night) and I met Dino and vanessa who did fukktron and were also in monotract at the time, I saw the original monotract which played
really good and interesting structured songs live a couple of times; and played bass in fukktron a couple of times before they moved to Atlanta. then nancy and roger asked me to jam it out at a rehearsal space and we ended up putting that material into a 7", playing every other thursday at churchills and going on tour, and doing another 7", etc...and well, it all happen[ed] by itself pretty much.
Roger: Nancy and Carlos have given an apt description.
What do you see as the things that the three of you have in common, other than a certain aesthetic? What keeps you on the "same page" musically?
Nancy: We've got an interest in learning, in eating fried chicken, having a good time... Musically, we're about the same age so we grew up liking alot of the same music.
Carlos: Yeah...and interest in interesting things, in the arts and the sounds...and we all grew up getting yelled at in spanish.
Roger: An unsaid desire to make up new sounds, get crunked up and see the world. I think seeing the world is a big thing for all of us.
Hispanic noise bands surely aren't the norm. How do you think your heritage has affected the music you make?
Nancy: It hasn't affected the music we make; moreso, the way we speak and communicate. I think when things around you are obvious, and you're creative, you look for the corners to creep in.
Carlos: Yeah I think it doesnt have much of an effect on the music we do...I grew up being unable to dance to merengue and salsa at parties, and though I am obviously affected personally by the culture, and music is very personal, that's not the place where we are coming from musically, It just doesnt come out that way when we do our thing.
Roger: We can all shake it dirty on the dance floor and I think that contributes to a certain rhythm within us�within us. I think if it has any affect it�s another one of those unsaid things. Besides, I think the world community that is happening has increasingly allowed for Hispanic noise bands not to be the norm so much anymore just cuz more people are finding out that they�ve probably always existed.
Since no reviewer seems to be able to describe your sound accurately without resorting to references to other bands and musicians, how would you describe the sounds you make?
Roger: Disjointed sound maybe? Musica que come el culo del GRAN EXITO HP (hijo de puta)? Either one..I can�t decide.
Carlos: I'll tell you later
Nancy: I wouldn't. I'd say, come watch us play and we never play the same set twice.
As evidence by your changing assemblage of instruments, instrumentations,techniques, and the like, it seems that Monotract is a band that's always shifting and changing. What, aside from the line-up, do you see as important things that stay the same for the band?
Carlos: just to keep looking for new sounds and different ways to use existing ones...
Roger: The FORCE of change, passion, fucked-upness, and fun. A sense of humor about anything is essential for me or we may as well not even do it. Fartx3
Nancy: a general desire to do whatever we want and keep doing it.
Do you see yourselves as each having a different "role" in the band? Since you often change instruments, it might be said that you're interchangable...do you agree?
Carlos: yes I agree... not because we change instruments often though, but because the way we have always approach doing music together, where there isnt anyone leading the way, or if so only for small periods of time during a set, and sometimes it all blends into one mass of sounds, I think when we started it was probably more of someone leading for a while and the others following and that lead changing between the 3 of us, but we have progressively grown away from that...
Roger: Hmm�I would say that we bring our own elements to the game when we play which are, again, unsaid. But I would hope that we quickly shit on whatever prefabricated mentalities or abilities we have in lieu of spontaneity and interpreting the moment for whatever it�s worth. But yes, the push-pull between us is constant. We all thrive on intensity.
Nancy: yes, anything goes.
In light of the recent shifts in your instrumentation toward electronics, how do you view their importance? Is the era of the guitar over, or are electronics simply yet another tool to use in the creative process?
Carlos: Ever since we started there was some kind of electronic element present, even when we didnt have some of the equipment we had now we found a way to produce electronic sounds using our guitars. Electronics are definetlly another useful tool; I think the guitar is the favorite instrument for all 3 of us so I dont think it will go away anytime soon. there is probably going to be little of it on the lp we are working on right now,(there is probably going to be no drums either), but that's because we want to investigate some possibilities that we hadn't look into
before.
Nancy: it's not a recent shift/interest. i've had my keyboard since the age of twelve. got it one Christmas from the fam. elecs are just another tool. but my friend dan did get me more interested in electronic music.
Roger: I personally think that anyone with a bit of intelligence, sense of history and lack of sentimentality would agree that the guitar in its present, common use is pretty obsolete. I would compare it to the easel in visual art. People were really swooned by the guitar�s original raw energy but that concept has been watered down even by the people that still play in a pseudo raw manner. I still play it cuz it�s fun but you can only hear something X amount of times before it�s completely formulaic and able to be easily reproduced. I think of electronics as simply another tool but it�s a tool I prefer as of late cuz of its relative freshness and my retarded capacity of controlling it. Not to mention I�ve been best friends with a computer every day for the last 6 fucking years. Not to worry shredders, it�ll eventually be bastardized too!
Where do you hope to take Monotract in the future? Are there any specific goals that the three of you have, either personally or as a band?
Roger:Beats me. Keep partying�Africa is Zion and Zion is Africa...and Ethiopia!!
Carlos: As far as personal go I want to get my dmmn college degree done with , got about 4 part time semesters to go, though most of my energies are devoted to sounds, let it be while doing live things, recording, or just walking around or in the subway, a lot of the time I am thinking about sounds and ways to use them. Ive also started to try small things in digital collages and deconstruction of images, which I want to use for something a t some point, either if is as a stand alone or as part of some music, the band or some other type of collaboration. As a band there is a few immediate recording projects that we are working with, a song for a capt. beefheart tribute and a couple
of other compilations as well as an lp for public eyesore in 2001 a full length on menlo park, and of course there will be more stuff on animal world in the future too, our relation with them has been great. We are begining to plan a tour for late spring, and we want to go to europe within the next two years, and we also want to go to play in japan at some point in the future...
Nancy: On tour. We wanna travel and we wanna witness the work of innovative artists (musicians, composers, dancers, choreographers, visual artists). I want to see the arts become a major part of school curriculum. We want the economic freedom to combine music, art, and/or movement on a much more regular basis.
Monotract Spring 2001 tour dates
All dates with 'belial or belial'(northeastern usa noise masters
formerly known as born in east la)
with special humectant interruptions
apperances on selected dates
Friday May 18, 6pm - 10pm
Rochester NY
@ Genesee Valley Park Roundhouse Pavillion
with ASMATIC, COFFEE, PENGO
http://www.carbonrecords.com/bands/pengo/index.html
Saturday May 19
Ferndale MI
@ Club Olson - 432 W Chesterfield
with TWIG HARPER, OCCASIONAL DETROIT, WOLF EYES
Sunday May 20
Chicago IL
@ Fireside Bowl - ph: 773-276-4915
with BUNNYBRAINS, NO DOCTORS w/ NITROUS ROXCIDE, PANICSVILLE
Monday May 21 9 pm
Minneapolis MN
@ Soap Factory - 110 5th Ave. SE (corner of 2nd St. SE & 5th Ave. SE)
with IMPOSSIBLE THEATRE GROUP, NEW PORT, REXOTRON, SISTRUM, UNCONDITIONAL ROCK, THE VIG
http://www.soapfactory.org/about/soapmap.htm
Tuesday May 22, 9pm
Omaha NE
@ Gunboat - 301 S 38th Ave. (corner of 38th Ave. & Farnam St.)
with CHEYNTARA, NATURALISTE
Matt Silcock: [email protected]
http://www.lab.eccentrica.org/unread/gunboat.html
Wednesday May 23, 8pm
Denver CO
@ The Bug Theatre - 3654 Navajo St. @ 37th Ave., ph: 303-477-5977
with AVOCADO CABAL, PAGE 27
http://www.bugtheatre.com
* $7, or $5 for Bug Members and Students with current ID
Thursday May 24
Phoenix AZ
@ Argo Warehouse
with BLACK DICE, AVEY TARE & PANDA BEAR
Sunday May 27, 9pm
Los Angeles CA
@ The Smell - 247 S Main St., ph: 213-625-4325
with Nels Cline/Devin Sarno/Norton Wisdom, OWLS, POLAR GOLDIE CATS
http://www.nelscline.com
http://www.polargoldiecats.com
* All ages
Monday May 28, 2:30pm
Los Angeles CA
@ The Villa Stanley East - 7253 Melrose Ave.
* closed to the public
Wednesday May 30, 4pm
Albuquerque NM
@ Bow Wow - 3103 Central Ave. NE
with BIG WHISKEY M.D., LOVELIFE
Tony Rettman: [email protected]
Thursday May 31 9pm
Norman OK
@ Medicine Hall - 1311 N Jenkins
with PATRICK O'DONNELL