Interview: Catching Up With Monkey Intrusion

It’s been a while since we spoke with progressive rock and punk band, Monkey Intrusion. In this interview, we catch up with them to see what’s been going on since.

1. Hello! Welcome back. It’s been a little while, so first things first, how are you and have there been any significant changes since we last spoke?

Hi guys, nice to see you again. I’m Vincenzo Reina guitar player and singer of Monkey Intrusion. Everything is pretty well thank you. Oh so many important things happened to the band: last year we released our first album ‘Pussycats and Monkeymen’, it was so great for us! We have done many concerts to promote it, the reaction of the audience and the press was very good, we created a small and loyal fanbase in particular in South America, which surprised us and for which we are very grateful. And last but not least we have a third singer in the band, Sara Cova, we are so happy that she joined the band.

2. So, what’s new? What’s keeping you busy this time around? A new album/EP/single release? A new video? Playing live, or planning ahead?

We are writing new songs and are preparing the demos to go to the studio. It’s a beautiful time, perhaps the most intense for some of us because creativity comes through in music and it’s fantastic to do it together. In parallel we are playing some gigs to always keep the relationship with the audience alive and test the new songs live before releasing them.

3. Describe what fans/listeners can expect.

The first album was a collection of our favourite songs that we’ve played in recent years with different lineups. I think that the new album, maybe an EP, will be very different because we are creating it together from scratch, and represents what we feel and live in this moment. We often like to write about dystopian settings, but lately reality has outgrown imagination, and we find ourselves wondering what vision is and what reality is. I think that fans will find this kind of mood. It will be for sure again a rock album, but without a specific genre. We can’t stand repetitions and fixed patterns.

4. Tell me about the work that has gone into making it a reality and what it means to you to see it come to fruition?

Before recording the album, we played our songs for many years which transformed over time, but frankly when we entered the studio, we were completely unprepared. I mean we knew we had to give our best to play, because we wanted to record everything live, and so we did, with very few overdubs, but we didn’t have a clear shared idea of the sound we wanted to achieve. Jadran and Gabriel Ogrin, the engineers and producers of the Jork Studios in Slovenia helped us a lot to get a sound identity that convinced and represented us. I think that listening to the various tracks, even if very different from each other, this result is appreciable. The phase in which we released the album on streaming platform and had the CD printed – super vintage I know, who prints a CD nowadays! – and promoted it was very challenging but also essential to take a step forward. Playing live is great, but if you don’t publish regularly new songs, you don’t exist as an artist. I think this is true for both small independent and top-rated bands.

5. Sum up what this latest development says about you and where you find yourself at this moment in time?

We have taken a good first step and it is up to us to feed our creativity and push the musical production of our ideas. It takes a lot of time and effort, but seeing your songs released and sharing them with the public is priceless.

6. Has the time since we last spoke been a mostly positive period and has there been any one thing that stands out as being good?

I think it was definitely a very good time for Monkey Intrusion, most of all because we’ve built a strong identity as a band and we’re dying to continue making music together.

7. How about something that has challenged you since we last spoke? Has there been any particular thing that tested you, and if so, how did you overcome it?

Oh so many things, but above all I would mention the ups and downs all bandmates had in their private life. Our infinite love to music and our deep bond with each other helped overcome everything.

8. What is a realistic goal you’d like to achieve over the next 12 months?

The release of our next EP should be the minimum goal! Thank you so much for the interview.

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