The Eighth Note is 8 quick Questions with Wellington Musicians. A chance for us to catch up with people & see what they’re up to, or introduce you to a new musician/band and their music. Up next is Sam Monty, who has just released his debut album ‘Montage’, featuring a collection of original compositions, with improvisations from some of the NZSM’s most talented Jazz musicians.
Who are you? Tell us a bit about your music:
Hey, I’m Sam Monty and I’m a music lover. Music’s a good outlet for me. I like listening to the lyrics, sound and depth in Hip Hop. The interplay, space, vibe, energy, note and rhythmic choices in jazz. The energy, attitude, riffs, heart and excitement in Rock. The groove, pocket and rhythm in funk. The hardship and triumph in soul. The orchestration and development in classical. I love melodic music and I like how easy it is to make something that rocks with the aid of a computer these days.
What have you been working on lately? Any new tracks or albums on the way?
I’ve recently produced and released an album called Montage consisting of jazz tunes I wrote during my time studying at Auckland and Wellington universities. It features live improvisations from great Wellington jazz musicians Akash Dutta, Jeremy Richardson, Harrison Scholes, Nicholas Baucke-Maunsell. I like to produce music videos from home so I recently released a tune and video called Windy Step. Got a few more that I’m working on to release soon too.
Where is the best place people can follow you & find your music?
Facebook is probably the best one because any events I host will be shared there. Youtube is a good place to see the kinds of things I do because I’ve got a fair amount up on there. I’m also on, Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and streaming platforms. They’re all good platforms for different things but at the moment I’ll pretty much be posting the same content on all of them so following any one of them will do.
What were the 3 most influential albums to you growing up?
Stadium Arcadium, Ride The Lightning and Appetite for Destruction.
Which other Wellington musician(s) would you most like to work with?
Drax Project, Flight of the Conchords and HUMMUCIDE.
What’s your favourite Wellington venue to play in?
Moon‘s pretty sick!
In your songwriting or composing (or the band’s songwriting) how do the compositions and songs take shape?
Well in the case of ‘Montage’, I wrote out charts for the band, and then we all just improvised over them in a similar format to what you would for a standard. I’m into long structures with twists and turns so sometimes we’d solo over a different section each, like on “She Sells Seashells On the Seashore”. I’m taking a bit more of a laid back approach at the moment just taking a simple idea on the guitar and then adding the other instruments virtually. I’ll then write out charts if I haven’t already for a band to play with me live.
Where/when is your next gig?
Well I recently played at Moon which was good to get in before I got COVID but now that that’s over, who knows, I’ll probably hit up a bunch of venues soon in the hopes of getting something so keep an eye out on my page. I’m also scheduled to get surgery pretty soon for a shoulder that sometimes dislocates so that could throw a bit of a spanner in the works too. Thanks, for your time reading this and hope you get a chance to give my music a listen.