REMEMBER THE MONSTERS – INTERVIEW & ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

Remember The Monsters have been through a lot. Their first two singles were released pre-covid and they gave RTM a tremendous bump-up in the music scene. Both “Sink” and “Close Encounters” were released in 2019 and the band was on its way to an impressive start. The group was getting rave reviews and incredible airplay. Everything was going in the right direction. Then as we all know, life stopped in its tracks. Lockdowns and Covid restrictions abounded. On top of all that, Remember The Monsters lost their singer.

Most bands wouldn’t have found the strength to continue but Remember The Monsters were determined to persevere. Guitarist Ashten Banks and manager Will Dale began looking for the perfect and permanent singer. After my zoom calls and disappointing candidates, they found the ideal fit. Andrew DeNeef, former singer of Warped Tour mainstay, Close To Home and most recently fronting the band, Actual Villains became the new lead vocalist of RTM. With the remaining members, Dom Ruiz (Guitar), Sean Mott (Bass) and Jacob Johnson (Drums), Remember The Monsters rose again like a Phoenix from the ashes.

With the dropping of their new single, “Faded”, Remember The Monsters reaffirms their dynamic songwriting and strong musicianship.. The track is melodically aggressive and has monstrous vocals. DeNeef’s voice is full of voracious accents and intonations. Banks and Ruiz’s guitars have an incendiary character with layers of intricate riffs. Mott’s bass is completely unswerving while Johnson’s drums deliver a divine punch. The song is an unabashed killer of a tune. Welcome back, Remember The Monsters.

Dom Ruiz, Andrew DeNeef and Sean Mott sat down with AMP for this interesting and informative interview.

AMP: Can you give us a little background on the band?

DOM: We started in Tucson around 2019. It began as a local band meeting in small band rooms. Initially it was Sean, Ashten and myself. At that time we had a different singer and drummer than our current line-up. We came out with a couple of songs and from there we had a good idea where we wanted to go. We busted our butts off and began to play shows. Unfortunately, we lost several singers along the way with the last one leaving to pursue his own project.

Then Andrew joined on. Andrew is an amazing singer and more in line with the original idea of what we wanted the band to sound like. We decided to develop a slightly harder rock edge. So, this current line-up just released our new single, “Faded”. It came out great and we love the direction we are going.

AMP: Remember The Monsters has a unique pop/hard rock ambiance. How would you describe your sound?

DOM: Definitely moving closer to a harder rock sound. The popier stuff was with our previous singer. It was a change in direction from the original idea of the band. When Andrew joined, it reverted back to that harder feel.

ANDREW: The mission going forward is to have a harder edge but in a way that we keep the formula “pop friendly”. We want memorable and digestible songs with poppy hooks yet written with dynamic rock textures..

AMP: Your new single, “Faded”, has a strong cinematic feel. How did you capture that singular sound?

DOM: We used some cool production values and added some backing tracks to it. Ashten is really great with coming up with these brazen orchestrative tracks to add to our instruments and vocals to give them a higher production quality.

SEAN: Like you said, it adds a cinematic aspect to the music. It helps create that big sound that we wanted.

AMP: How does the band stay musically focused?

SEAN: Mostly it’s our individual drive. We keep practicing our parts and learning the music in order to explore different musical avenues. It’s also our constant communication. Just talking to each other helps a lot. But it is difficult to have a jam session when you are thousand miles apart from each other.

DOM: Technology is great these days. We were all forced to do things remotely. So you learn to adapt. We may be far apart but with technology today we can record our stems, vocals and everything else we need in a song and combine them to make it the song we are looking for. We do get together when we have to especially for video shoots. But, recording remotely is another tool that we will continue to use into the future.

AMP: How have your fans reacted to the new material?

DOM: We have gotten a lot of positive feedback. I was surprised because of how different our new track “Faded” is from our previous released material. I was a bit worried about the reaction but so far it looks great. We’ve seen a spike in plays. The core sound is coming from the instruments and backing tracks. Andrew did a great job on vocals but you can still tell that “Faded” is a RTM‘s song. The fans have really taken to the new sound. That’s why we love our fans.

AMP: Will we see an EP or full length anytime soon?

DOM: That’s a great question and one we get asked quite often due to our sporadic releases. When we work on songs, we put a lot of time and effort into each single. We are now on a pretty good pace working on new music. In the past we ran into some speed bumps like our line-up changes, But we’re now in a good spot and ready to deliver more excellent material, more frequently. In terms of a finite date for an album or EP release, we are not there yet.

AMP: If you could support any three artists (past or present) who would they be?

DOM: Well there is three of us here, so we’ll each pick one.

ANDREW: Since I’m in Arizona I’m going to say Linkin Park.

DOM: Hey Andrew, you stole my answer.

ANDREW; Sorry about that. It’s just their musical styling. They had this big cinematic sound. They broke the mold and actually changed the direction of music.

SEAN: I would have to say A Day To Remember. They also have a big sound similar to where we are going. With two high energy bands like RTM and A Day To Remember, the show would be outstanding.

DOM: The Plot In You. They aren’t as big as the other two but they indeed have a huge sound. Honestly, they kind of mesh with us real well.

AMP: Any plans for an extended tour?

DOM: We are currently working on our catalogue of music. We want to make sure we have an amazing set of songs when we get out there. There aren’t any concrete dates yet but we are working on it. Our fans have been asking for some live shows That is one of our foremost goals. We will keep you and our fans updated as soon as we are ready to hit the road.

AMP: What’s next for the band?

SEAN: Working on an album or EP release. Writing new material. Getting more songs out there. Using Andrew’s amazing voice on older material we want to reengineer.

ANDREW: We are in a phase of creating as much new content as possible. We want to make a huge impact with our songs. It’s all about building a real good following around our music. And we will be there, sooner than later.

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To learn more about Remember The Monsters

Follow on Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / YouTube

Stream music:  Spotify / Apple Music / Soundcloud

Purchase:  Amazon 

 

 

 

 

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