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Something For The Weekend this week interviews a band from Sheffield, South Yorkshire with "Monkey" in their name.....but they are NOT Arctic Monkeys.
SFTW speaks to Monkey Swallows the Universe who are set to release the album "Casket Letters", a title derived from the eight love letters that Queen Elizabeth I of England used as evidence to execute her cousin Mary Queen of Scots in 1587. The Catholic Mary sent the love letters, which were kept in a silver casket, to her husband the Earl of Bothwell. This object played a crucial role in the accusations directed at Mary and Bothwell regarding Lord Darnley's murder. Catholic Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in England for attempting to overthrow the Protestant Queen of England Elizabeth I.
Sheffield is fast following in the footsteps of Liverpool and Manchester as a centre for popular British music.
Getting serious ... band's gift is Nat's
sweet voice
'We started as silly monkeys'
By SIMON COSYNS
August 09, 2007
MONKEY SWALLOWS THE UNIVERSE
Rating 4/5
Monkey Swallows The Universe are:
Nat Johnon: Vocals/Guitar
Kev Gori: Guitar
Cate Tully: Violin/recorder/glockenspiel/mandolin/penny whistle
Andy George: Cello
Rob Dean: Drums
IMAGINE being in a band from Sheffield with Monkey in the title . . . but NOT Arctic Monkeys.
It can’t exactly make life easy for the five musicians who go by the slightly silly but memorable name of Monkey Swallows The Universe.
They began when singer Nat Johnson met guitarist Kevin Gori at university, making music “for fun”, and now stand on the brink of becoming the Steel City’s latest sensations.
Their sound is a million miles from Alex Turner and Co’s spiky indie rock, more an exercise in luminous, acoustic loveliness.
On tour, they have also supported two of Sheffield’s other class acts, The Long Blondes and this week’s SFTW cover star Richard Hawley.
On their ravishing second album, The Casket Letters, you can’t help thinking The Beautiful South — but there’s no doubt this lot are way cooler.
Perhaps they’re more akin to Mazzy Star or Belle And Sebastian.
While they deal in seriously good tunes, performed with unerring lightness of touch, their biggest gift is the sweet, fragile, alluring voice of Nat.
Her songs ponder everything from everyday concerns to life’s big issues, all set to a vast array of instruments including cello, glockenspiel, mouth harp, penny whistle, accordion and recorder as well as the more familiar guitars and percussion.
Here, Nat tells how Monkey Swallows The Universe came about, how that name came into being and the stories behind some of the new album’s songs.
Nat
Kev
Cate
Andy
Rob
WHEN did you first discover a love of music and begin to write and sing?
I’ve loved music as long as I can remember.
I wrote little songs on my Casio keyboard when I was very young, then took up the violin until I was 12 and when I was 17 I got my first guitar.
I was in a couple of bands in sixth form but I was too shy to sing and stayed in the background.
Then when I went to uni I met Kev and I started writing songs for fun.
Kev told me they were pretty good and that I could sing, so I kept doing it!
Ravishing ... The Casket Letters
At what point did you think you might make a career of it?
Not until fairly recently, to be honest. The band started out as just a bit of fun — had we known something would come out of it we would have given it a better name!
Over the last year or so, though, people have been telling us we could really make something of it so we’ve started taking it more seriously and we’ve been working really hard!
You started Monkey Swallows The Universe as a duo with Kevin. What was your shared musical vision?
We were in the same halls together and hung around with the same people.
We got talking about the Pixies one night and grew to be closer friends from then on really. We never had a “vision”, we just wanted to have fun.
A lot of our earliest songs were very silly before I started putting more effort into the songwriting.
Where did the band name come from?
It’s an episode of the TV series Monkey. Kev and I were watching it when we were forming the band.
What did you think of Gorillaz getting in on the Monkey act with their Chinese opera?
We’re waiting for Albarn to send us our free tickets.
What did the addition of Cate, Andy and Rob bring to the band?
They enabled us to put everything we wanted into the songs.
Sometimes, when it was just the two of us, I’d have Kev playing guitar, recorder and glockenspiel all in one song. I wanted to do much more but it was impossible on our own.
Not only have they enabled us to be more creative in that way but also they have brought their own styles to the band, which makes for a more interesting dynamic when it comes to songwriting and arranging.
Loads of instruments are used, it seems you’re a real bunch of all-rounders.
We try. There are lots more things we’d like to have a go at!
Cate is the busiest of the band as she has to play violin, recorder, glockenspiel, penny whistle, do some backing singing and pretty much anything else we throw her way, she’ll play!
The Casket Letters is full of lovely songs but can you tell the stories behind these four . . .
Bloodline: I wrote Bloodline before we had a record deal — it was really just venting my frustration at the fact that lots of bands were getting picked up around us when we seemed to be working harder and falling by the wayside!
Science: Science doesn’t really work, OK? And when people realise that, it will fail us.
When people realise that it’s impossible for a plane to fly and we were all just taking it for granted that it works, the planes will fall from the sky. And so on.
Elizabeth & Mary: This is linked in with the album title, The Casket Letters.
Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots were cousins who never met, but whose lives were constantly intertwined.
Elizabeth ending up having Mary beheaded and part of the evidence used against Mary were the Casket Letters.
Mary was held in Sheffield for quite a time.
The Ballad Of The Breakneck Bride: This is just a tongue-in-cheek country song, a bit of fun mostly!
The same old country story of two young lovers dying.
As I’m also interviewing Richard Hawley this week, what do you think of the man, his music and love of Sheffield?
Richard was brilliant when he took us on tour with him last year.
He’s a really great guy and we love his music.
He’s bang on about Sheffield, too — it’s a really special place, like nowhere else.
And how do you find the current music scene in Sheffield?
There is always tons going on musically.
It’s really diverse and there are so many different venues.
I would say there is probably something going on every night of the year to suit everyone!
Memo to radio stations with ludicrously narrow-minded playlists: Give The Casket Letters a listen, then play on it air. Oh, go on!
thesun.co.uk
[/FONT]
Something For The Weekend this week interviews a band from Sheffield, South Yorkshire with "Monkey" in their name.....but they are NOT Arctic Monkeys.
SFTW speaks to Monkey Swallows the Universe who are set to release the album "Casket Letters", a title derived from the eight love letters that Queen Elizabeth I of England used as evidence to execute her cousin Mary Queen of Scots in 1587. The Catholic Mary sent the love letters, which were kept in a silver casket, to her husband the Earl of Bothwell. This object played a crucial role in the accusations directed at Mary and Bothwell regarding Lord Darnley's murder. Catholic Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in England for attempting to overthrow the Protestant Queen of England Elizabeth I.
Sheffield is fast following in the footsteps of Liverpool and Manchester as a centre for popular British music.
Getting serious ... band's gift is Nat's
sweet voice
'We started as silly monkeys'
By SIMON COSYNS
August 09, 2007
MONKEY SWALLOWS THE UNIVERSE
Rating 4/5
Monkey Swallows The Universe are:
Nat Johnon: Vocals/Guitar
Kev Gori: Guitar
Cate Tully: Violin/recorder/glockenspiel/mandolin/penny whistle
Andy George: Cello
Rob Dean: Drums
IMAGINE being in a band from Sheffield with Monkey in the title . . . but NOT Arctic Monkeys.
It can’t exactly make life easy for the five musicians who go by the slightly silly but memorable name of Monkey Swallows The Universe.
They began when singer Nat Johnson met guitarist Kevin Gori at university, making music “for fun”, and now stand on the brink of becoming the Steel City’s latest sensations.
Their sound is a million miles from Alex Turner and Co’s spiky indie rock, more an exercise in luminous, acoustic loveliness.
On tour, they have also supported two of Sheffield’s other class acts, The Long Blondes and this week’s SFTW cover star Richard Hawley.
On their ravishing second album, The Casket Letters, you can’t help thinking The Beautiful South — but there’s no doubt this lot are way cooler.
Perhaps they’re more akin to Mazzy Star or Belle And Sebastian.
While they deal in seriously good tunes, performed with unerring lightness of touch, their biggest gift is the sweet, fragile, alluring voice of Nat.
Her songs ponder everything from everyday concerns to life’s big issues, all set to a vast array of instruments including cello, glockenspiel, mouth harp, penny whistle, accordion and recorder as well as the more familiar guitars and percussion.
Here, Nat tells how Monkey Swallows The Universe came about, how that name came into being and the stories behind some of the new album’s songs.
Nat
Kev
Cate
Andy
Rob
WHEN did you first discover a love of music and begin to write and sing?
I’ve loved music as long as I can remember.
I wrote little songs on my Casio keyboard when I was very young, then took up the violin until I was 12 and when I was 17 I got my first guitar.
I was in a couple of bands in sixth form but I was too shy to sing and stayed in the background.
Then when I went to uni I met Kev and I started writing songs for fun.
Kev told me they were pretty good and that I could sing, so I kept doing it!
Ravishing ... The Casket Letters
At what point did you think you might make a career of it?
Not until fairly recently, to be honest. The band started out as just a bit of fun — had we known something would come out of it we would have given it a better name!
Over the last year or so, though, people have been telling us we could really make something of it so we’ve started taking it more seriously and we’ve been working really hard!
You started Monkey Swallows The Universe as a duo with Kevin. What was your shared musical vision?
We were in the same halls together and hung around with the same people.
We got talking about the Pixies one night and grew to be closer friends from then on really. We never had a “vision”, we just wanted to have fun.
A lot of our earliest songs were very silly before I started putting more effort into the songwriting.
Where did the band name come from?
It’s an episode of the TV series Monkey. Kev and I were watching it when we were forming the band.
What did you think of Gorillaz getting in on the Monkey act with their Chinese opera?
We’re waiting for Albarn to send us our free tickets.
What did the addition of Cate, Andy and Rob bring to the band?
They enabled us to put everything we wanted into the songs.
Sometimes, when it was just the two of us, I’d have Kev playing guitar, recorder and glockenspiel all in one song. I wanted to do much more but it was impossible on our own.
Not only have they enabled us to be more creative in that way but also they have brought their own styles to the band, which makes for a more interesting dynamic when it comes to songwriting and arranging.
Loads of instruments are used, it seems you’re a real bunch of all-rounders.
We try. There are lots more things we’d like to have a go at!
Cate is the busiest of the band as she has to play violin, recorder, glockenspiel, penny whistle, do some backing singing and pretty much anything else we throw her way, she’ll play!
The Casket Letters is full of lovely songs but can you tell the stories behind these four . . .
Bloodline: I wrote Bloodline before we had a record deal — it was really just venting my frustration at the fact that lots of bands were getting picked up around us when we seemed to be working harder and falling by the wayside!
Science: Science doesn’t really work, OK? And when people realise that, it will fail us.
When people realise that it’s impossible for a plane to fly and we were all just taking it for granted that it works, the planes will fall from the sky. And so on.
Elizabeth & Mary: This is linked in with the album title, The Casket Letters.
Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots were cousins who never met, but whose lives were constantly intertwined.
Elizabeth ending up having Mary beheaded and part of the evidence used against Mary were the Casket Letters.
Mary was held in Sheffield for quite a time.
The Ballad Of The Breakneck Bride: This is just a tongue-in-cheek country song, a bit of fun mostly!
The same old country story of two young lovers dying.
As I’m also interviewing Richard Hawley this week, what do you think of the man, his music and love of Sheffield?
Richard was brilliant when he took us on tour with him last year.
He’s a really great guy and we love his music.
He’s bang on about Sheffield, too — it’s a really special place, like nowhere else.
And how do you find the current music scene in Sheffield?
There is always tons going on musically.
It’s really diverse and there are so many different venues.
I would say there is probably something going on every night of the year to suit everyone!
Memo to radio stations with ludicrously narrow-minded playlists: Give The Casket Letters a listen, then play on it air. Oh, go on!
thesun.co.uk
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