“We started to build a fan base with our original pop-punk sound and we haven't lost that completely, but we've just tried to and add an edge to our songs,” states Jason Bishop, frontman of Bath’s Montrose: “We don't want to just be another pop punk band; as much as we all love the genre and it's current resurgence, we wanted to make ourselves stand out.” Though Monster Under The Bed is still bristling with the kind of infectious vocal hooks most commonly brewed in the pop punk gene cauldron, it’s also laden with bursts of staccato, punchy guitar that wouldn’t be lost amongst the early output of the likes of Four Year Strong, Funeral For A Friend or Thrice, where riffs and memorable melody collided with kinetic synergy. Here Jason talks us through the creation of the artwork that accompanies this offering… In regards to the creation of our artwork, we saw a guy named MarkBell post in the UK Pop Punk group on Facebook, as he was looking for bands to do work for. After checking out his portfolio of previous work for a bunch of other bands, for both CD and merch designs, we knew we had to get him in to do our EP cover.
We basically allowed him to have as much creative freedom as he wanted, as a former graphic designer I know how much this can help certain artists get their best results!
The general idea and theme of the EP itself is around the idea of having "monsters" under your bed, and how as a kid you're kept awake at night by the thoughts of monsters coming to get you. As you get older these 'monsters' just become our real life worries that keep us up at night, and that's what each song on the EP is about.
With that in mind, we had a chat with Mark and told him exactly that, and he was stoked to be able to play around with the idea. As you can see, what we got what obviously a literal interpretation of the idea and we couldn't be happier with it. He's done a great job, and I seriously recommend him to any bands, brands or companies that are after artwork!
Monsters Under The Bed is released June 15th! Check out the video for Underperformer below:
“We want to make sure we don't get lost in the crowd,” says Jason Bishop, vocalist of Bath based quartet Montrose, of the musical gearshift taken on new E.P, Monster Under The Bed; “Our sound on the new release has definitely evolved; we've beefed it up and made it a bit more gritty. We don't want to just be another pop punk band; as much as we all love the genre and it's current resurgence, we wanted to make ourselves stand out.” Though Monster Under The Bed is still bristling with the kind of infectious vocal hooks most commonly brewed in the pop punk gene cauldron, it’s also laden with bursts of staccato, punchy guitar that wouldn’t be lost amongst the early output of the likes of Four Year Strong, Funeral For A Friend or Thrice, where riffs and memorable melody collided with kinetic synergy. Jason guides us through the EP, track by track…
1. Underperformer
This was the first single we released off the EP, and is probably the most 'dynamic' track of the release.
In a live setting this song is the most fun to play, the energy it generates seems to feed back into the audience a lot of the time and it's a great closer of our set.
Lyrically, the clue is in the name to be honest! It's kind of a self reflection on how I know I screw things up but that's just how it is. No frills, just honesty.
2. The End Game
This along with 'Blush' is one of the oldest songs on the EP. Both of those we're close to being on our last release but we kept them for this one instead as they suit the sound we were going for a little better.
The end section to this song is one of my personal favourites to play live, again for the energy.
Lyrically, this song is a typical song about past relationships. Not complaining about them though, more so just accepting there's a reason that things end, it doesn't matter who's fault it is.
3. Walking Contradiction
Again, the theme of this song is pretty self explanatory. It's another self reflection on what I'm like as a person, and how it feels like my own mind contradicts itself. This is shown in the lyrics themselves, as each line is a contradiction of itself.
4. Blush
Another one of the older tracks, this one's a bit shorter/faster and is what we like opening the set with. The lyrics again follow the general theme of self reflection. The whole EP was written in the same way really, where Sam comes up with a riff or section, records a demo, and we take it to practice and beef it out and add parts to it. This is the way we've always done things and seems to work alright for us!
5. Good Old Days
My personal favourite, this track is slightly different to the rest of the EP, with a more raw 'grungey' kind of vibe to it. We didn't want to mess around too much with little extras and just wanted a more stripped down song. We actually only finished writing this song a week before we hit the studio to record the EP, but it's still the one I enjoy playing most.
6. Fit For A King
The final track is also probably the most 'pop punk' sounding song, which will appeal to fans of our previous EP. This was one of those songs that just seemed to fall into place on it's own, and didn't take a huge amount of time to write. The general feeling behind the song is one of independence, doing your own thing, etc.
Monster Under The Bed is out on the 15th of June! Check out the the video/single for Underperformer below:
