Gabe Gross
04/24/06, 05:21 PM
Moneen Interview
First off, Hippie, can you out-dreadlock Sonny from P.O.D.?
Hippie: Yeah, hell yeah. I’ll attach little razorblades on the ends and just start going crazy.
How are you guys feel about the new record so far with being on tour?
Kenny: As a whole, we all feel this is our best record so far. I’m going to say every song is better than any song we’ve ever written before because I don’t think that’s true. There will always be the classics that we have had from our other records. But as far as the whole record for us we feel so good about it—like every song feels like it’s a part of us. And every song we went through a lot to get the finished product as you say. whereas the other album there are some songs—like all of the songs mean something to us but a lot of them came together quick and we wrote the record pretty quick. This was like a small child growing. You know? Little, little baby and so now he’s like. “Look at me!”
How long did the album take to put together?
Kenny: About a year. And that was like from having no new songs to the end of the finished record.
Where’s the album title, [I]The Red Tree come from?
Kenny: It mostly came from the artwork, which I did by having the idea in my head of what I wanted. I drove into the country with a camera and just started taking pictures I was finding all these desolate. Lonely looking snowy fields and I just kept seeing these single trees out in the middle of nowhere. I thought that was really interesting so I took a lot of pictures of them. Then I started putting all the pictures together and the artwork started coming together. The one image on the front—the red stripe—is what the design all started with and it just popped out at me. I just kept seeing this one tree and it came from out of nowhere—The Red Tree. I really liked it and I was afraid the other guys wouldn’t like it but as soon as I told everyone they agreed on it as well. Especially when I wrote the little intro passage in the booklet—what happened with the title was it’s just like there all these stupid trees that don’t matter to anyone but then I started to realizing that one tree, everything contributes to how this world works and even though there are some things that we think are just there, don’t really have much significance to anything. It’s not true—any action we do, anything, any decision we make it does matter its like a ripple effect.
What was the biggest obstacle in making the album?
Kenny: Finding the direction we wanted to go. Cause we were all listening to a lot of different stuff. We were in a totally different headspace than the other records and we didn’t just want to make another record. There was no way we were going to go in and just write a bunch of songs that are fun songs to rock out to. We wanted to make sure that everything really did mean something on this record. So I took a huge step to push myself lyrically and wrote about a lot of things I’ve ever even attempted to write about. I wanted to write about more than just what’s going on in the life of Kenny Bridges, which at the time wasn’t very much to be honest. I really had no problems. I was as happy as could be—a little stressed here and there from writing songs but I had no girl problems—
But how do you write when you have no girl problems?
Kenny: Exactly! I was like How am I going to write a record that doesn’t revolve around some freakin’ dude that’s all bummed? But as we started writing some songs all this stuff in the world started happening all over the world, all these disasters one after another and it seemed like in the last year it never stopped with the tsunami and [Hurricane] Katrina, the earthquake in India. All these things over and over and over kept happening and I started to realize that are a lot of things going on in the world that are way more important than me having no girl problems. So I made it a goal to try and dive into some of these topics and do some justice singing about them. I love singing about the fact not that it just happened but singing about it from someone’s perspective that was maybe there or involved in it. But I did a lot of reading and research so just I knew what I was writing and singing about. Long story short I just wanted to write songs that just meant more to me than just my own life and my own little problems. Because I’d never really done any story telling before and I think lyrically, the album is my favorite record from us, because the topics have a wide range. Some of our old songs I will never forget as far as how much they mean to me because they cover a lot of real important portions of my life. But that’s the thing with music, if you’re singing honestly and truly from your heart then you’re going to sing about some real things that sometimes aren’t that good and are pretty bummer subject matter but [Moneen] always try to make sure that in the end its rounded off to find the positive in it. But it’s hard. I don’t want be opinionated, I don’t want to tell someone what I feel is how they should think. We’re not political whatsoever as far as the songs. We don’t shove ideas down people heads. We just try and sing more from observing the world around us.
The last couple albums have had a focus on mortality, why the emphasis?
Kenny: Well the last record, Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now? Was written right around the time when my grandma passed away and I was very close to her so that was a huge blow to me because I had never gone through death before. Basically that’s what was going on in my life at the time. There was so much reference to death and dying but we’re not like a real dark group of people so it was kind of strange. Whereas there is some of that on this record but even though its not a darker record we feel it’s a little darker than any of the other stuff. Some of the songs that didn’t end up on this record are very dark.
What’s the inspiration behind “The East Has Stolen What the West May Want”? Is there a story there?
Kenny: Yeah, that was one of the first songs I wrote on the album. It was inspired by a journal entry I read from someone who was separated with the Berlin Wall, whereas my story is a little different than theirs because I didn’t want to take anyone else’s own words. It all basically has to do with a couple that split up between the East and the West of the Berlin Wall. One side the living conditions were much better. So the only way for this couples to keep communication between each other were to write these letters. The woman was actually the one writing saying forget about me and there’s no hope, just go on without me, let’s forget about each other, there’s nothing we can do and move on with your life. The song is coming from his perspective and he’s saying I can’t do that and I don’t want to give up. It’s all about the struggle that people really did have by being split up by this stupid wall that made no sense. It was basically just there to ruin people’s lives. It was such a landmark of stupidity and this was the first song that I wanted to write about something different. I really dove into head first and in the end I didn’t know if it was going to work because I’ve never done anything like this before. Which it’s now one of my favorites on the album and one that I’m really excited to play acoustic.
Are there any b-sides from the albums? If so, might you be releasing them?
Kenny: Yeah there are some really good b-sides that we were bummed we couldn’t put them on the record
Past and present what are your favorite songs to play on tour?
Kenny: We always have a lot of fun playing “Passing of America” because it’s all out mayhem and one of those songs we can go anywhere with it on any certain night and turn it into a 20-minute jam session if we want to with people break-dancing on stage—which has happened before. As far as new songs, one song we’ve all been loving to play is “This Is All Bigger Than Me” and it’s a quieter one. We’ve been opening our sets on this tour with that and it starts with me on the guitar and soon enough all the band members come in and it creates a really good atmosphere. It’s so different from what we would normally do with something that has energy and kicks people in the face. But then we thought we would not do that and try something completely different. It’s working out well.
What do you guys do on tour to get pumped up?
[ Interviewer’s Note: This question was never really answered but I can verify that Hippie enjoys playing Star Wars: Knight’s of the Old Republic on Xbox, whereas Chris and Peter love playing Magic: The Gathering. ]
Are there any Canadian bands you want to recommend to your American fans?
Kenny: Choke. Our Mercury, who are freaking good. And especially Alexisonfire and Boys Night Out.
What the update on the DVD-film project?
Kenny: We don’t know exactly what’s going on with it yet because we wanted to get the record out. It was shown at a couple film fests or something. It turned out really good. It’s very honest and very hard for us to watch. Because imagine like you being filmed on your worst day and then having to watch it on TV over and over. But it’s mixed with a lot of real funny stuff from early on when we first started and with some of the pre-production stuff for The Red Tree, when we were real stressed and tense. It’s definitely not the band selling itself. It more along the lines of Grant Lee’s film he made on Radiohead, more like that fly on the wall.
Knowing full well that you guys just released The Red Tree, there are rumors about the net album already being made. Do you want to confirm or deny this?
Kenny: Deny. I heard about this for the first time the other day. I forgot to tell you guys but there are new song titles up and we are releasing our next record in January [Turns to Chris] Sorry I forgot to tell you guys.
Erik: Really? Cool, cool. I’m excited for it.
Kenny: I haven’t seen any of these posts or anything, but no we figured hey there were three years between the last two records so let’s make it three weeks on the next one!
You have an area on your website entitle Tragedy, is there any connection to the track “If Tragedy’s Appealing Than Disaster’s an Addiction’?
Kenny: You’ll have to wait and see! Although we could have a small loading screen when you click on it to where there’s text but very small and when you go up to read it have that annoying face pop up and scare you.
Erik: Then we could write: The tragedy’s in your pants.”
And it’s appealing…
How do you really feel about Lost?
Kenny: I’ve seen all of first season. Second season? I have not seen any of it because we have been on tour and recording but I have heard a few things but I’m trying to stay away from the hype. I don’t watch TV. I’m all about getting the whole season and sitting down and watching them all. I’m very addicted to TV series as far as shows like 24, Lost, Six Feet Under, Oz. I can’t wait for the final Oz. I love dudes getting freakin’ dry spoons in their bums. [Laughs]
Erik: It’s amazing.
Do you guys want to say anything else to your fans at AbsolutePunk?
Kenny: I really like iced chai tea with soy milk with cinnamon sprinkle on top. The best kinds are the little coffee shops that will give you green chai tea. It’s my favorite thing. Addiction! Obsession! Problems!
True Hollywood Story right here.
Kenny: That’s right and you heard it hear first.
First off, Hippie, can you out-dreadlock Sonny from P.O.D.?
Hippie: Yeah, hell yeah. I’ll attach little razorblades on the ends and just start going crazy.
How are you guys feel about the new record so far with being on tour?
Kenny: As a whole, we all feel this is our best record so far. I’m going to say every song is better than any song we’ve ever written before because I don’t think that’s true. There will always be the classics that we have had from our other records. But as far as the whole record for us we feel so good about it—like every song feels like it’s a part of us. And every song we went through a lot to get the finished product as you say. whereas the other album there are some songs—like all of the songs mean something to us but a lot of them came together quick and we wrote the record pretty quick. This was like a small child growing. You know? Little, little baby and so now he’s like. “Look at me!”
How long did the album take to put together?
Kenny: About a year. And that was like from having no new songs to the end of the finished record.
Where’s the album title, [I]The Red Tree come from?
Kenny: It mostly came from the artwork, which I did by having the idea in my head of what I wanted. I drove into the country with a camera and just started taking pictures I was finding all these desolate. Lonely looking snowy fields and I just kept seeing these single trees out in the middle of nowhere. I thought that was really interesting so I took a lot of pictures of them. Then I started putting all the pictures together and the artwork started coming together. The one image on the front—the red stripe—is what the design all started with and it just popped out at me. I just kept seeing this one tree and it came from out of nowhere—The Red Tree. I really liked it and I was afraid the other guys wouldn’t like it but as soon as I told everyone they agreed on it as well. Especially when I wrote the little intro passage in the booklet—what happened with the title was it’s just like there all these stupid trees that don’t matter to anyone but then I started to realizing that one tree, everything contributes to how this world works and even though there are some things that we think are just there, don’t really have much significance to anything. It’s not true—any action we do, anything, any decision we make it does matter its like a ripple effect.
What was the biggest obstacle in making the album?
Kenny: Finding the direction we wanted to go. Cause we were all listening to a lot of different stuff. We were in a totally different headspace than the other records and we didn’t just want to make another record. There was no way we were going to go in and just write a bunch of songs that are fun songs to rock out to. We wanted to make sure that everything really did mean something on this record. So I took a huge step to push myself lyrically and wrote about a lot of things I’ve ever even attempted to write about. I wanted to write about more than just what’s going on in the life of Kenny Bridges, which at the time wasn’t very much to be honest. I really had no problems. I was as happy as could be—a little stressed here and there from writing songs but I had no girl problems—
But how do you write when you have no girl problems?
Kenny: Exactly! I was like How am I going to write a record that doesn’t revolve around some freakin’ dude that’s all bummed? But as we started writing some songs all this stuff in the world started happening all over the world, all these disasters one after another and it seemed like in the last year it never stopped with the tsunami and [Hurricane] Katrina, the earthquake in India. All these things over and over and over kept happening and I started to realize that are a lot of things going on in the world that are way more important than me having no girl problems. So I made it a goal to try and dive into some of these topics and do some justice singing about them. I love singing about the fact not that it just happened but singing about it from someone’s perspective that was maybe there or involved in it. But I did a lot of reading and research so just I knew what I was writing and singing about. Long story short I just wanted to write songs that just meant more to me than just my own life and my own little problems. Because I’d never really done any story telling before and I think lyrically, the album is my favorite record from us, because the topics have a wide range. Some of our old songs I will never forget as far as how much they mean to me because they cover a lot of real important portions of my life. But that’s the thing with music, if you’re singing honestly and truly from your heart then you’re going to sing about some real things that sometimes aren’t that good and are pretty bummer subject matter but [Moneen] always try to make sure that in the end its rounded off to find the positive in it. But it’s hard. I don’t want be opinionated, I don’t want to tell someone what I feel is how they should think. We’re not political whatsoever as far as the songs. We don’t shove ideas down people heads. We just try and sing more from observing the world around us.
The last couple albums have had a focus on mortality, why the emphasis?
Kenny: Well the last record, Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now? Was written right around the time when my grandma passed away and I was very close to her so that was a huge blow to me because I had never gone through death before. Basically that’s what was going on in my life at the time. There was so much reference to death and dying but we’re not like a real dark group of people so it was kind of strange. Whereas there is some of that on this record but even though its not a darker record we feel it’s a little darker than any of the other stuff. Some of the songs that didn’t end up on this record are very dark.
What’s the inspiration behind “The East Has Stolen What the West May Want”? Is there a story there?
Kenny: Yeah, that was one of the first songs I wrote on the album. It was inspired by a journal entry I read from someone who was separated with the Berlin Wall, whereas my story is a little different than theirs because I didn’t want to take anyone else’s own words. It all basically has to do with a couple that split up between the East and the West of the Berlin Wall. One side the living conditions were much better. So the only way for this couples to keep communication between each other were to write these letters. The woman was actually the one writing saying forget about me and there’s no hope, just go on without me, let’s forget about each other, there’s nothing we can do and move on with your life. The song is coming from his perspective and he’s saying I can’t do that and I don’t want to give up. It’s all about the struggle that people really did have by being split up by this stupid wall that made no sense. It was basically just there to ruin people’s lives. It was such a landmark of stupidity and this was the first song that I wanted to write about something different. I really dove into head first and in the end I didn’t know if it was going to work because I’ve never done anything like this before. Which it’s now one of my favorites on the album and one that I’m really excited to play acoustic.
Are there any b-sides from the albums? If so, might you be releasing them?
Kenny: Yeah there are some really good b-sides that we were bummed we couldn’t put them on the record
Past and present what are your favorite songs to play on tour?
Kenny: We always have a lot of fun playing “Passing of America” because it’s all out mayhem and one of those songs we can go anywhere with it on any certain night and turn it into a 20-minute jam session if we want to with people break-dancing on stage—which has happened before. As far as new songs, one song we’ve all been loving to play is “This Is All Bigger Than Me” and it’s a quieter one. We’ve been opening our sets on this tour with that and it starts with me on the guitar and soon enough all the band members come in and it creates a really good atmosphere. It’s so different from what we would normally do with something that has energy and kicks people in the face. But then we thought we would not do that and try something completely different. It’s working out well.
What do you guys do on tour to get pumped up?
[ Interviewer’s Note: This question was never really answered but I can verify that Hippie enjoys playing Star Wars: Knight’s of the Old Republic on Xbox, whereas Chris and Peter love playing Magic: The Gathering. ]
Are there any Canadian bands you want to recommend to your American fans?
Kenny: Choke. Our Mercury, who are freaking good. And especially Alexisonfire and Boys Night Out.
What the update on the DVD-film project?
Kenny: We don’t know exactly what’s going on with it yet because we wanted to get the record out. It was shown at a couple film fests or something. It turned out really good. It’s very honest and very hard for us to watch. Because imagine like you being filmed on your worst day and then having to watch it on TV over and over. But it’s mixed with a lot of real funny stuff from early on when we first started and with some of the pre-production stuff for The Red Tree, when we were real stressed and tense. It’s definitely not the band selling itself. It more along the lines of Grant Lee’s film he made on Radiohead, more like that fly on the wall.
Knowing full well that you guys just released The Red Tree, there are rumors about the net album already being made. Do you want to confirm or deny this?
Kenny: Deny. I heard about this for the first time the other day. I forgot to tell you guys but there are new song titles up and we are releasing our next record in January [Turns to Chris] Sorry I forgot to tell you guys.
Erik: Really? Cool, cool. I’m excited for it.
Kenny: I haven’t seen any of these posts or anything, but no we figured hey there were three years between the last two records so let’s make it three weeks on the next one!
You have an area on your website entitle Tragedy, is there any connection to the track “If Tragedy’s Appealing Than Disaster’s an Addiction’?
Kenny: You’ll have to wait and see! Although we could have a small loading screen when you click on it to where there’s text but very small and when you go up to read it have that annoying face pop up and scare you.
Erik: Then we could write: The tragedy’s in your pants.”
And it’s appealing…
How do you really feel about Lost?
Kenny: I’ve seen all of first season. Second season? I have not seen any of it because we have been on tour and recording but I have heard a few things but I’m trying to stay away from the hype. I don’t watch TV. I’m all about getting the whole season and sitting down and watching them all. I’m very addicted to TV series as far as shows like 24, Lost, Six Feet Under, Oz. I can’t wait for the final Oz. I love dudes getting freakin’ dry spoons in their bums. [Laughs]
Erik: It’s amazing.
Do you guys want to say anything else to your fans at AbsolutePunk?
Kenny: I really like iced chai tea with soy milk with cinnamon sprinkle on top. The best kinds are the little coffee shops that will give you green chai tea. It’s my favorite thing. Addiction! Obsession! Problems!
True Hollywood Story right here.
Kenny: That’s right and you heard it hear first.