Don't Come Monday

Where are you currently based?
We’re based in Ulverstone, in north-west Tasmania.

How did the band form?
We started playing together in 2015 when Rob Rose (vocals, guitar) approached Grant Hearps (bass) and Fin McCullough (guitar) looking to form a band to focus predominantly on original music. Rick Lovell took up the throne behind the drums in 2019.

What’s been happening recently?
Since recording/shooting ‘Hangman’ we’ve been continuing to write new songs and playing a couple of gigs a month including at some new venues, which has been nice.

Your latest single ‘Hangman’ will be out on the 15th of November 2022, what influenced the sound and songwriting?
Hangman is probably the ‘heaviest’ tune we’ve written to date. We’re always striving to write songs that don’t sound like our other songs. This one came out as a gritty, dirty, raw blues rock tune.

How did you go about writing Hangman?
Rob (lyricist) and Fin devised a sketch of what became the ‘A part’ of the song during an acoustic songwriting session. Fin had tuned his guitar down to open D tuning to allow the vocals to be performed in a lower register. This sketch was tweaked and developed upon with the band, and we subsequently decided to make it a 2-part song with a more lively and riff-based outro with a repeated vocal hook as the ‘B part”.

Where and when did you record/produce/master and who did you work with?
We recorded the track with co-producer Andrew Forth at Kindred Hall in NW Tassie in November ’21, and then recorded vocals/overdubs progressively over the months that followed. The track was then sent to Russell Pilling (AKA Russ T. Rokk) for mixing, and the mastering was done by William Bowden at King Willy Studios.

How did you approach the recording process?
As it’s a two-part song, we chose to record the two sections separately, allowing us to ensure we got the change in the tempo of the song exactly how we wanted it to be. Drums and bass were tracked first, then the different guitar parts were added, before harmonica (performed by Jack B. Harper) and final vocals were recorded.

What influenced the music video for Hangman?
We worked in conjunction with Jacob Boote (director) and Jala-loka Lewandowski (videographer/editor) for the video. Jacob wanted to go for a dark, medieval-ish look for the first part of the song, and a brighter, more modern looking live band shoot for the outro “B part”. Laura Mead created some props to assist us, including the “hangman” headpiece. We started shooting at about 2pm and finished by about 8 on a rainy, windy day in Forth Tasmania. The whole process was great fun – Jacob and Jala-loka were excellent to work with and many laughs were had along the way.

Any upcoming shows?
We’re at Shearwater Resort Tavern on 02/12/22, Island State Brewing – The Pier (Ulverstone) on 23/12/22 and 20/01/23, and MONA Museum (Hobart) on 05/02/23

Who are you listening to at the moment?
Lately we’ve been listening to plenty of Tasmanian artists, including new releases from Big Alcatraz, Marcus Wynwood, Tessa Lee, Raccoon Dog, and The True Champions of Breakfast, as well as some old favourites by the likes of The Bad Dad Orchestra, Pete Cornelius, The Sheyana Band, Avargo Groove, and The Smooth C***s.

What’s planned for the remainder of 2022 going into 2023?
We plan to continue writing new songs, giging, and to release another five or six track EP of songs recorded during the same sessions as “Hangman” at some stage in 2023.

Favourite food and place to hangout?
A good burger by the Leven River! We can’t wait for Island State Brewing – The Pier to open up in the former location of the ever-popular Buttons Brew Pub. You can’t beat a beer/food/live music joint perched above the river of your hometown!