Hey New York, it’s almost monday!
shot by Sha Frasier.
On June 11th, 2022, American indie pop trio almost monday played their first ever show in New York – on the main stage at Governors Ball. It’s a far cry from their beginnings playing in the back of a surf shop, and an even further cry from the pandemic-induced remote recording sessions over the past couple years. After their set, we sat down with them for a few minutes to find out a bit more about the road they’ve taken to get here, and what’s in store for them going forward.
The band’s debut EP, don’t say you’re ordinary, was released in October 2020, and since then, they’ve released a steady stream of singles, with a second EP, til the end of time, being released in July 2021. When asked if an album is in the works, lead singer Dawson Daugherty replied, “There’s for sure an album out there somewhere waiting for us to just do it, but I think singles right now feel like the route, at least for this year. But putting out our debut album is a dream, so we'll get there.”
This run of singles has led almost monday to steadily gain traction over the past couple of years, but the pandemic was not without its challenges. The separation between the band and their fans led them to feel a sense of inconsistency between their streaming numbers and their physical fanbase, with the band’s bassist, Luke Fabry, mentioning the strange experience of “releasing music and seeing numbers go up, but never seeing the people that are behind them.” In addition to being unable to play face to face with their most loyal fans, almost monday found themselves being unable to play in the same room together for parts of the pandemic. Fabry mentioned that the band was separated from their producer, Mark Needham, who was stuck in New Zealand for months. Technological barriers don’t exactly do any favors to a writing process as collaborative as almost monday’s – as Fabry said, “songwriting is such a personal and human experience. And so when you're separated, by miles and by cameras and technology, it's really hard. So we wrote and made it work, but I'm just so happy to be back in person.”
Getting back together in the same room helped the band’s collaborative writing process – which includes hashing out disagreements about certain parts of a track to arrive at the best version possible. Members of the band may sometimes have clashing tastes, and any song can have multiple versions. As of this writing, the only alternative version that almost monday have released is “this is growing up - stripped”, the final song on their EP til the end of time. The original version, a sunny pop rock track featuring anthemic guitar and drums and a singalong chorus, caught the attention of the producers of a Netflix film. The producers reached out to request a softer version of the song, and even though it didn’t make it into the film, almost monday decided to release it anyway. The stripped version of the song hews closer to bedroom pop, featuring trap-influenced electronic production and a more lowkey vocal take paired with a vocoder. The contrast between these two versions exemplifies almost monday’s versatility and makes one wonder what other versions of songs they may have laying around.
It was evident from the interview that almost monday is a tight-knit group with a great deal of collaborative intimacy, and this made it a real joy to see them perform. Fun, energetic live performances are central to the bands’ roots – years ago, almost monday got their start playing in the back of a surf shop in California that a friend of theirs owned. As Daugherty stated, “All we wanted to do was play live – those are some of our favorite, most valuable memories. Just playing the songs, nothing on a record or anything for people to listen to, but showing up and just jamming.” Fast forward to the other side of the pandemic, and the surf shop has since closed, but the band has made it to the main stage at Governors Ball. They’ve come a long way, and their future seems as sunny as their signature sound is. For now, almost monday plans to finish out the year with a string of tour dates and a few more singles. Their latest is “sun keeps on shining” – it features Daugherty adopting a faster, rap-influenced flow during the verses that he mentioned arose from the spontaneity of the band’s writing process. They’ve recently embarked on a tour opening up for The Driver Era across the United States – be sure to check out the dates, along with almost monday’s most streamed songs, at the links below.
edited by David Feigelson, Copy Editor and Treasurer.
