Hi guys! How are you? What about a quick introduction of The Mony Polys and you as members of the band?
Hello, I am Tom Knights and i am the singer and guitarist of the band.
What’s the story behind the name of your band? Are you guys that much into monopoly?
The name was such a hard decision. Basically, just before our first ever gig, we were still nameless and i think one of us had recently been playing monopoly, but none of us are huge fans of the game….However, it is important to break the word up „mono“ and ‚polys“ pronounced ‚pollies“…..rather than the game. There has already been a debate about our name on BBC Radio 1 so thats really cool.
Your first album ‚Pavilion’ was produced by Joel Stoker oft he Rifles. Could you tell us more about this collaboration?
Joel didn’t actually produce Pavilion, We produced it with our manager. It was more of a process from the management to say ‚ do you really want this then make an album‘. We had a limited budget, which shows at times but it gave us enough confidence to say ‚lets go for it‘ and we were delighted it received national air play. Our manager approached Joel to see if he would be interested in producing our new ep Blossom. This is Joel’s first attempt at producing and we are delighted with the results, a great genuine guy and its great knowing someone who has achieved exactly what we hope to do.
How would you describe your sound in a few words?
I would say we are pop music thats gone wrong! Our songs are quite catchy, but all have a darker edge to them. Our manager calls it ’suicide pop‘.
What can we expect from ‚Blossom’?
The ‚Blossom‘ ep is a huge development from Pavilion, and see’s 2 new members join the band. Brothers Isaac on drums and Luke on Bass/Guitar. This has given us a lot more depth and makes our sound bigger, louder and stronger!
Erm, we have just filmed a music video for our song „Insomnia“ which is one of the songs from Blossom. We have actually recorded the track in French as well and maybe in the future will record one of our tracks in german, i know this is something i would personally like to do and something we are keen to do….where possible make our music accessible to everyone, especially in Germany when you think how it it has contributed to music. Recently i was in Berlin for a few days, it gave me the opportunity to write sopme music and I’ve come away with a demo called B.E.R.L.I.N which i would hope will be recorded early next year.
That should hopefully be released in the next few weeks! As well as that, i will continue to keep writing songs and i expect the next instalment of songs to be much more experimental than the last, i have a few ideas already.
You’re first video for ‚Growing Old’, has been critized a lot on youtube, despite the fact that it’s a really good song. Do you have any explanations for that?
Growing old didn’t go down well at all haha, i think the main reason for that was because people just didn’t understand that we were having fun in the video. They heard this Joy division-esque bass line and thought i had to be dead serious and miserable, but we just wanted to enjoy our selves from the start. Are people who take life seriously, taken it too seriously and just couldn’t see the irony of being in a big hole lol lol. All the negativity actually ended up getting us about 10000 views, which probably wouldn’t have happened if we had released a boring video.
Which of your influences would you love to hang out with for a day?
I would love to hang out with anyone who has as much as a passion for music as i do. No matter whether i like their music or not, They’d definitely have some advice to give me.
Which artists have you been listening to lately? Any insider-tip for this year?
I haven’t actually listened to much music over the past few months. But i will always recommend The Cure, in particular the album Faith. Also someone that i absolutely love is Ducktails, he’s the guitarist from a band called Real Estate, but his music is so much more soulful and simple if you ask me! Check his new EP called Wish „Hotel“ out.
Let’s get less serious! What is the funniest thing to happen to you at one of your gigs?
Last November supported the Rifles on tour with. The whole tour was a laugh, but for me the highlight for me was the night we played Bristol. We somehow ended up getting free beer and defiantly made sure we made the most of that. On our way back to London we decided to go out, but the beer got the best of us and we were fast asleep within minutes and never made it out. Not very rockstar of us. i don’t think we can ever forget our first gig at Nottingham, not so much for the gig which was ok but travelling back to London. Travelling down the M1 at autobahn speeds and suddenly hearing BBC DJ Janice Long playing ‚Pavilion‘ on national radio. We couldn’t believe it and our manager nearly crashed the car. It could have been over before it started.
If you weren’t in a band what would you be doing?
If i wasn’t in a band, I’d be looking for people to be in a band with me or desperately trying to work out how to perform some songs on my own!
And last but not least, what’d you call a perfect friday night?
A perfect friday night for me is going to see a band that i’ve never heard of before, and loving them. Then i love going home and writing some music inspired by my evening.
Thanks for the interview! It’s been a pleasure. I wish you all the best!
Thank you for speaking to us! Make sure you check our website out at the-mono-polys.com and spread the word about us!