Springtide Music Festival features over 60 Canadian acts in various downtown venues
Read More
Gigs This Week: MONOWHALES at the Biltmore Theatre; an interview
By Will McGuirk
Toronto-based alt-rock band MONOWHALES play The Biltmore Theatre in Oshawa Thursday October 20th. The three piece , Sally Shaar, Zach Zanardo, and Jordan Circosta, won the 2022 Breakthrough Group of the Year Juno but celebrations were short-lived as vocalist Shaar took time to deal with her own breakdown.
Post-Lockdown more and more artists are speaking out about their mental health issues and the physical health challenges of touring. MONOWHALES are among those opening up their private experiences to the public so we reached out to find out how collectively the band is doing and how their new album ‘Tunnel Vision’ was created during these trying times for the trio.
Slowcity.ca: Vocalist Sally Shaar has been quite open about mental health challenges she was experiencing and how she got through, I'm curious about how the other members in the band are feeling, and if they too are also experiencing or have experienced similar challenges and if yes what were their coping strategies?
Jordan Circosta: “Zach and I have both had our share of mental health challenges over the past couple of years. Since our relationships run so deep it’s not unusual for us to step up when Sally is struggling, as she does for us when we start losing our grip. For me specifically, my stuff tends to revolve around existential problems and feelings of alienation, so my coping strategies coming out of the pandemic involved a lot of connecting with my support system and reconnecting with art through creation and performance. Needless to say these were the most difficult things to access under lockdown and it took an enormous toll on my mental health. Therapy helps too, and I really can’t overstate the importance of proper nutrition and hydration as a foundation for mental health.”
SC: The lyrics on the album speak to these challenges of course, but when it comes to the music, was there an effort to channel those feelings through the music and if yes can you give me some examples?
JC: “Music and lyrics are two sides of the same coin, so we’re always trying to make the music support the lyrical content, and vice versa. The guitar solo in StuckintheMiddle is a great example of this - it was recorded at our rehearsal space before the sessions began, after we had lost touch with Sally and were uncertain if ‘Tunnel Vision’ would even get the chance to exist. It was the first take Zach played and when we were assessing if we should re-record it in studio, we decided it already was exactly what it needed to be, since it contained all the frustration and anxiety that is the central theme of that particular track.”
SC: Tunnel Vision as a title is so on the money; we all have tunnel vision, literally . What are the members doing to get out of that tunnel, and see beyond the very tight linear narrative tunnels are such great metaphors for?
JC: “Our focus as a group right now is to immerse ourselves in the experience of performing. After so long away from it, we’ve rediscovered our love of the stage, which is what brought us together as a band in the first place, far more than writing and recording music ever did. For us, the experience of our live shows is the most visceral, all-encompassing, “in the moment” feeling there is, and there’s nothing better than that to break us out of the tunnel vision and plunge us into reality.”
Megan Nash, photo by Aaron Sinclair
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Megan Nash & the Best of Intentions, Valerie June, Begonia, Andrew Waite, Monowhales, Venus Furs, The Wanted, Derev, Blackwater Cobra, Raz, and Your Paris
By Will McGuirk
The art of persuasion is nothing about art. The art is not there to persuade but to present; not to persuade but to reveal; not to persuade but to be. The artist is there to make for us and for us to make what we will out of it; the artist is to propose with no purpose. So we present. . . and you make what you will of it.
Bernice, photo by Colin Medley
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Bernice, The Besnard Lakes, Monowhales, the Record Summer, Mirabelle, Favourite Daughter, Erica Knox, Venus Furs, PhotoSynthesizers, and Emmett Lucius Pharaoh,
By Will McGuirk
There’s too much, are you feeling it? is it all just zoom and gloom? thinking hold your nose, go underwater far from the maddening crowd, I will slip this into the stream silently a message in a bottle and see where the currents take it, hello its me you.
***
““A small metal bowl floats away into the lake and sinks – but below the waves she sits on her cool bottom, her shape shifting self not full of water but of the water, edges dissolving as her identity reforms, grows, reforms, grows, reforms, like the fascia of a body reinventing itself with each twist and bend. A sign, a cross, a road, a potato – who are you?” - Robin Dann, Bernice
“The song is an ode to logic and intuition and being able to learn from the past”. – The Besnard Lakes
“This song is the feeling of being made to choose where there's no choice at all, but taking a vicious grip on hope in spite of everything going on in our lives.” - Monowhales
"‘White Dress’ is about the juxtapositions that occur during marriage. . . how you bounce from a grandiose day with a gorgeous dress to absolute boredom and exercises with self-control. The question of spending the rest of your life with somebody versus standing with the sun shining in your hair, bright and beautiful.” - Bret Rodysill aka the Record Summer
“The song was written in the summer of 2020 and is inspired by the power of collective consciousness working together to overcome the pandemics our society faces; COVID and systemic racial injustices against black and brown people.” - PhotoSynthesizers
Mike Edel, photo by Brian Van Wyk
Slowcity.ca with Mike Edel, Kate Boothman, Josh Tavares, Paul Babe, Jake Etheridge, Blue Stones, and Monowhales
By Will McGuirk
Yah, its a good picture, its the way we feel, an exhausted wtf. I’ve been out, went to a bar, brief as possible, masked, folks confound me, I’d rather stay home, rather avoid it all, work, home, work, home I see my music community take the brunt of this, I see the impact and the resilience and I see the selfish behaviour and the resistance and I wonder and run my fingers through my hair, wtf!
“in the 'before times' I assembled a cast of friends together to shoot a music video for ‘Still Thinking About You’. The En Masse project was so collaborative, and in our isolated era it has taken on a new form. The 'Still Thinking About You' video reminds me that I am an extrovert and reminds me that I love seeing all my family, friends and supporters when touring an album. I'm so happy that I got a bunch of my Vancouver friends and made this video with them. To them I would say; I love you, I miss you, I’m Still Thinking About You.” ~ Mike Edel
”17 is one of those songs that emerged fully formed. I wrote it after a particularly heavy day during a particularly heavy time in my life. I was overworked, overwhelmed, under-slept, heartbroken, and generally confused. I got home at around 11 pm after being away for a while. I lay down on the floor for an hour and when I finally got up I wrote the entire song in only 20 minutes or so.” ~ Kate Boothman