{"id":415,"date":"2010-02-04T09:30:55","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T15:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=415"},"modified":"2010-02-04T09:30:55","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T15:30:55","slug":"moneen-ten-years-no-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2010\/02\/04\/moneen-ten-years-no-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Moneen – Ten Years, No Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sabrina Carnevale
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"moneen\"<\/p>\n

Veteran punk\/emo outfit Moneen have been entertaining audiences since the band\u2019s inception in Brampton, Ont. in 1999 and their most recent release, The World I Want to Leave Behind<\/em>, is their fourth full-length studio album. Released through their new label, Dine Alone Records, this is their first venture with drummer and good friend Steve Nunnaro, who replaced former drummer Peter Krpan in the spring of 2008. The remaining members, singer\/guitarist Kenny Bridges, guitarist\/singer Chris \u201cThe Hippy\u201d Hughes and bassist\/singer Erik Hughes, cite Nunnaro as a significant contributor when it came to putting the 12 tracks together. In addition, this time around, they changed up some of their songwriting techniques by taking on a more simplistic approach, while continuing to thrive with their trademark melodies. Moneen recorded the follow-up to 2006\u2019s The Red Tree<\/em> at Toronto\u2019s Rattlebox Studio and enlisted the help of producers Brian Moncarz and David Bottrill (Tool, Muse). Their most recent cross-Canada tour had them travelling with friends Sights & Sounds. Stylus had a chance to chat with Bridges in the downstairs of the newly renovated West End Cultural Centre when they played a show in Winnipeg on November 30, 2009.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stylus: How has the tour been going so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kenny Bridges:<\/strong> It\u2019s been great! This is by far our best Canadian tour yet. We didn\u2019t know what to expect\u2014we\u2019ve been hidden away for a while and didn\u2019t really have any expectations. Some of the shows\u2014Kelowna, Edmonton\u2014have been the best we\u2019ve played in a while. People are freaking out and singing along to all the songs.<\/p>\n

Stylus: When you\u2019ve been touring for so many years, how do you keep things fresh and new?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KB:<\/strong> With the new record, we have a bunch of new songs to play, and we\u2019ve been trying different songs every night to make it more exciting. We also tend to change our old songs a bit. They kind of grow and morph along the way and we never know what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

Stylus: And in that time touring, have you noticed your crowds changing at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KB:<\/strong> Yeah, they\u2019ve gotten old like us! We just did the Say Anything tour and it was like playing to a completely new group of people\u2014young kids who don\u2019t know who the Get Up Kids or Saves the Day are\u2014these bands, to me, shaped what this scene is. But that\u2019s why this Canadian tour has a lot of bar shows, which is abnormal for us, but they\u2019ve been going great! We\u2019re older now and we realize, \u201cHey, people are older, too!\u201d I think we\u2019re so used to playing for young people that we haven\u2019t realized that people have actually grown with us.<\/p>\n

Stylus: What\u2019s been a band highlight over the last couple of years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KB:<\/strong> One of them is that we went to Australia last year for the Soundwave Festival; we were treated so well and everyone was so nice. We\u2019re still waiting to go to Japan, it\u2019s on our list of places to go, so once we go there, that\u2019s it! We quit! [Laughs.]<\/p>\n

Stylus: For the new record, I read that you listened to Soundgarden. Can you tell me about that? Were you a fan beforehand?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KB: <\/strong>No, I wasn\u2019t a fan of Soundgarden until the last couple years. My girlfriend and I have a merchandise company and I was taking care of it for a year when I had some time off. I started wanting to listen to different music, so I got some records that I hadn\u2019t listened to in forever\u2014I really got into the \u201990s again! I think Pearl Jam\u2019s Vs.<\/em> is an unbelievable record, I like it better than Ten<\/em>. And old Soundgarden has so many good riffs! It just got me into playing guitar a little differently than I normally would; I mean, we never really had riffs before.<\/p>\n

Stylus: There are some quieter, more atmospheric songs on the new album as well. Was that planned?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KB:<\/strong> It was more subconscious than anything, we were kind of just doing what we thought was natural. A lot of the music I listen to is a quieter, songwriter sort of style, so it was just natural that we gravitated towards that. At the time it didn\u2019t seem weird, but when we were waiting to release the record, I started to think, \u2018Is this record too different?\u2019 But the album has been so accepted and our catalogue is more dynamic now \u2013 we have our rock records and this one fits in nicely \u2013 it\u2019s almost a piece of the puzzle we never had before.<\/p>\n

Stylus: A lot of the writing for the new record came from your time touring with Alexisonfire last year in London. Can you talk a bit about that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KB:<\/strong> It\u2019s not necessarily that I went over there and said, \u201cI have to write songs.\u201d Everyone takes things in differently. Whenever I get inspired, I write in my notebook. Actually, all of the pictures in the new album\u2019s insert are from that time\u2014if I was writing a song, once I finished it, I would take a picture of what was in front of me. I just thought it was important to show people what I was looking at when I was writing the song. The packaging on this record is almost like a journal.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Are there any artists that you want to tour with?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KB:<\/strong> Mutemath is my favourite band! We played shows with them on the Warped Tour, but it\u2019s not the same. I think they\u2019re a fantastic band! I don\u2019t know musically if we\u2019d fit in so well, but I\u2019d just love to watch them every night\u2014maybe I\u2019ll just become a groupie.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Are you currently collaborating with any artists?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KB:<\/strong> Recently, I\u2019ve been working with Jay Malinowski, singer\/songwriter for Bedouin Soundclash. He has a record coming out soon. I really enjoy playing with different people, you learn a lot and end up a better musician in the end.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Any Canadian artists you\u2019re currently listening to?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KB:<\/strong> We\u2019ve been friends with the Sights and Sounds guys for awhile, and this tour is the first time we get to see them play. We\u2019re also big supporters of Alexisonfire\u2014their new record is amazing. As far as all music, Moving Mountains is one of my new favourite bands from New York; they\u2019re good on record and even better live, it\u2019s very Explosions in the Sky\/Sigur R\u00f3s meets Thrice\u2014very cool stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sabrina Carnevale Veteran punk\/emo outfit Moneen have been entertaining audiences since the band\u2019s inception in Brampton, Ont. in 1999 and their most recent release, The World I Want to Leave Behind, is their fourth full-length studio album. Released through their new label, Dine Alone Records, this is their first venture with drummer and good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[161,315,630],"class_list":["post-415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-canadian","tag-emorock","tag-moneen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}