Juan Montoya, Guitarist of MonstrO

MonstrO is based out of Atlanta, but you aren't all from there. How did you guys come together as a band?

hen I was with my last band, Torche, we were travelling so much at that time. We were touring about eight or nine months a year. Living in Miami we would have to drive 10 or 11 hours to make it to Atlanta just to start a tour. When we toured with bands like Boris we’d have to drive to California to meet them. With the last MonstrO tours, we had to drive to Toronto to start the tour and then with Danzig we had to drive to Los Angeles. Those trips are a little easier from a place like Atlanta. I’ve never actually lived outside of Florida so I though Atlanta would be a good first step. Luckily, after I played my final show with Torche, I ended up talking to Kyle Sanders (bass) who was going through the same situation with his band Bloodsimple. They had gone on a major hiatus and it didn’t look like they were going to get back together so he and I got together, had a musical connection, and I decided to stay in Atlanta. The day we met Bevan Davis (drums) he came in, we said “hello,” shook hands, spoke for a few minutes, then went down to the basement and started jamming. We wrote about eight or ten songs and recorded demos of just instrumentals so I started sending it to friends. One of those was an old friend, Charlie (vocals), in Miami. He had only played guitar in bands, not sung, but I had heard an acoustic demo that he recorded. I thought he had a little Jeff Buckley influence, a little Pink Floyd in his voice, which is something I liked. I wanted to branch out from the traditional stoner rock stuff.

MonstrO seem to tightrope walk between several genres. Being from the South, the stoner/sludge label gets thrown around, but there are also prog elements in your playing, an occasional shoegaze element, all mixed with an arena rock presence. Is this intentional genre-defying songwriting or just an amalgamation of your collective influences?

It’s funny, I was listening to a lot of Queen at the time we were writing and they just sound so massive. I love the feel of small clubs. I’ve played small clubs and basements, but I think every musician wants to hear their music echoing through the walls of a theatre that was made for music. When you play somewhere like the Warfield in San Francisco or the Fillmore in Detroit it just sounds so massive. With MonstrO, I wanted to branch out a little more. Of course there is the Kiss influence that we grew up on, the heaviness from Black Sabbath and some of the early Metallica. I also appreciate artists like Aphex Twin or Frank Zappa with his synclavier which was like an early synthesizer or sampler. He could bend the music into weird shapes. The longer you play music you want to go through different incarnations of yourself. You can’t be the same person all the time musically or artistically.

Influences: If we were to walk into the bedroom of a 12 year old Juan Montoya, what you have been listening to while playing air guitar?

Oh yeah, definitely Kiss. Actually it was Kiss from about the age of seven. I was lucky to be into music early. When I lived in South America, I remember seeing a poster of Kiss not even knowing that they were musicians. They just looked like they were from out of this world. They were unique and scary with the costumes and the makeup. When I got to the states, my mom had a friend that had a son who was 16 and I was seven. I was going through his record collection and was amazed by the cover art: Ted Nugent looking like caveman with his arms turning into guitars, Sabbath’s “Heaven and Hell” with the two angels smoking cigarettes. That was before I picked an instrument so I was just doing art back then and those covers made such an impression on me. Then I found his Kiss records and recognized them from the poster I had seen in South America so I was curious to hear those records first. When I put the record on, I loved it! I loved everything about it: the blaring guitars, the drums, the catchiness of the vocals. “Rock and Roll All Over” and “Dressed to Kill” were the first ones I heard. Then it was “Love Gun” and “Destroyer.” He let me keep those records and I spent hours listening to them. I was hooked. The more I listened to those records, the more Ace Frehley won me over because of his guitar playing.

Any musical guilty pleasures?

We are a little older so we’re pretty secure in what we like. Guilty pleasures would be the music I enjoy while riding in the car with my mom or with friends. I was listening to Hall and Oates with a buddy today. Some of pop or New Wave stuff I like, Cindy Lauper, Oddball songs from the eighties like Eddie Grant’s “Electric Avenue,” Adam and the Ants, Blondie, Peter Gabriel’s “Shock the Monkey.” I grew up with that stuff. The songs that had that “not from Earth” feel to them that made me wonder what was going on on the other side of the Earth since so many of them were European. Being a heavy metal kid you’d get a lot of shit for listening to stuff like that. One of the first times I went to a concert and kept it low key was when I went to see Cocteau Twins. I still like to listen to their music. It’s romantic, it’s celestial. I ended up going by myself though because I knew my friends would give me a hard time for going. The funny thing was I ended up running into other metal guys there like Sean and Paul from the band Death. I was surprised, but they were into the Cocteau Twins, too, as well as Dead Can Dance, jazz, etc.

Guitar geek question: What is your current live rig: guitars, amps, pedals. I know you like pedals.

Of course I started out with just guitars going straight into the amp. Kiss got me into Gibson guitars which I love. I usually play Explorers, SG’s, and Les Pauls for recording. I also like Electrical Guitar Company. They make these all aluminum guitars that sound incredible. That’s my obscure guitar. For amps I like old eighties Marshall JCM 800s with vintage cabs and greenback speakers. I wasn’t really a pedal guy before, but I am more now, I guess because of My Bloody Valentine. They’re one of my favorite bands. They got me into that super heavy psychedelic sound so I started throwing in delay pedals, phasers, and stuff like that. I try to use it tastefully, though. Some people think there are synths on the recording, but it’s all guitar. The pedals add color. My buddy Josh Jordan is making pedals under the name Gosh Pedals. He’s made me a few so I’ve been playing with those. They sound awesome!

Other than the musical influences, what's your main songwriting inspiration? Is is just noodling on the guitar, forming a melody in your head, looking at visual art, etc.?

It’s usually just noodling on the guitar. I get an idea for a riff and trying to play it. I used to have to remember it, but with technology I can use it to my advantage and just sing it into my phone or if I have my guitar with me, record the actual guitar with my phone. Eventually, I’d like to be able to be hear music in my head like Frank Zappa or classical composers who could hear all the layers and harmonies and just write it down. I’d love to be able to do that! Lately, I’ve been having artistic ideas from dreams and they will have a soundtrack to them. That’s super cool. It’s something that’s been happening the last couple months and I hope it continues. It gives the day a little boost.

One of the more unique elements of your playing is that you play very heavy guitar, but not really metal guitar. Your music isn't aggressive or evil sounding like Slayer, Ministry, or Black Sabbath.

Yeah, it’s not all gloomy. Of course some of the heavier stuff is gloomy, but not all of it. If you think of a battle, most heavy music sounds like the battles itself, when you’re killing or slashing away at your enemy. It fits battle. That’s cool, but there are victories in battles, too. There are moments when you are victorious and you want to put that in your music, also. Certain Queen songs have that victorious or almost happy vibe to them.

I hadn’t made an association between MonstrO and Queen before, but it makes sense when you describe the guitar as sounding “victorious.”

Yeah, sometimes you want to be optimistic. There’s so much gloom in the world it can difficult to be happy. I don’t want to write happy music like the techno that plays in clubs at Miami Beach, though. I want to it have a little more meaning, more soul.

Much of your playing is more illusive, more subversive that just a guitar riff. On a song like “Anchors Up,” it’s not as easy to hum the riff the way you can a "Smoke on the Water" or "Iron Man." The guitar fills on songs like "Helios" and "Apollo," don't just fill an empty space like a traditional blues lick. They add textural layers to the song; an additional graininess. Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) has always called this "color guitar" because it's not a lead or a solo, it could actually be noise or feedback, it just enhances the mood of the song.

I like layers of music. Classical music has layers to it. I think a lot of that comes from listening to soundtrack music like in Stanley Kubrick films. What’s importance is the ambience of the music, how it makes you feel, what picture it creates for you. Sometimes the layers can be so subtle that you don’t really consciously know what’s going on. You have to really listen with headphones, or maybe if you’re a musician you will hear layers that the average Joe might not hear, but you definitely want it to be enjoyable for anyone, not just musicians. There was a time when you had all these guitar wizards that were playing crazy stuff but the songs weren’t that great. I want to be able to combine guitar layers and harmonies with Charlie’s playing and vocals. He sings awesome on the record, but as I said he came into the band having never sung in a band. He had been just a guitar player in a couple of bands. We’ve been playing together so much though that I think we’ll be able to push those ideas on the next record.

What's with all the Greek references in the song titles? Is there a theme running through the album?

Not really anything conscious, but that would be more or a Charlie question (laughs). I came up with a couple of the titles like “Helios” that involves the elements and of course fire was the main one. I think he likes people to make up their own ideas to the lyrics more than tell them what it’s about. This is probably the only band I’ve been in where the vocals come out clear and people are curious about what he’s singing. This band is a little more melodic than most things we’ve done. Charlie really focuses on his ideas and lyrics. He gained a lot of confidence working with William Duvall (Alice in Chains, produced MonstrO’s self-titled debut album). That was the big advantage to having him in the studio with us. He heard what Charlie was singing and they kind of went through a little boot camp before recording sessions started. They did a lot of vocal warm-ups so he could hit the high notes. It’s weird, we’ve been getting Rush comparisons now that he can sing a little higher (laughs).

That was actually going to be my next question. You guys are getting ready to go on tour with Alice in Chains. What was William DuVall’s biggest contribution to the album?

Yeah, mostly the work that he did with Charlie. Duvall is into a lot older blues, rock n roll, and funk. He has an appreciation for everything. He‘s a library of music. We want the same things with our bands. We don’t want to be a simple formula type band. So many bands are trying to get that commercial success that they become a dime a dozen. He believed in us though the recording sessions. He put a lot of energy into the album and I think that’s how we got the tour.

What can we expect from MonstrO for the rest of 2013?

We’re going to write a new record! We actually just signed a publishing deal with BMI so we might be getting some songs into soundtracks. That would be a dream come true. Soundtracks have meant the world to me. The music from The Shining, I mentioned Kubrick films before. I love the way compliments the visual so I’d love to be able to create something like that.

You guys have toured with a lot bands in the last year: Clutch, Hell Yeah, Kyng, Black Tusk, and Danzig to name a few. Do you think the Alice in Chains fans will be accepting of you guys?

Well, the cool thing is that I spoke to someone whose is a big AIC fan and found out there’s been some talk about us among their fans in chat rooms or forums and he said we have a little cult following among their fans. I think it’s mostly because of our association with William so hopefully they take us in with open arms. It’s always hard when you play with a band of that caliber. I remember seeing some of my favorite bands as opening acts for other bands. Sometimes they got booed and the crowd didn’t give them much of chance. We’ve been lucky. We toured with Clutch a lot in the last year and their fans were really open-minded. I think it will be that way with Alice fans.

Well, no one took more abuse than Alice in Chains took on the Clash of the Titans tour.

Yeah! That’s a good point! Look what they went through. Back then it was weird that they were on a thrash tour, but they survived so hopefully we will too.