Red Monkey was borne from the ashes of the legendary Slampt empire, almost five years ago. Pete and Rachel (the Slampt founders) had previously played together in a number of bands including Pussycat Trash and Avocado Baby while Marc had spent time drumming with Newcastle post-hardcore heroes Kodiak.

Three albums and countless live shows later I’m still no closer to accurately describing this band. ‘Politico post-punk’ seems like a tidy enough summary, but I’ve never really felt it does the band nearly enough justice. Sure, their music is largely inspired by anti-corporate, feminist, and anarchist political issues, and yeah, they play edgy material in a Gang of Four-esque vein. But for me, Red Monkey is far more important than being just another earnest punk rock outfit. They play incredibly structured, urgent songs that defy pigeonholing. And lyrically, they don’t so much illustrate a grave socio-political climate, as they do invite the listener to think positive, to get involved, to get out there and do something. And they do this while neatly sidestepping the patronising tone that’s often considered synonymous with overtly political music.

Perhaps more importantly, certainly for me as the interviewer, Red Monkey are really nice, friendly, funny people. They’ll talk at length about pretty much anything you care to throw at them, whether that be the relative ethics
of lifestyle veganism or the pros and cons of prog rock.

I’m invited to join the band in Rachel and Marc’s downstairs Newcastle flat (Pete lives in the upstairs flat with his partner and daughter). The newest member of the band, Joe, lives in Leeds and so can’t be there. Marc is stood cradling his 5-week old child Faye, while Pete and Rachel are sat cross-legged on the floor. Two mutual friends, Adam and Barry sit in on the interview.

J- Can you think of any reasons for why you’re fairly well known in US underground, but relatively obscure in the UK?
R- Cos people don’t like us! Well, back in the day we used to tour lots and nobody used to come and see us. So we got bored of waiting around for people to watch us.
M- As soon as we went to the States people were more excited.
R- Of course, in American we have ‘quaint English’ appeal.
M- Yeah, the novelty.

J- Are they more receptive to the music?
M- If it’s unusual to them, then yeah, they’re definitely more receptive to the content and the form of the music.
P- I think that some people do like us a lot in the UK, so it’s not true to say we’re completely unliked over here. But there’s a certain scene who just don’t accept us. For example we were voted the most irritating interview of the year in Fracture which indicates that there must be some people out there who dislike us. Or it might just be a dislike of what we said. But I kind of get the feeling that certain groups ignore us. I mean, at hardcore all-dayers, there’s quite a lot British bands that sound very closely aligned with American bands. Bands of a more American style do seem do go down really well. And we tend to clear the room. We really do. I mean, we played in Joseph’s Well in Leeds and we arrived to see a band with a drummer getting his bollocks out while they were playing. And the crowd was really applauding this. A couple of hundred, punks or whatever they call themselves, saw this as some kind of exciting statement, y’know? The music to my mind was quite turgid but the room was packed. And when we started playing, I guess only about 50 people were watching, all of whom I think were really into it. And I do think we played quite well even if I do say so myself! So I think there is a genuine amount of people who do like us, even
if they are a small in number.
M- The interesting thing about that gig was we were in Reason to Believe or maybe Fracture and a week before they’d given us a genuinely positive review of the album (2001’s ‘Gunpowder, Treason and Plot’). But this live review was a crazy, personal rant about how she couldn’t bear to be in the same room as us because it was too intense. Basically, she though it was…
P- Too confrontational.
M- Yeah, too in your face. And the other thing was that stylistically it wasn’t something she wanted to hear.
P- Too weird musically. People don’t like to hear awkwar dness. And in America groups like the Dog Faced Hermans and The Ex are regarded as very important bands. The Hermans are a band we got compared to quite a lot early
on. All three of us are really into those bands and others like that who we could mention. But in Britain, people either haven’t heard about them or don’t seem to be interested in them. Even though the Dog Faced Hermans were
a British band they eventually moved to the Netherlands. A band doesn’t seem to get the respect in Britain as easily as they do in America. They’re regarded as an important band. And in a certain circuit we’re also regarded as quite an important and interesting band.
R- I think the other thing is that when we started out, we were very outspoken about political things and British people really don’t like that. Americans seem to have an overwhelming sincerity where British people seem to have this irony thing where ‘I’m too cool to express anything’.
M- If we go back to what Pete said about the Fracture article, my own feeling is that the people who voted for us weren’t so much speaking out against the music, but against the tendency we had to go into high profile punk zines, probably be in a position that a lot of bands would envy, and then do nothing but criticise the scene. For them this is just unforgiveable.
P- I think that’s a fair criticism. But possibly we’re being too critical of the British scene. I always try and say in interviews that actually, things like the 1 in 12, Fracture, Reason To Believe, and certain bands are really exciting.

A- So would you say you’re a firm believer of ‘talking over people’? Of just ignoring the unfavourable reactions you sometimes get?
M- Yeah, but you’ll find in that situation…
R- …you’ll not make friends!
M- We have a hardcore of loyal supporters if you like, the rest are just indifferent.
P- But also you know, we play and use Eastern-European rhythms such as 7/8, 9/8 and you can’t tap your head to it. You really have to concentrate. And a lot of people don’t want to make that effort in listening to it. And I don’t
blame them really, because a lot of music I listen to is very easy to consume while a lot of music I listen to is quite difficult to consume. It depends what you’re in to. With a band like us, we’ll never have mainstream appeal.
R- Even in the underground.

J- So would you say the fanbase you’ve amassed now...would you say a large part of it is to do with the fact you’re so outspoken and overtly political? Is this something that they’ve embraced?
M- Partly. There are a lot of people who like Red Monkey who actually don’t engage explicitly with the politics. There are people who just get off on the way in which we play.
R- A lot of women like us. Because they’re aren’t actually many women in bands.
J- Going back to the album that was released just last year (‘Gunpowder, Treason and Plot’) there seems to be some kind of progression from the previous two. What with all the different instruments that you used and all the different styles. Would you say there were any real motivations for this change?
R- Well, I suppose we just started to listen to different music.
M- It wasn’t a conscious thing, was it?
P- I think it’s just the way we play together has evolved. The album just sounds the way we were playing at that time of writing.
R- And I’d personally say Led Zeppelin were important!
(much laughter)
P- Yeah, these two got really, really into Led Zeppelin between the second and third album!
(even more laughter)
M- Come on, Led Zeppelin are just so intense! But, I think partly the album shows more confidence in the songwriting. Being together long enough now, we’ve tried to calm some of our earlier styles down.
R- And a sometimes sad fact, a sometimes good fact, is that the more you play your instrument, the better you get. The more you play with the same people, the better the musical relationship is and the easier it is to
communicate.
P- And more and more we seem to lay down the groove in practice.
A- (to me) You were scared to use that word today!
J- That’s cos it’s a scary word.
R- Grooove!
M- Yeah, but drummers can use that word though.
(big laughs)
P- Whereas in the past we’d have been writing songs very quickly, particularly on ‘Make The Moment’ (the first album), we’d be getting six different riffs that might all be quite different and we’d just quickly be shoving them together.
M- The weird thing about that way of working is that, looking back, it sometimes seems to have a patchworky, collage feel. And now with confidence in songwriting, it does kind of flow.
P- I mean, the first track (‘Jazz Step Forwards’) stays in 5/4 time for the whole of the first half, and then stays in 6/8 time for entirety of the second half. Which doesn’t mean anything to most people, but the point is, it stays in this fixed rhythm and always stays around an E tonally. But when we first started writing we’d always be looking to build on the structure of a song. I’m really happy with the record. It’s the most coherent album we’ve done.

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