Virtual Interview #4: The Monsoons

(video is not mine)

The Monsoons are my fifth interview, MINT are my fourth but we had a few technical problems with the MINT interview however it will be published soon!

You can also go and read my live performance review of the Monsoons here and I asked them a few questions related to the band themselves a few months afterwards

I had a lovely long chat with Mr Ethan Cooney, The Monsoons frontman and he even gave me some advice for future education with the blog!

Q1: What made you want to start a band?

A: Funnily enough I'm the one who joined the band late, So The Monsoons were a thing before I even started a thing about music, The original lineup was a fella called Alicen, Tom who is our guitarist now, Will our bassist, Jamo who's the bass player for Hurray for Tuesday and Jack is not in a band at the moment but that was the original lineup And they got rid of Alicen they didn't think he'd cut it was what they said pretty much and I got a tip of a mate saying "Do you wanna join this band?" and I'd never done music before and do you know what I thought id show up to the audition and it was a good time and I was the first one to show up and straight on the dot we want you because we wrote a new song ten minutes within me being there and we'd done it and that song just came to mind and we thought yeah we get shit done and obviously the lineup's changed over the last few months.

Q2: Who are your biggest inspirations?

A: It goes on, I mean Will's heavy into Nine Inch Nails and that's how me and Will kinda bonded and even locally such as Rodents they're a nice inspiration because they started the same time we started getting into punk and honestly Rodents are so good! I'm a massive Rodents fan but my biggest inspirations obviously I'm going to be cringey and straight up go Nirvana like ive loved Nirvana since I was a kid, Funnily enough The Stone Roses and we don't sound like it but I've seen The Stone Roses so many times as a teenager and my parents used to take me to concerts and just the way they dance about on stage like they don't give a fuck what anyone's thinking just have a good time. 
But mainly I like The Wytches, Heavy into The Wytches and Saytr Play as well, Saytr Play are something very inspirational to me because I met Fred when I was quite young I've known him for years first met him when I was quite a young kid and was a family friend and I loved the fact he dressed the way he wanted, So personally Fred Farrell honestly has got to be one of my biggest inspirations.
I was at a Courteeners gig at Castlefield Bowl and I was with my mum and we were both in the VIP bit and i'd never even been to gigs before and I'd seen Fred just the way he dressed he didn't give a shit with his skinny jeans, eyeliner, nails and I liked that style but I was too afraid to go for that because I live in a rough area and I'd get absolutely abused for not wearing a tracksuit outside so I was a bit scared seeing the way he dressed and the way he didn't give a shit was just what really inspired me just adopted the way he presented himself and just made me open up and be an individual and express who I want to be.

Q3: What plans have you got for the future?

A: Oh definitely, I've had my eyes on The Deaf Institute for a long time, We were promised it by Scruff of the Neck if we sold out The Castle Hotel over the limit of 120 tickets so it was still ridiculous because that's my biggest achievement like we sold The Deaf Institute capacity for The Castle and we were told that we would get The Deaf Institute after that and we got offered The Bread Shed and I turned it down and I said that we don't wanna play The Bread Shed because it's too big for us and that's obviously when Saults (Who are now known as DEAFDEAFDEAF) played there, I said I don't want to play there because I don't think we are big enough but I'll tell you who I think is big enough and I put Nathan my best mate his band forward and that's where Saults headlining The Bread Shed back in February started and I am nothing but proud of them for that it is an amazing achievement what they did.


Q4 Is there any dream venues/festivals you would like to play at?

A: Like I said we've been promised Deaf Institute by Scruff, We've not got it so we're going to try and do it independently because we're not really doing gigs with Scruff anymore I feel like we just wanna do it on our own for a bit but we have our eye on Deaf Institute like I'm dying to play there and in terms of festivals we've never done any big festivals apart from Glaston-Bury which is a festival in our hometown Bury but that was before anything and I'd never played a festival its one of my dreams to play a stage at a festival and that's probably my biggest aspiration, any festival.
And The Ritz is my ultimate music dream I don't wanna headline Glastonbury, Fuck Glastonbury! I wanna headline The Ritz! That venue means so much to me its the most beautiful building in Manchester a masterpiece architecture everything is done right it's all where it should be, the dance floor, oh its so spectacular its bouncy, its perfect, If I ever headline the Ritz my life would feel complete.

Q5 Is there anything throughout the band that you are proud of?

A: A lot of people know this but I despise Social Media Scum because I wrote it when I was 15 and it's so cringey so a lot of bands hate their own releases but no band in the world hates Social Media Scum than I do because it is so embarrassing and I wasn't as well read back then and it comes off as me using big words to sound intelligent and then went to university and it kinda just dawned on me that I hate it so much but we've wrote a lot of songs that we are really proud of but we're proud of them for like a week and we write new songs are we're like fuck that song this one's better and I feel it's the same for other bands like when they release a new song that's their baby they love it until they write a new song and when you write a song it's the best song in the world and when you've listened to the other songs and because its fresh and this is the best song we've wrote and you look back at it and it's not!

I still think the best song we've wrote is The Wall which we wrote in ten minutes of me meeting the band because we weren't trying and we were having a laugh and funnily enough The Wall is about the wall in my bedroom that I draw shit on it's what the whole song is about like no deep meaning just I like this wall, I draw on it, That's the whole song and that's why we think it's best because we didn't try we tried too hard with everything and it just ruins it the laidback aspect of not caring or I think we should add this into it because it makes us sound more deep and now that we've looked back we just want to write music that's laidback and just fun because we don't wanna put social commentary in everything like Hang The Farmer which is where we just scream for hours about how much we hate society and that capitalism is destroying the earth like I'm trying too hard and this is my advice to songwriters: Don't write about something you care about because it will just sound shit write about something you don't  care about and it will just flow naturally and let your talent flow and don't put big words in because it makes you sound intelligent like ive had a big rant on that one but I hope it answers your question.

Q6 What is your biggest target?

A: Release an actual song because like I said we're so lazy it's all down to us and we only rehearse once a week and that's not enough for a band that are trying to get somewhere, And you haven't heard this from me but you know SWINE? I'm very close friends with Michael the singer and we've been thinking of trying to start a little side project but who knows we're trying to start like a melodic, weird, creepy stoner rock thing and we've talked about it but I don't think we're going to do it but we might do like a Libertines sorta thing with two vocalists but we have spoken about giving it a go and maybe getting some of the DEAFDEAFDEAF boys involved, Connor said he'd play drums for us kinda like a supergroup!

Q7 If you could describe The Monsoons in 3 words what would they be?

A: I love these kinda questions, I'm going to go with Chaotic, Energetic and Fuck, because fuck's a great word everyone loves that like we say "fuck" like ten times in our songs and that's why every single time someone asks can we play you on our radio? Have you got a clean version? the answer's no we don't because I like saying fuck, It's like on Top of the Pops when Nirvana refused to lip sing and just through the guitars in the air that sort of thing.

Q8 If you were not a musician what would you be?

A: I'd be a journalist because I'm studying to be a journalist right now kinda like what you're doing and I've wrote a few articles got a few published one about the heroes during the pandemic and I like the music journalism side and I enjoy writing, it's therapeutic and it's fun and I know you love you're writing we're both fellow journalists and just stick with it man, as much as I hate it but yeah just stick with it.

Q9 If you could support any artist in the world who would that be?

A: This is me thinking outside of the box a little, The Blinders! 100% if I could support anyone in the world right now it would be The Blinders because I love them so much, After speaking to Tom I met him on a night out once and I was trying not to fanboy and the first time I met them I was invited to stay with them and they were like my heroes at the time I was so into them! and Tom asked if I wanted to go back to his apartment we can finish drinking there because the pubs are closing and I said no I'm going to get a taxi home but he was so lovely and from what I've heard from people who have supported them they're so nice and will offer you advice and they are one of our biggest inspirations.