I Monster In Conversation

I Monster, the Sheffield-based duo of Jarrod Gosling and Dean Honer, have shared a brand-new track, The Weather on Dharma Records. The first new material from them in almost 15 years, it follows their recent, rather unexpected, brush with worldwide online fame courtesy of Who Is She? a track from their 2003 album Neveroddoreven, which became a TikTok sensation and subsequently racked up close to 110 million streams. I Monster will be bringing their new and old tracks to Sheffield City Hall on April 24, 2024. We caught up with them to see what they had planned for their return.

 

Hi, how are you both?

Hello there!

It's a big year. Are you excited to mark 20 years since Neveroddoreven: Remodelled?

Dean: I am excited about the promotion of the reissue, which means going on tour for the first time in 20 years.

Jarrod: It certainly feels a bit weird—this activity with a twenty-year-old album! But I am excited to be doing it.

The album found a key place in the hearts of many. What are your fondest memories of the creation process?

Dean: Because Daydream was a hit record, we were making lots of new tracks to try and find a follow-up. So, although creatively, it was great making the music. There was always a bit of pressure to follow up on the Daydream track.

Jarrod: It was nice to be able to be creative full-time towards making an album for proper release. Some tracks were nicer to work on than others.

When you were recording the album, did you forecast the success it garnered?

Dean: TBH, we thought it was a good album, but the delay between releasing Daydream and releasing the album was far too long, and it wasn't as successful as we thought it should have been.

Jarrod: Daydream in Blue taking off beforehand was the biggest surprise.

Daydream in Blue, in particular, found its way into the long-term mainstream consciousness. What do you think made that song the album's key release?

Dean: It originated from our studio experiments of combining old samples with futuristic sounds, vocoder, synths, etc. We wanted to make music that sounded different from anything else. Plus, the sample is a catchy piece of easy-listening pop.

Jarrod: It’s also a case of being in the right place at the right time, but on the right track!

Was there a song on the record that you would have liked to see take a similar trajectory?

Dean: Who is she?

Jarrod: Heaven—we wanted that to be the second single. It could have been a smash, or it could have bombed.

You have an anniversary show coming up; what do you have planned?

Dean: Video visuals. I work with two great musicians, Jenny Green and Hannah Hu. Playing a lot of Neveroddoreven plus some surprise tracks

Jarrod: Fun, hopefully.

What song are you most excited to play live?

Jarrod: It’s been a while since we played any live I Monster. There’s a couple of uptempo tracks that I’m looking forward to playing.

Over the years, your ambitions must have altered. What do you have left to achieve?

Dean: We would like to do some film composition.

Jarrod: Actually, this renaissance (if that’s not too poncey a word) of I Monster feels a bit like it did twenty years ago, but with greyer hair. There’s always new stuff to achieve, but making music is always a fresh achievement in itself.

It has been 7 years since your last record; have you got plans for future releases?

Dean: Yes, we are working on a brand new album, which will hopefully be released next year.

Jarrod: A new album, and we can then wait twenty years to do the anniversary of it.