Home > Interviews > New Music Friday: Mundays

New Music Friday: Mundays

///
Comments are Off

Mundays are a new Corby-based three-piece, playing lo-fi psychedelic garage rock. Their debut EP The Best Day Of The Week, Friday has just been released. Hear it below, after reading this engaging interview with singer/guitarist Beb Reed.

How did you guys get together?
Jack and I are brothers, Josh is our cousin! Me and Josh are in Drinsipa, and we were really interested in the idea of playing some softer, more “songy” songs. In late 2017 we started writing some stuff and it sounded cool so we decided to book some gigs as a two-piece. It worked, but it didn’t sound as full as we would have liked it to, especially with the happy chords and such, so we decided to look for a bass player! We like the idea of being in a band with our mates so although my little brother didn’t play bass we decided we’d try teach him, and it’s been going great so far! Jack doesn’t play a lot of music, but like us is a huge fan of listening to music, and I think being able to work with someone who has no previous experience is quite interesting as you get a fresh set of ears when you’re writing songs, especially when you’re writing songs for the sake of writing songs, and that being the main focus of the band. He listens to a song and says whether it’s good or not, as apposed to picking it apart and trying to make something “original” or “clever”.

How would you describe your sound?
We go for quite a lo-fi, fuzzy and simplistic sound, having only bass, guitar and drums. We use a lot of guitar sounds to make the songs sound more characteristic than they may sound on their own. If the songs were played on acoustic guitar, they may sound quite basic and what a lot of people might describe as “poppy”. Drench it in phasers, attack it with fuzz and throw a couple of happy sounding harmonies in there, and you get something close to Munday’s sound.

Who are your main influences?
For our actual sound we take a lot of influence from the bands in the California psych circle. Anything Ty Segal has graced with his musical genius. Wand. Meatbodies. As far as songwriting goes we take influence from whatever pops out at the time, or whatever subject we think would suit the instruments. Me and Josh are big fans of MGMT too because the lyrics are brill, so I take a lot of inspiration from them. Our first single ‘Phoan’ has been compared to Oasis which is a weird one because we had no intention of that; nonetheless, cool.

Tell us everything about the EP.
Single ‘Phoan’ is the first track we’ve released from our debut EP. We recorded the song with a couple of microphones in my dads house, and it turned out well! We’ve had a really good response so far, and were even more buzzing that Jay Russell has mixed and mastered the EP for us. The title and lyrics are quite self explanatory. It’s about waiting around by your phone for a call or text from a special someone, and no I don’t mean a girlfriend or boyfriend or anything…some people may understand what we are talking about…

What are your live shows like?
We play a lot with storytelling in our live shows, often having some weird robot voice going through the front of house, and some ambient or sometimes nightmarish pedals being played around with. We like to think of each song as a chapter or section in the set, and the voices roughly tell a story, or at least provide a basic theme for the performance. We like to improvise a lot too! We dedicate sections of songs to playing about on pedals, interacting with the audience, or more story telling! We like to try have fun with it!

Are you part of a wider scene in Northamptonshire, playing with like-minded bands? Any favourite bands/venues to play with?
As of yet we’ve only played a few local shows, but I can definitely see us being tied in with certain bands. Skirt, King Purple, Deaf Trap, Toucan are just a few names off the top of my head that we have/love playing shows with. We played The Hut recently after it being desolate for a while, that was cool.

What has been your favourite band moment of the past year?
I think we all love playing shows and putting on a performance. For me, the best part of being in the band is the planning, rehearsal and finally playing the gigs. There’s something very rewarding about preparing an actual performance instead of just playing songs in an order. When you finish playing and you’ve done a good job, it feels like you’ve put the best version of your band and yourself out there, and it’s really exciting to hear feedback and to plan the next.

What was the last album you bought/streamed?
The last album I listened to was This Town Needs Guns – 13.0.0.0
Josh: The Fall Of Troy – Manipulator
Jack: Burbank – Rose Water

What is your burning desire for the band to do in the future? What plans do you have?
Obviously the burning desire for the band would be to be in a position where this is how we could make a living or at least be able to do this the majority of the time. A particular dream for mine is to be able to tour somewhere really hot and sunny with some cool like-minded bands, somewhere like California, or Spain. Lovely weather over there… We just enjoy playing music together and hopefully one day something will come of it, but if not, this is just as rewarding.

The Best Day Of The Week, Friday is out now on Bandcamp [see below]

You may also like
Northampton venues The Black Prince & The Lab celebrate Independent Venue Week this Feb
October Drift
October Drift: “Our live show is quite a full on physical, energetic thing. I’ve got faith that the adrenaline and buzz will carry us”
The Black Prince venue room
Independent Venue Week 2022 in Northampton
King Purple
Step On: the week’s best new music tracks [Jun 25th]
error: Content is protected !!
%d bloggers like this: