With the ink still wet on the track listing of their spring released full length, Brooklyn band Monuments have been keeping themselves busy by touring around the northeast. The band knows that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy (cue Jack Nicholson’s creepy face) not to mention a dull band, so the foursome has also taken on a new hobby, “We have all developed a bit of an addiction to sound making toys – I did a major overhaul of my rig, as has Kevin and Grant.” (Gabe Berezin)
With drummer Mike Cook pulling the bands name from a lyric on what is now track four of the band’s full length, “monuments they sway” was influenced in part by Gabe Berezin’s personal September 11th experience. “I guess it’s a bit of an extreme example of creation-out-of-destruction.” I had a temp job on the 97th floor of the World Trade Center. My girlfriend at the time made me late for work. I was otherwise planning on getting there early. Left our apt in the east village and heard a low flying plane going way too fast overhead. Had no idea where it was headed. I was actually an actor at the time, and less of a musician. That event made me change course – there was too much to write about.” (Gabe Berezin)
After a few line up changes the band found its current incarnation: a quartet with a focus on making music that’s more than a sappy
confessional, music that truly vocalizes the things that provoke thought in these four. “I’ve never been one to write happy love songs – music has always been therapeutic for me. Our songs are more philosophical in nature – about loss, escapism, the fear of ineffectiveness/inconsequence, humanity’s obsession with faith, etc.” (Gabe Berezin) With that level of intellect infused in their lyrics, Monuments already stands out among the lovesick pop singers and hopefuls looking to make music as hooky as possible. That thoughtfulness, paired with the deep lapping of guitars and echoing vocals Monuments brings to the table makes the band’s self titled album play with an intimacy that isn’t often found in first releases. With the intent of questioning fate and the effect it has on all of us, Monuments belt, strum, and crash through this album in a way that is haunting and oddly invigorating. Though the pace never picks up beyond sway worthy, a sense of urgency is still instilled in its listener nonetheless.
Front man Gabriel Berezin took the time to talk with Reviewsic this past week and told us all about his favorite local bands, how Monuments has grown musically, and what comes next for the New York musicians.
Reviewsic: What are your top three musical influences?
Gabe Berezin: It varies so much amongst the band that it would be hard to narrow down. If I had to come up with some off the top of my head, I’d say John Lennon, PJ Harvey, Elliott Smith. Tomorrow that would probably be different, and the rest of the band would probably go on about Philip Glass, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, Steve Reich, Otis Reading, The Stones, Sigar Ros, etc (shit, now mine sound tame).
Reviewsic: Is there any instrument you don’t play, but wish you did?
Gabe Berezin: Personally, I long to be a drummer, but Mike and I have a great relationship on grooves and beats. Plus, I’m a hack of a drummer anyway. I write on piano a bit, but I don’t have the energy to add another piece of gear to my rig, so Grant handles the keyboard stuff, mostly synths for now. It sounds like something out of Spinal Tap, but I’m dying to learn the sitar or sarod – both are instruments used by classical Indian musicians. Not enough time in the day though…Really, I’m still trying to be as good a singer and guitar player as I can.
Reviewsic: What music is part of your summer playlist this year? Do you have a top 3 new albums so far in 2010?
Gabe Berezin: Kevin is better about listening to more recent stuff than I am, I always find I need a year or two to catch up (plus I worry about being over-influenced by new bands). Was just listening to the new Broken Social Scene record last night – I’ve always loved them. Kevin has been into the Beach House album a lot, Grant has been on top of The Liars. The new Field Music double album is pretty mind blowing. Still loving that Dirty Projectors single too. Not sure what the big summer single is yet though.
Reviewsic: If you could work with one person in the music industry (musician, label, producer etc), who would it be and why?
Gabe Berezin: I hate to give the obvious answer but probably Rick Rubin. It’s a good question, b/c it’s fun to put this out into the ether in some kind of “The Secret” way. You hear stories about how he’ll literally sleep through a band’s rehearsal and wake up when they’re doing it right. He’s like some kind of shaman – he goes straight for the gut, and that’s what speaks to people most. I think that’s ultimately why his projects are so successful. The other ingredients about making a record are all hugely important, but it’s all secondary to communication, and that’s music at its core. That said, we co-produced our album with Ryan Simms, and he was really incredible about that very thing – he could hear the things we couldn’t, and got the most soulful performances out of everyone.
Reviewsic: What is the most memorable concert you’ve ever attended?
Gabe Berezin: For now, I can think of two. Radiohead at Radio City during the OK Computer tour. It felt like a revolution, the emotional response they were getting from those shows was so overwhelming. I think I remember reading that someone tried to commit suicide during “Exit Music” the night before we saw them. Not that that’s a good thing, but it’s an indication of how powerful they were.
The other is a bit random – St. Vincent. She was opening for The National at Terminal 5 about two years ago – Terminal 5 did NOT sound good then. She was playing solo with an insane rig of gear, looping and triggering samples live, all while singing these gorgeous melodies and absolutely shredding on guitar with a zvex fuzz factory. Staggering. The songs felt like ragas in that format. Really moving. She is impossibly good. All that, and terribly charming to boot – she’s like an alien. I met her about a year later at Public Assembly after her we shared a show with some members of her band (an amazing group called The Prigs), and I gushed like a teenager for a few minutes until she surreptitiously made her escape. Oh well…
Reviewsic: Who are three of your favorite local bands? Is there anything special about your local scene in comparison to the other cities you’ve played?
Gabe Berezin: Shit. Too many. We really love Me You Us Them on Triple Down Records, and are sharing a show with Appomattox and Earl Greyhound in Boston coming up. Just had a show with Grant’s friend Cliff in Ladycop, who were amazing and wrote really beautiful, clever songs. We share regular shows too with Adam’s Castle, Oceanographer, and Hungry Hands. Brooklyn is great, but it’s hard to carve a specific sound here. Synthy pop stuff is still huge here, but we structure our shows around really lively rock bands, which is kind of an unintentional backlash. I think we’re part of a really thriving rock scene here.
Reviewsic: If you could book a tour with any 3 bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
Gabe Berezin: Again, hard question, but probably Field Music, St. Vincent, and The Flaming Lips. The first two have such incredible musicianship, I would enjoy just watching them perform every night. (Kevin would say Grizzly Bear incidentally, but he’s more into that style than I am – they are great though of course). One of the bonuses of touring w/ a band is you get an insight into their playing, and if you have a good relationship, you’d get to join them on stage (which I think is the coolest thing about touring). Field Music and St Vincent have so many amazing things happening harmonically, I’d just love to get an opportunity to play with them (if nothing else, at least backstage). I think the music they’re doing is nothing like what’s been out there before – it’s moving things forward, and that’s exciting to me. The Flaming Lips are amazing, but mostly it’s their ability to create such a HAPPENING with their shows that would be so cool to participate in and learn from.
Reviewsic: Tell us about the full-length: Is there a particular concept behind it? What was the process of writing/recording these songs like?
Gabe Berezin: There are a few concepts that thread through it. Ever since I survived 9/11, I’ve been obsessed with fate and how it
pertains to my view of the world and how things happen. At a point, I wanted to call the album “everything is inevitable.” But after a fear of pretentiousness and many lengthy and seemingly stoned conversations with family and friends, I was convinced that pure pre-ordained fate can’t be true (I’m still not 100% though – but we’d have to discuss particle physics and the uncertainty principle to really get to the bottom of it…). Blah blah blah. Point is, at every moment, I find myself having an internal struggle with my assumptions and beliefs, and how that interacts with the conventional wisdom of the general public, which living in NYC is CONSTANTLY in your face. Many of the songs kind of chronicle that struggle.
Over the past couple years, I’ve been coming to terms with having more control over the outcome of my life. Our generation is the “ism” generation. No on takes responsibility for their actions. Clinton didn’t have a choice when he boinked his interns because he was a sex addict. Shit, aren’t we all? If your kid is an asshole, he was born that way, don’t feel bad. Can’t stop drinking? Of course you can’t, you have a disease, it’s not your fault! I don’t know, seems that somewhere in there, you’re making the decision to do it. I recognize these things happen for a multitude of reasons that are by no means simple, but let’s not pretend we have no agency in our actions. We have far more control over our monkey brains than we think, and to me, that’s the only way we eventually evolve out of stupid dogmatic thinking.
But I digress, before the band was in its full incarnation, I had demoed a lot of these songs, some of which sound relatively similar to the album, but mostly quite different and enhanced in a great way. Kevin is an amazing arranger; he took certain ideas and re-worked them into more cohesive songs. I tend to write songs in a modal way, sometimes on the same chord for a whole song and just shifting the melody around it. Kevin had the harder work of taking some of those songs and stretching them out harmonically. A song like White Flag initially only had two chords in it, he expanded on it and smoothed out the bridge.
We recorded at a now defunct studio in Woodstock and laid down mostly bass and drums. We DIY’d the rest ourselves recording guitars, vocals, percussion, synths, etc in a small vocal booth at the Radio Tag office where they do radio spots for big music acts. We rented some mics and pre-amps and tracked and mixed it ourselves. We’re pretty proud of what we accomplished with basically $5k.
Reviewsic: How would you compare yourselves as musicians at the point of this new release, as opposed to when you first began playing together?
Gabe Berezin: Funny question. We feel like amateurs now, and we didn’t when we started. We thought we were so good. Then as you start to actually improve, you realize, “oh my god, we kind of suck.” Over the last two years (in full quartet mode) we’ve made major strides in our sound, ability and song-writing, and it’s been really amazing to learn from each other and push each other. Every practice someone comes in with a cool new riff, progression, or piece of gear – no one ever wants to stop learning new ways of doing this stuff. It’s really so limitless and exciting.
Reviewsic: What are some of your favorite cities and/o venues to play?
Gabe Berezin: We just had a show at Johnny Brendas in Philadelphia, and we loved everything about that place, from the sound, to the ambiance. Music listeners in Philadelphia are so much different than NY – it’s not about folded arms and judgement. There’s more of a sense of embracing what they’re hearing, same in Boston. There are less venues to play in those cities, so they take it very seriously. Still, there are so many great venues in NY – Mercury Lounge, Union Pool, Union Hall, Cameo Gallery. Lots of great vibe in Brooklyn of course.
Reviewsic: What are the best and worst band moments so far in your career?
Gabe Berezin: Shit, start with the worst- When Mike and I (and a different bass player) were first playing as a trio years ago, we had a show in Manhattan. I was a nervous singer then, and I never felt comfortable being front and center. The promoter of the show asked me between songs to pedal their vodka specials, it felt so lame. Being as nervous as I was, I figured I’d smoke a joint first. Bad idea if you have a Woody Allen-like brain. Got through half the set like a total basket case, and basically walked off stage mid-song. Mike and the bass player stared at me incredulously asking what I was doing. ”I’m done, we’re done, this whole thing…it’s done…” Awful. My sister Lily helps manage us, and she was trying to get us paid, and I was so upset I told her to return the money. I was so angry at myself, I think I managed to estrange myself from everyone that mattered for a few weeks there. Why did you have to make me recall that memory?
Best moment was doing the final listen of the album. It was a real labor of love, and we had to re-record certain songs from scratch,
and had a lot of existential crises about whether or not it would ever get done. And to hear it back, and feel at least a moment of satisfaction (rare while recording) was definitely a high point.
Reviewsic: What are a few items essential to your “tour survival kit”?
Gabe Berezin: Eat well, don’t over party 
, kinda boring huh? We’re the Behind The Music generation, so we’ve seen the seemingly unavoidable pitfalls of playing all the time. I think we recognize that we don’t have to give into to every temptation that it comes with. Afterall, the top priority is taking care of each other and playing music well for people that want to hear it. Certainly you want to enteratain, but I don’t really buy into acting like a drunken fool for the sake of showmanship, that just starts to become a cliché after a while.
Reviewsic: What are your plans for music in the next year?
Gabe Berezin: Keep writing, writing, writing, record another album, and tour tour tour tour tour tour….
Great interview, great band!