Alternative/Pop Punk band fusing various different influences together to form a sound that is nothing short of crappy. Aaah!RealMonsters consists of 5 members who have a series of releases with new music that's coming out left and right. Bassist and vocalist Matt Moore discusses these releases and future plans for the band.
1. Tell me how did this band come together and why are you here doing what you're doing?
Matt: The band came formed from several back stories. In 2010 a St. Louis local pop-punk band called, Centerpointe, split up leaving members Nick Dawes (Lead Guitar) and Tom Watkins (Vocals/Guitar/Piano) on the search for a new project. They decided to form what is now called Aaah!RealMonsters. Tom put an ad up on craigslist in search of a drummer and Keith Bowman (Drummer) reached out, as he was seeking a new project as well. I, (Matt Moore- Vocals/Bass), was a college baseball player and had recently started my first semester at Webster University in St. Louis, MO where I ran into Tom at a Kegger Party. From there we discussed music, and since I played bass, I ended up trying out with the guys, and Aaah!RealMonsters was officially formed in the fall of 2010. In the fall of 2012, we added my childhood friend, Ryan Martin (Vocals/Guitar), as the 5th member of the band. We all consider music, not just as a love/passion, but as a way of life. It is our release from real world duties like work and school, and we play together as a group because of our shared musical tastes. We treat it as more than just a hobby because we would all like to make a living out of playing music and that type of privilege does not just happen overnight, so we are actively recording and playing shows to get there.
2. Your name is clearly named after the Nick 90's TV show "Aaah! Real Monsters" correct? Why name your band after this program and why are you real monsters how are you?
Matt: We all enjoyed watching Nickelodeon cartoons when we were younger and Nick’s favorite show was Aaah! Real Monsters, so he came up with the idea to name the band. We felt that the name would generate interest in our music, so it was agreed upon to pursue the name. At the time, we were simply looking for recognition, and an interesting name like that would at least give us a chance to play some shows and sell some music. Over time, we indulged more so into the name, and we have taken the Monster theme in a lot of band marketing.
3. Where does the band call home?
Matt: We name St. Louis, MO as our primary home, since that is where we started but we have been very fortunate to have a couple of homes. Ryan and I (Matt Moore) both grew up in Colorado Springs, CO, before I ventured off to the Midwest for baseball/school. Shortly after the release of our first album, Relocate, in the summer of 2012, the band was forced to move to separate parts of the country: Tom to Los Angeles, CA; Matt (me) to Colorado Springs. Meanwhile, Keith and Nick stayed in St. Louis. Most bands would have been gone their separate ways, but we continued to write and record new music, and released our second album, Don’t Quit, in the summer of 2013, where we each recorded our parts in different studios across the country. From there, Tom moved to Colorado Springs in the fall of 2013 with Ryan and I, and we played several shows across the state of Colorado with drummer, Justin Richards. This allowed us to build a home in Colorado as well. Just 1 month ago, Tom moved back to St. Louis, and the band is now split into different locations yet again. In a round-about answer, Aaah!RealMonsters has 2 homes (St. Louis and Colorado).
4. What bands would you say influence you guys the most?
Matt: What makes our band unique is our separate influences from member to member, but what keeps our band together, is our eclectic love for the same bands, like: Blink-182, Bayside, Four Year Strong, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, and New Found Glory. These bands helped us create the foundation for our sound, while our varied influences, like: The Beatles, Johnny Cash, Queen, NOFX, Alkaline Trio, Elton John, and many others; allow us to broaden the sound of our songs, track to track. Although our main genre is Pop Punk, we take great pride in writing songs that do not fall into the Pop Punk category.
5. Do you guys use a theme with the lyrical context or have a message you want to send that people should know?
Lyrics have typically been one of our week point and most of the songs we have written are about relationships. I know that a lyrical context/theme that I typically write about is an optimistic outlook on life. I know that every song I write leaves behind a personal message and if there was one greater theme that I would like to spread to the world, it would be peace/love for all. Sometimes I think I should have grown up in the 60s/70s, but my message is simple: Do right by your peers and right will be done to you.
6. Why did you want your second album to be divided into parts? "Don't Quit" is considered Part A so how many parts will there be?
Matt: We are currently in the process of completing part 2 and we are looking to release that this summer. The reason we split it into parts is because of the complications of recording from different parts of the country. When it came down to it, we had 6 songs ready to release, and 6 songs that we COULD release, but might not feel that great about. With that beings said we decided to split our full length, “Don’t Quit Your Day Jobs,” into 2 parts. “Don’t Quit,” and “Your Day.” You might ask, what happens to “Jobs”? It is quite a bit away, but we will be releasing a 3rd part that will be an acoustic album containing songs from all of our albums, as well as, some new ones and that will be called, “Jobs.” Hopefully by that point, we can actually quit our day jobs and play music full time.
7. You decided to call this release "Don't Quit" how come? Why don't you guys just quit?
Matt: The title tied in perfectly with our band’s situation. We were/are all living in different parts of the country and the easy thing to do would be to call it quits and head our separate ways musically. At the end of the day, we still believe in our band, and we are all still great friends. We all have different things that we want to accomplish musically and we can accomplish those things, while keeping Aaah!RealMonsters together. Though we might only get to play a couple shows a year, and release 1 album a year, we can still do these things and continue to build our name. Over 3 and a half years, we have gained thousands of fans and played in numerous venues across the country. We will continue to grow in fan support, and hopefully one day we can all play together full time to tour the world. Though this seems like a long ways from now, we will never get there if we just, called it quits.
8. Who did the album artwork and produced this release and what was it like working with them, what did they bring to the table for you guys?
Matt: Aaron Baker has been a part of both releases up to this point, and he did a great job with Relocate. This time around, he did mix/master Don’t Quit, but left the production to Josh Collins. Josh is a sound engineer at Atlantic Records (Los Angeles, CA), and has a unique ear for effects. With that being said, he gave us a much more produced/full sound than what we had with, Relocate, but we still wanted to keep Aaron as part of the recording process, because of his knowledge and respect for our sound. Both of them have been a huge part to the success of our band and I cannot recommend them highly enough. Pjai Vegas did the artwork for this album, and she attended Musician’s Institute with Tom. From my understanding, she drew up the design and showed it to us, of which we all approved and now it is the cover of our album.
9. Do you have any favorite songs on this release, if so which and why?
Matt: My favorite song off of Don’t Quit is Colorado. Though I helped write the music, Ryan wrote the lyrics and the song really hits home to me. Both Ryan and I grew up in Mountain Shadows, where there was a devastating forest fire that took out most of our neighborhood a couple years ago. Ryan wrote the song about the fire, and the song is inspirational to me. The lyrics discuss how our community rallied together to rebuild and it symbolizes strength in community.
10. When can we expect to see the rest of the parts in this series of releases?
Matt: We are about 70% done with the next release and are anticipating releasing, “Your Day,” this summer. We are working on rerecording a couple of tracks, as well as, adding a couple that we have written in the last 6 months. Since we will be playing fewer shows in the coming months, it is very safe to say that you will see our next release in the summer of 2014. We are very excited for what the album has in store, and there will likely be a music video released with the album!
11. What does the future have in-store for you guys for the rest of the year?Matt: We finally purchased an inventory of some merchandise that we are looking to clear out and restock, so for those who haven’t yet, be sure to buy a T-Shirt so that we can pay some more towns a visit. This will give us a budget to work with on doing some new things. As a band, we are very focused on putting out this next release. From there, we are doing everything we can to get onto a couple of Warped Tour Dates (Denver/St. Louis), and we are seeking festivals to play over the summer. We won’t be playing a ton of shows this year, but we are looking to branch out to some new cities that we haven’t played yet (Columbia, MO; Kansas City, MO; Nashville, TN; and Chicago, IL), while also having some dates in St. Louis/Denver/Colorado Springs.
12. Do you have the final say?
Matt: I would like to thank Natalie's World for taking the time to ask us a few questions! We are very excited to for what 2014 has in store for us, and we are very excited to share some fun moments with our fans. We are all Real Monsters at heart and we thank those of you, who take pride in being a part of A!RM’s success.
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