FAST TIMES AT CRANSTON HIGH: “We were all band geeks in high school.” |
It’s hard to say how many showers they’ve missed or how many T-shirts they’ve gone through in the month-plus they’ve been on the road this summer, but it’s safe to say that the van they’re crisscrossing the country in is rife with man-stink. And it should be. After dates on Warped Tour and with Jack’s Mannequin and RX Bandits, Cranston favorite sons Monty Are I have certainly justified their rank. Their shows, adrenalized rave-ups that fall on the workout scale somewhere between short-track speed-skating and a World Cup soccer match, stir up the kind of sweaty B.O. reserved for only the most exuberant bands. “I once went seven days without showering,” boasts Monty bassist Mike Matarese. “It got to the point where putting on clean underwear actually felt like a shower.”Today, Monty is ripe for the big time. Their highly anticipated full-length debut, Wall of People, will hit stores on August 1. It’s the first release on the new new Stolen Transmission label helmed by Rob Stephenson (who helped Fall Out Boy’s breakthrough) and produced by Matt Squire, who guided hits by Panic! At the Disco and the Receiving End of Sirens. “What I want to do right now,” says frontman Steve Aeillo, “is kick ass onstage, talk to people, and sell our record.” Monty is prepared to make that sacrifice and spend years on the road, however long it takes, growing their fanbase and generating buckets of perspiration. Not bad for a band that got its start when Matarese and Aeillo met in the sixth grade. “We’ve been working our asses off forever,” says Aeillo, “and we’re not gonna stop now.”
Before departing for the wild blue yonder, Monty — Matarese, Aeillo, Ryan and Justin Muir, and Andrew Borstein — sat down with the Phoenix to discuss the band’s big stink and how they’ll justify it.
Your gigs are so high-energy it seems like you’re turning rock into a sport.
Ryan: We figure we might as well get a workout in the 30 minutes we’re on the stage. We have to stretch a little, warm up. I needed a chiropractor for my back once after a show.
Andrew: I remember being in Mike’s backyard practicing new moves, and swinging shit around. I’d take my trombone, a crappy one, and try to find new ways to spin it. Music was secondary at the time.
Steve: We always liked shows that involved watching something entertaining in addition to enjoying what you hear.
Justin: If we just sit there and play our CD, we’d be short-changing the people who come to see us. We want to be the whole package.
Ryan: Even if we’re dog-tired.
How do you work on being an entertaining band? Isn’t that different from the music?
Justin: We work on our set and try to make the crazy parts of a song really crazy and the chill parts relaxed, so the crazy parts really come off crazy. The dynamics have to really stand out. The highs are better when there are lows surrounding it.
Ryan: I think we tried to do that with our CD. If you try to make a record with nothing but high parts the whole time, then people will get sick of listening to it and tune you out.
