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What is Big Mono?


During study week at Sae, 3 fellow students including myself formed a group with the intention to record 2-4 songs utilising everything we had learnt this tri in our lessons about synthesisers, sequencing and from our various case studies. We named the band Big Mono, which had become a personal joke over the first 2 tri's when we were learning audio theory. We had originally decided to record a 4 song E.P. titled my wife on drugs, which was basically a slip of the tongue.

We had discussed the type of direction we wanted the group to go in originally all agreeing on Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy meets the Prodigy but with no songs written or even any jamming between the group, I feel this was premature and open to change. Sometimes music can be magic and you just have to let it happen.

Based on our initial meeting we had approached a friend of ours Erin Harris, who is studying design to do the artwork for our EP. We started a Pinterest mood board

and communicated with her via Facebook messenger. Through those discussions, Erin had suggested using a vintage housewife vibe with a modern twist and we all loved this idea, Adam had stated he didn't want to lock in an art style before we even know what we sound like which in retrospect was actually quite wise.

We booked studio time 8 hours a day, for all 5 days of study week, we did end up cancelling our Friday session to do the ProTools 101 course. This was an awesome opportunity for us to all take advantage of.

Knowing we had sessions booked and would need something to record I set about writing a song. I started with lyrics and a vocal melody I had a melody and structure in my head and based the lyrics about that. I wrote the lyrics from a 1st person perspective, but through the eyes of the character of a middle-class housewife, whos life is in decline. Due to this approach, the lyrics are quite nihilistic. I recorded myself singing this on my phone and sent it to the other boys, I then sat down with a bass guitar and played along to the recording of my voice till I could figure out the basic progression I was singing in. I find bass the best instrument to do this on because you can just look for the root notes without worrying about what the chords are.

We didn't have a set plan for the week and just figured that 3 audio engineers who are also musicians should he capable of producing something in that time and that all time spent in the studio is a good learning experience.


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