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What is your name and role within Mona Bay?
Im Jack and I play Bass
Where are you currently based and what’s the music scene like there?
We’re based in Melbourne and the scene is really cool. It’s pretty much the perfect place to live if you’re in a band. We’re kinda spoilt for choice with the amount of venues that have live music every night, so it’s super easy to find somewhere to hang out.
When and how did Mona Bay start as a band?
We started jamming the year after high school. (2016). None of us had jobs or really knew what we should be doing with our lives, so we were like fuck it, let’s start a band. We’d just hang out every day and mess around and slowly we started writing some pretty shitty songs haha. Then we played our first show at the start of last year. It’s been really fun so far!
Who or what influences your songwriting and sound?
I guess it’s just what we’re into and listening to at the time. If I hear I song I really like, I get really psyched to try and write a good song.
You’ve been playing many gigs around Melbourne and also supporting some really cool bands like Verge Collection, Totty, Raave Tapes and These New South Wales, where will you be playing next?
Yeah we’ve been super lucky to support some of those guys! It’s such a trip, like, going from listening to them and admiring them to playing along side them. Life is weird! We’re actually playing with Totty again on the Melbourne stop of their tour in a month or so, so that’s pretty sick! Other than that we’re just supporting a few local shows here and there, and trying to plan a big launch show when we release our next EP.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
Lately I’ve been really into Black Lips, Dead Ghosts, The Murlocs, and The Gurdies. But usually it’s who I’ve recently seen live. I’ll see them and be really stoked on them and then just listen to them until I see someone else play.
You recorded and released your debut EP last year, how has the the EP been received and where can we buy / listen?
I feel like it was pretty well received, all our mates seemed to get amongst it.
At the time we just wanted so badly to have music recorded and see our names on Spotify and stuff. We wanted to feel like a real band haha. And we we’re really psyched on it when we first released it, but we listen to it now and it’s kinda funny. We rushed it a bit. We can do better!!!!
Do you have plans for a follow up to the EP?
Yeah! We’ve got heaps of songs lined up to be recorded. We want to get it done ASAP, we’re just trying to lock in the dates. So we’ll be putting out some new music pretty soon.
What do you have planned for the remainder of 2018?
To release another EP for sure. And to play as many shows as we can and make videos and stuff. We really want to stay productive and always be doing something. It’d be crazy to hop on a tour or play interstate or something like that.
Favourite food and place to hangout?
Foxxy Dolphin. It’s this new place on Smith Street, it’s so sick! We played a gig there a few weeks ago. They have cheap drinks and really great food, plus the staff are legends. The upstairs band room is loud as fuck and begging to be shredded. Cool place.
