by Joe Fielder
If you haven't heard yet, unsigned local favorites The Monolators are using a Kickstarter campaign to finish the production of their new 12" split EP. They're close to hitting their goal, but have just a few days left. We spoke with singer/guitarist Eli Chartkoff to learn more.
Hey, Eli. What's the deal with this Kickstarter campaign you're doing?
Hi, Joe! Well, we're trying to raise money to finish up our new record that we're putting out later this fall. It's all recorded and mixed, but we're asking people to pre-order a copy via our Kickstarter site so we can pay for mastering and pressing costs.
What songs are going to be on the record?
It's a 12" split EP, 4 new songs on one side, and 4 older songs on the other. The new songs are some things we've been working on since the spring-- one of them, "Silver Cities" (which is the name of the new record) started as a song from a little casiotone organ-themed solo record that I did on my 4-track in May, and we decided to re-record and retool it as a Monolators' song, with the whole band playing instead of just me. Luke Ehret from boxViolet produced & engineered these tracks and they sound really, really rad. They make me think of a solid gold cupcake! (The solo ep is online if anyone's curious.)
So that's one side of the record. On the other side--last year we put out a digital-only EP called Ruby, I'm Changing My Number. It was produced & engineered by Joe Napolitano from Le Switch, and he did a great job, but I kinda feel like people never really looked at it as if it were a "real" record because it never had a physical release. So we're finally putting it out FOR REALS this time.
How are these tracks new or different for you as a band?
I think our dancey/pop side comes through a bit more on the silver cities tracks than on our previous records. We were always really into that kinda stuff anyway, but Luke is also really into it and helped bring a lot of electronic/dance production ideas that I would not have been able to pull off by myself. I think we also have a synth solo for the first time on this record! There is also a spaghetti western-disco song on there. I don't know if that counts as a new genre, but in my mind it does.
Who did you record it with?
It's already done and recorded and mixed. Now it just needs to get pressed up, which is unfortunately even more expensive than ever. I think that vinyl pressing/plating prices have risen since the last time we put out a record.
How far along are you with your goal so far?
According to Kickstarter, as of Friday morning we are 92% there towards our goal of $1600, so we are really really close. We have to drum up the extra $130 by 3AM next Wednesday. I feel like we can do it. It would be really amazing if we can get even more people to pre-order the record and go past the $1600 mark, which would maybe even help us raise some money for promoting it. We didn't even try to figure that into our budget originally.
I should point out that there are some interesting premiums for those who might be willing to pledge a bit more. We are making custom t-shirts for the Kickstarter campaign, and our drummer is going to make her coveted homemade pretzels for those who choose the pretzel option. One premium that nobody has gone for (surprise surprise) is the dog hair pillow pledge. You gotta watch the video there for an explanation.
What's next for you guys besides the record?
We have actually been on hiatus for a few months, partially because Ray, our guitar player, broke his wrist and collarbone in a bicycle accident! So the next thing for us is getting back in shape to play shows again. We have a show scheduled at the end of October as a comeback--I don't think it's been announced yet, so I will probably have to wait until it is before I drop names, but yeah. I'm looking forward to that.
Also, we haven't made a full-length LP in 2 years, so I want to make another one.
Photo by David Studarus.
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