Can you give a brief introduction to Mono Amine?
Mono-Amine is an adventurous and intense industrial / hardcorenoisish music project and live-act from Joost Gransjean, based in The Haque (NL). Mono-Amine has been releasing 12inches and albums on various labels and in different so called 'scenes' since 2004. The last 2 full album releases have been on Vendetta music USA. Mono-Amine is electronic warfare and is not meant and aimed to be understood by everyone.
Why name your band after an anti depressant? Does the choice for this name say something about your view on life or humanity?
Actually in neurochemistry a mono amine is a neurotransmitter, one which is crucial to bringing the brain in a state of adrenaline and euphoric rush. Thus the same effect the music and the process of creating the music has on my brain. That it is referred to as an anti-depressant also makes sense because making music keeps me from going insane and ending up like a hermit :-). Next to that making music gives me a way to express my feelings, mostly being pissed off about the direction our society is going and the way a big part of us humans tend to behave like machines and think like a bunch of fucking sheep. All in all, it makes me less depressed then I would be without it :-)
You have recently released a new album on Vendetta music called Like a Machine, how are the comments on it so far?
The comments have been mind-blowing positive, the album has been getting really nice reviews from the critics. If one is interested in reading some reviews you can check www.connectionbizarre.com and www.gothtronic.com for example (Both nice sites with good info bout dark music to check out anyway) I take these comments as a nice compliment but they change nothing in the way I look at music or make my music. If the comments would be all bad I wouldn’t change anything either, haha. I don’t make music for the critics though I take it as a compliment if other people also enjoy the music, critic or not.
When I'm making music I'm feeling like a fish in the water, I close my curtains, throw my phone away and make sure I have enough cigarettes and vodka nearby, then I let my mind take over and only stop when I black out or have made a recording of this mindtrip which tickles my brain in a nice, intense and adventurous way. I do not miss the crowds because making music for me isn't aimed at entertaining crows, I do it to treat my brain into an intense experience. It turned out to make crowds and/or other people happy too, which is a nice coincidence but not the goal. I do not work in a structured way but like in making any production, the production stages of sound design, composing, arranging, mixing and mastering are off course all part of the process. I have my studio setup so I can work in a really intuitive way, this makes me able to switch to and from any of those production-stages and back when I want too, until I am satisfied.
What was the most challenging part for you in the recordings of this album?
For me the most challenging part of making this album was pulling myself out of the studio, for that irritating business they call normal work. Pulling myself out of the studio fucks up my vibe :-)
It is one of my dreams to be able to not have to worry about normal work anymore, though I realize that is one dream which is almost impossible to reach, specially with our current system which doesn't have much heart for artists who make music without compromise and out of pure passion and not as a product for the masses.
The track: Like a machine is over 16 minutes, why such a long track? What would be wrong with it if you compress it to 6 minutes?
I like long tracks, they force you to really get into them. The world needs more long tracks :-) A lot of DJ's in the industrial world won’t play long tracks because they haven't learned to beatmatch and be able to mix another song in when they want to change tracks instead of having to wait until the track ends. I don’t understand why they don’t learn to beatmatch and thus be able to make mixes more personal and unique. DJ's; Be creative and expand your capabilities, you might even like it, haha
These days there is a lot of equipment for sale, both hardware and software, what is the best piece of equipment (besides creativity)?
I don’t think there is one piece of equipment that is better than others, it depends on the musician and his or her workflow. Personally I have a analog studio with a quadcore computer as the heart of it all. I combine the playfulness of analog gear with the ability to edit and endless resample everything in the digital domain. Ableton Live is a tool I can’t miss anymore. It makes production stages as sound design, composing and arranging really intuitive for me, it binds everything together and gives me a way to combine the best things of the digital and analog world.
I have never send a demo to a festival, usually my bookings come from organizers who have witnessed a live gig and ask me to play their party or festival too. For the Vendetta festival I got on the bill because I am one of the Vendetta artists. For Maschinenfest I had the luck a friend told one of the organizers they should try to listen to some of my tracks on MySpace. Next to that I had the luck they liked it :-). It was amazing to play there, it’s not every day I get to play a festival with a crowd which is build of 100% music purists, who really come to experience new and kickass music. Nice, it kicked ass. For me I don’t favor a big festival above a small club show or even a gig in a warehouse or a cellar for 25 people for example. I just like to play music and go for it for 100%. If the sound system can play at a volume you can feel the music next to hearing it, I am happy.
What will be next for Mono Amine?
At this moment and in the coming months I am working on new material. I am working on a new album for the USA based Vendetta music and I am working on an album for the Germany based Ant-Zen label. Next to that there will be a Mono-Amine remix of a Kiew track on the new Kiew album and you never know when there will an unexpected underground hardcore release on a horny piece of 12inch vinyl. Busy times ahead and I like that. For gigs on the 20th of march there will be a nice party called 'We are the NOISE Generation2' where I will be playing alongside Klangstabil, Militia and Twinkle, something to check out if you live in the Netherlands.
Any last words for the readers?
Haha, please spell my name right, I am not a Japanese cartoon!
And if you are interested in buying my albums you can find them in Europe through the Infarot and adnoiseam webshops and in the USA through the Vendetta music webshop. When interested in old Vinyl releases just write a message to me through MySpace or Facebook (just put Joost Gransjean in the search) and see what I still have in stock.
