With an all-star production, video, and contributing roster to boot, Canadian art-rock country collective Hot Mondy seize an all-new and outside-the-box creative license to write their breakthrough debut self-titled EP. Helping to hone Hot Mondy’s exploration of sound for the release was multi-JUNO winning producer Michael Philip Wojewoda (Barenaked Ladies, Rheostatics, Great Big Sea, The Jerry Cans); the band and Wojewoda came together at Toronto’s Revolution Recording in early 2020 to track songs, but that was all they could get done for a while…
The band had just returned to Halifax after initial tracking when the COVID-19 pandemic shut the whole country down for well over a year. “It was both fun and challenging figuring out how to finish the EP during Covid,” the band recalls, “but it informed many of our choices in a really interesting way.” The band also called on a variety of top talent to complete the album; in addition to friend and collaborator Loel Campbell of Wintersleep on drums, lap steel player Christine Bougie (Bahamas), singer/songwriter Claire Coupland (vocals), fiddler Kendal Carson (Matt Mays, Alan Doyle), pianist Rob Preuss (Spoons, Honeymoon Suite), and GRAMMY/JUNO Award-nodded violinist/arranger Drew Jurecka (Jeff Healey, Dua Lipa) all added their talents as well.
In the interview below, Hot Mondy tell us about their influences and approach to songwriting — but you don’t want to miss the video for “Desert Moonlight,” a rip-roaring pulpy adventure with just the right kind of oomph in the vocals.
Do you have any songwriting tips you can share?
Decide what your “great” is and don’t settle for any less than that. Writers today are bombarded with content on writing, what’s “right and wrong”, what “sells” etc. When you understand what “great” means to you, you can keep the noise at arms length and develop artistically in ways that support your “great”.
Name a perfect song and tell us why you feel that way.
“Elephant” by Jason Isbell is an extraordinary song. The music and production is moody and draws the listener right in. Lyrically it uses phrasing, and vignettes in a way that is both revealing but also thought provoking. The listener is thrown into the deep end right away in this song. It’s a song I go back to regularly as a reminder of what truly great song writing is.
Do you start off with the music or lyrics first? Why?
As a band it’s a mixed bag, we usually latch onto a great idea or spark that inspires us and that has happened regularly from both perspectives. I think our flexibility in this way has led to some really interesting melodic and phrasing results.
Who are some of your musical influences?
Dire Straits, Tom Petty, Elton John, Jason Isbell, Carole King, Stevie Wonder, Waylon Jennings, Steely Dan
How are you using your platform to support marginalized people?
As a brand new band this is top of mind and an ongoing discussion as we grow, develop and create new content. We’ve had representation from the LGBTQ community on our first recordings, and are looking for ways to champion marginalized people going forward; potentially through co-performances, recording projects and artist development. We’re also participating in many of the panel discussions being held in Canada by various musical bodies that address this very important issue.
Hot Mondy’s self-titled EP is available now.