{"id":17356,"date":"2014-10-17T15:52:54","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T13:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deephouselondon.com\/?p=6248"},"modified":"2015-05-14T14:51:12","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T12:51:12","slug":"exclusive-interview-nick-monaco-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/exclusive-interview-nick-monaco-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview: Nick Monaco"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Monaco is one of the younger members of the always awesome Crew Love outfit. He’s a singer\/producer\/DJ and all-round nice guy who makes music from the heart, which we definitely fully appreciate here at Deep House London. Having met Nick on a number of occasions over the past year, we thought it was about time we grabbed him for a chat, and with his album ‘Mating Call’ due to drop soon, plus plenty of other stuff to speak about, we had a really nice conversation. Check it out below…<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, when we were at Sonar together you told me about practicing moves for the school dance\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah, I wasn\u2019t very good at sports at school, so I had to figure out some way to be cool, some way to stand out because I was the awkward chubby kid just trying to find my way to fit in. I\u2019d watch BET and MTV, then practice all the routines in the mirror and bust them out at school dances. That gave me my purpose and turned me on to DJing because it gave me the confidence to be like, \u2018I can do that, it\u2019s easy. I can do it better.\u2019 It was that hip-hop cockiness\u2026<\/p>\n

Was your entry point into music those TV channels or were you already getting your fix of music elsewhere?<\/strong>
\nIt was hip-hop radio\u2026 in California in the nineties there was a lot of latin house mixed with west coast hip-hop and then I dipped into my dad\u2019s collection at an early age. He was listening to Alan Parson\u2019s Project and Dire Straits, Queen\u2026 but it was mainly hip-hop, RnB and pop. Before I got into house music I was playing a lot of house parties, scratching \u2013 that was my life for three or four years, I always wanted to be a battle DJ. I studied all the videos heavily\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026who were your inspirations?<\/strong>
\nObviously Q-Bert, he was the God. I actually got to hang out with him at his place and scratch with him at the Octogon. I was in this DVD that he made called the Scratchlopedia Breaktannica, an encyclopaedia of scratches, because I invented this scratch and we were at his place one night\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026no way! You invented a scratch? What was it called?<\/strong>
\nYeah! It was called the MuffMorpher, my DJ name was TechNick, so cheesy! That scene kind of died out and I didn\u2019t feel like could connect with people with scratching as much as I could with party rocking, it wasn\u2019t as social.<\/p>\n

Yeah sure, because you\u2019re so engrossed in what you\u2019re doing you lose that personal connection.<\/strong>
\nYeah, and there\u2019s a lot of dudes. It\u2019s a very specific crowd, and that\u2019s who you\u2019re trying to impress\u2026 which is cool, it\u2019s a good foundation to have. I learned a lot as a DJ, it\u2019s like jazz \u2013 having these improv sessions, similar to how I imagine Miles Davis used to have. It\u2019s how Q-Bert\u2019s house was, talking back and forth, trading 16 bars all night.<\/p>\n

[youtube id=”FaE46hgor3o” width=”620″ height=”360″]<\/p>\n

How did you make those steps to where you\u2019re at now? How did house music come into your life?<\/strong>
\nI spent a summer in Switzerland because I have family there. I was 17 and I went to Hive in Zurich, that was the first time I went to a techno club \u2013 entering this dark, techno club, my first European club experience\u2026 I saw people dancing all night until the sun came up for the first time. I liked the escapism aspect of it. When I came back to the States I started going to raves here and there in San Francisco and working out how to get that sound into my sets. Then I stumbled upon the dirtybird barbeques, around 2007\/8, and they were fusing hyphy hip-hop (which was the local sound) and this minimal techno kind of sound. I was like, \u2018Cool I can do that.\u2019. It was something I felt an instant connection with because I understood the hip-hop vocabulary more than house at that point. I made it my mission to get a release on dirtybird, I was really hungry for it, I\u2019d drive for an hour to San Fran and wait outside the clubs just to give the DJs my demoes. Then I went to Barcelona before I graduated, I was making five tracks a day, pushing pushing and pushing because I felt like it was my last chance to make it happen. That was when I sent my demo to Soul Clap and they liked it, which led to a mentor\/mentee relationship \u2013 I wrote to Eli and said, \u2018I need a mentor\u2019 and he stepped up and really helped me.<\/p>\n

How did you get into the production side of things anyway?<\/strong>
\nI wanted to make beats for rappers and RnB singers. In the beginning I was inspired by the big hip-hop producers like Timbaland \u2013 I started making music around the same time I took up DJing, they\u2019re like the same to me. I had a sh***y keyboard, I actually produced for some rappers at my high school \u2013 I made some hyphy beats for them. I took some music lessons but got bored of it, so I just fumbled around by myself for around five years \u2013 I basically hated all the music I made up until two years ago. I spent a lot of time trying to recreate the music made by people I was into, it wasn\u2019t I met Eli and Charlie that I learned I could do whatever I wanted to, I wasn\u2019t bound by genre. They had the right platform to allow me to do that and they pushed me to use my own voice and experiment with genres, that\u2019s when I really blossomed.<\/p>\n

So how do you feel about what you\u2019re making now?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m really content with it yeah. I\u2019m making the music that I\u2019ve always wanted to make\u2026 it\u2019s that self-realisation of having all these ideas and being able to translate them how I want to. Performing the songs live has been a really uplifting experience, being in control of the music and more vulnerable \u2013 you put yourself on the line; when it\u2019s good amazing, when it\u2019s bad it\u2019s bad. It\u2019s a big investment. It\u2019s nice because people see you\u2019re taking a bit of a risk and they buy into it, so you can have that freedom to keep them guessing and they follow you \u2013 it\u2019s a good position to be in because you can establish an ethos, rather than a sound.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s cool man, because it\u2019s a privilege some artists just don\u2019t manage to attain. Some people just get locked into a particular style and can\u2019t get out of it\u2026 Anyway, tell me about the album..?<\/strong>
\nI busted it out in a month last autumn. \u2018The Stalker\u2019 was a breakthrough for me, getting into more organic sounds. I was listening to a lot of Talking Heads, I watched Stop Making Sense like every day, plus I was hanging out with my friend, who\u2019s a punk rock historian \u2013 I used to go to record shops with him and listen to all this proto-punk stuff. I was listening to all of that and getting bored of the house stuff I was doing, \u2018The Stalker\u2019 came out of that and so did another song called \u2018Baby Face\u2019.<\/p>\n

[youtube id=”_XrH-_rDufI” width=”620″ height=”360″]<\/p>\n

How did you work out the vocal aspect of your recording process, because I guess it was quite a novel thing to pick up?<\/strong>
\nIt started more like a joke, I had this track called \u2018Set The Table\u2019, which had these high-pitched jokey vocals. I always wanted vocals on my tracks, like a narrative theme going on \u2013 with the first EP on Soul Clap things expanded a little with hooks. Then my flatmate brought home some really good mics and amps, which made a world of difference because with those I could really hear my voice clearly, I could really hear what I actually sounded like \u2013 I started stacking vocals, using different characters, creating harmonies from the different people in my head. \u2018Private Practice\u2019 was a good window into my process because I mumble a lot and the mumbling turns into words.<\/p>\n

How does it feel now to be performing like that? I remember you said it was like \u2018being naked in front of an audience\u2019, does it still feel like that now?<\/strong>
\nI get really nervous still yeah. I\u2019ve been able to cope with it by creating this persona, the jumpsuits and the hat, the lipstick. It helps me convey my performance\u2026 if I was wearing plain clothes I\u2019d be a lot more vulnerable. I\u2019m changing my set up a lot, it keeps things fresh and keeps me learning \u2013 I\u2019m defijitely enjoying it more than DJing because I can dance and really convey my message. I relate it to acting, I used to act in high school \u2013 it\u2019s like waiting in the wings to say your line \u2013 I used to love that. The success of that is way better than DJing.<\/p>\n

Tell me a bit more about the lipstick thing\u2026<\/strong>
\nI kinda like challenging people, but also including them. Being experimental but not going over peoples\u2019 heads, that\u2019s what I want to achieve. I\u2019m really thinking about the message behind what I do, because now I have this opportunity; I\u2019m travelling the world, but what do I want to say? The lipstick thing is a manifestation of that idea \u2013 challenging masculinity, drawing attention to the roots of house and disco music; the freaks, the outsiders, gay people\u2026 It pays homage to the people that created this music and it pushes people to transcend these gender boundaries and have fun. It\u2019s fun to dress up.<\/p>\n

It is indeed. How do you envisage your future panning out?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m feeling really on fire right now. Being part of Wolf + Lamb and Crew Love gives you room to experiment and to have a stage for it. I want to develop the live set and my voice, work with other musicians to create a band type of thing, and dancers, to really embolden the live set. Gadi and I are doing a punk project. I\u2019m slowly starting to source music for a punk compilation \u2013 so it\u2019s just about trying to broaden things. I got a bunch of projects I want to do, or I\u2019m working on at the moment; loft parties, Pride parties, I\u2019m getting really involved in Vogueing. I want to do more journalism too, I\u2019ve been getting into writing, I do a travel blog. I want to share peoples\u2019 stories. So, there\u2019s a lot going on\u2026<\/p>\n

Artist Page<\/a><\/span>Soundcloud<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nick Monaco is one of the younger members of the always awesome Crew Love outfit. He’s a singer\/producer\/DJ and all-round nice guy who makes music from the heart, which we definitely fully appreciate here at Deep House London. Having met Nick on a number of occasions over the past year, we thought it was about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":6251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3971],"tags":[4660],"class_list":["post-17356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","category-interviews-london","tag-nick-monaco-london","post_format-post-format-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}