interview with Monjoie
Have any of you played in other bands? Yes, each one of us played in other bands before
How is it that you started playing music? The desire to emulate our heroes
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you? current members: Alessandro Brocchi: Vocals and guitars (51) / Valter Rosa: guitars and bouzuki (57) / Davide Baglietto: flutes, bagpipes, keyboards (42) / Alessandro Mazzitelli: keyboards, analog synths, bass (46) / Daniele Marini: piano (64),
Have you had other previous members? Yes, bass guitar players and drummers
Did you make music even when you were young? Yes
Where are you from? We come from Liguria, north west coast of Italy
What year did the band form?1999
What's your style of genre? It is a mixture among different styles as folk, electronics and alternative acoustic rock
What inspires you? 70’s progressive rock, 80’s alternative rock, ethnic music, middle age music and literature
How often and where do you reherse? We have a rehearsal room near where we live and we rehearse in the period before the concerts
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Before this concept album, it was me, Alessandro Brocchi
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? It depends, sometimes with the musical part, sometimes with the lyrics
At home Have you done any covers live? Just a cover of an old Italian band named Delirium, a long time ago
What language do you sing in? Before I sang in Italian, but the whole new record is sung in English.
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? What ages are most of your concert attendants? if you mean the audience, 35/55
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We use to promote the album just made and some songs of the previous albums
Do you have a regular place you play live often? the cloisters of Santa Caterina
Have you had to cancel a gig? Yes it happened
Where have you played live this year? as a monjoie, we did not play live cause we were working on the new album. We will start with the concerts next autumn.
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? We are still organizing the dates
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Compact discs, digital music and live performances.
Where can people buy your merchandise? Through the record company Lizard Records, record stores, sending an email to [email protected], or our live performances.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? It's a step of the times
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Less and less records are sold and it becomes more and more necessary to play live and it could not be otherwise
What do you think of my work? Interesting even if it seems more like a survey than an interview
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? I don’t know, It's not the purpose for which we did this interview
Do you have any role models or idols? All the great musicians and all the great writers, sometimes underrated
Why do you think that they exist? Cause we need them
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? From older bands
What have been your biggest obstacles? Living in small towns, far from significant realities for music, the musical genre not quite commercial and the various personal commitments of the members of the band
What advice would you give other bands or artists? To have a common purpose
Do you have any new material? This new album titled “and in thy heart inurn me”, coming out in June.
What are your web sites? We have no web sites
How can people reach you? On our Facebook homepage, www.facebook.com/monjoieband/
What are your plans for the future? Increase the number of concerts
Do you have something to add? Ciao e grazie
