After spending the last few years building up their reputation for fresh and enticing indie-rock offerings, Dublin-based outfit Wild Tibetan Monks have now returned with their latest release ‘Lying Next To You’.
With its broad and textured direction throughout, ‘Lying Next To You’ makes for a wonderfully smooth listen. Slowly building itself up with a fresh and dynamic sound, the single sees the group deliver a truly memorable cut that cements them as one of the more exciting names to emerge at the moment.
So with their new single available now, we sat down with them to find out more about their latest release and what they have planned for the future.
Words by Chris Bound
Discovered via http://musosoup.com
Chris) Hi guys, how are you today?
WTM) We’re good, thanks for asking. Getting through the lockdown life. We’re really looking forward to doing live gigs again and recording again.
For those that haven’t heard of you yet, how would you best describe your sound and who have been your biggest influences so far?
We would be alternative indie rock. Our sound has been shaped by bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hoodie Allen and Kings of Leon. John Frusciante once described how it is not just the lyrics that are important, but how they feel. Anyone should be able to listen to our music anywhere in the world, regardless of what language they speak, and still be able to feel the music.
Do you remember what artist it was that made you want to start a career in music?
Red Hot Chili Peppers definitely inspired us to start our music careers. I remember listening to them as a teenager and really liked the way all of the instruments worked together, all providing their own little melody. They put a lot of emphasis on the Bass, and I felt that this gave another dimension to their music.
You are also from Dublin. Can you tell us how the music scene there has influenced your sound?
Yes, we have been playing gigs in Dublin on and off since 2011, before moving to Perth, Australia, for 2 years. It has been a great experience to perform in different countries and see new things. There have been highs and lows. One such occasion involved playing a set after the venue had closed! There was no crowd, just one guy cleaning up, and I’m pretty sure he was paid to do that. Ever since, we have always been incredibly grateful to the venues and the crowds. Without them, there would be no show.
We have been influenced by many different acts that we have played alongside. In particular, there have been a handful of bands that performed rap songs, which inspired us to then try our hand at rap. We do some Gorillaz and Biggie Smalls covers.
You have just released your new single ‘Lying Next To You’. Can you tell us how that track came about? Is there a story behind it?
Yes, Lying Next To You was probably originally written about 6 years ago, but we only recorded it last year. It describes the idea of both physically lying next to someone and also lying, as in not telling them the truth. It describes how close you can feel to someone, and yet, still not be able to be completely honest.
It also describes the feeling of parting ways, similar to Woodie and Andy in Toy Story. The lyric: “since you put me down” gives the image of putting your once favourite toy on the shelf, never to be used again.
And was there a particular style you were looking for when you wrote it?
Not particularly, it just sort of happened. We ended up creating what we like to call an “inverse chorus”. It is a lot more held back then the verse and this gives the song an unusual element.
This is different to our other songs ‘Cartoons’ and ‘Liam’, which are both more upbeat. We feel that this track is for a different mood than those.
Can we expect a new EP, or even an album from you in the near future?
Definitely. At present, it is difficult to record all of our songs, due to the lockdown, but we intend to record about 15 songs in total, so we might see an album coming out when all of this is over. This would be a lifelong dream that we really want to happen.
The coronavirus outbreak has obviously affected everyone’s plans, but what have you got in store for the rest of the year?
We have one other track recorded and mastered. It’s called “Navy”. We plan to release this track in the next 2-3 months, and then we need to start working on recording the rest of our songs. This track is more upbeat, and we hope our fans respond to it as well, as they have responded to our last 3 tracks.
We also really want to gig again. So, as soon as everything opens up again, we’ll try to organise something.
There is a band called Hardcore Priests of Yemen. We had heard of them coincidentally about 10 years ago, and thought they sort of copied our name, but it turns out they were a band before us! We think they are from Galway, but have not been able to contact them. We did an interview on DeMars Live, and we thought it would be really cool to have a joint gig with them when lockdown is over! If anyone reading this has any idea how to contact them, please let us know. We think it would be a really cool gig to market. “Wild Tibetan Monks and Hardcore Priests of Yemen back in action!” Watch this space.
And finally, what is the one song you wished you had written yourself?
I’m not sure, I tend to change my taste of music quite a bit, but one song that I think really sticks out to me, in terms of playing live would be “I believe in a thing called love” by The Darkness. It’s got the vocals, the melody and more than one class guitar solo. I think it would go down really well. This may be a track we look into covering when we finally get back to gigging.