rockyourlyricsToday’s interview is with Ashten Banks of the Arizona’s band Remember The Monsters.
They have recently announced the plan to release on march 16th their debut full-length album “The Pieces Remain”
We discussed with him about the album , their lyrics and the love for music…..
Your new album “The Pieces Remain” will be released soon, can you share with us some insight about what your fans should expect?
A train wreck in the form of sweet beautiful music ranging from hard hitting debauched “party” songs to soaring heart felt power ballads.
How do you usually write the lyrics of your songs?
Most of the time they flow through me organically, I write the whole song instrumentally, based on how I feel, and from there I sit and listen to what I just created.
Then the lyrics kinda just overflow naturally. Everything written being in someway true and brutally honest to myself as a human being the bad and good.
Music has always been one true outlet for me, this whole band and everything around it is my heart and soul that you’re listening to.
What is the best verse you ever wrote?
Til this day one of my favorite verses that I’ve written was for a song on our album that is not out yet, that also features a guest vocal spot from an amazing human being, fellow artist and good pal of mine William Jarratt.
The verse goes:“You’re all beautiful to me, I fall in love with everyone of you I meet, so don’t doubt yourself, cause you’re all I need. Baby you’re the one, and so are you.”
What was the soundtrack to your childhood?
Actually that’s a great question, at around like 4 years old I became obsessed, and am still and always will be obsessed with the soundtrack Hans Zimmer did for the movie “The Rock” first off you get a bad fu##ing ass Sean Connery, and Nicholas Cage in the same movie, along with an entire superstar supporting cast of amazing actors accompanied by a gorgeous melodic masterpiece created by Hans Zimmer.
What more could you ask for?! Not only is it still one of my all time favorite movies, the specific track called “Hummel Gets The Rockets” is one of the many things that inspired me to pursue creating music in the first place, I’ve never been more spellbound by anything as much as the art and creation of music.
Is music something that runs in your family, or were you the first to venture into the industry?
My Mother is an extremely talented singer, and artist.
She’s the true light of my life because she had me by accident, and instead of venturing out into the industry when she absolutely should’ve and could’ve (I wish she did, this would all be so much easier for me haha).
Instead of pawning me off on anyone else while she pursued what she loved, she built me into an artist of my own throwing guitars, pianos, and every other musical instrument she could get her hands on at me. Literally throwing them at me. Pianos are heavy, it hurt.
What has the journey been like up to now?
It has been a long life in general to say the least.
Where I stand now though I couldn’t be happier, I’ve made some of the best friends I could ever possibly ask for, life has been absolutely beautiful as of late.
What inspired “Romeo & Juliet”?
Well actually I don’t share this often at all, but Romeo & Juliet was originally called “Terror Twins” about my friendship with my best friend/band mate basically my twin brother from another beautiful mother Sean Mott (literally my Mother and him chat on the phone sometimes and joke about how she popped him out too, it’s disgusting but I’m strangely okay with it) I then turned it into a modern twist on the story of Romeo & Juliet because the jokes had gone far enough.
Which I realize now, this isn’t going to help. So for all future reference, yes Sean is indeed the girl in the story.
Are you ever scared of revealing, aspects of your personal experience, to strangers through your music?
I feel the music itself thoroughly answers that question for me, with the answer being absolutely not.
Do you remember the day you wrote “The Pieces Remain”?
I remember that day all too well, I was up to a handle of whiskey a Day habit, still recovering from a relationship that a good bit of this album is about, as all other great albums in the past, it’s about a girl … I disappeared into my room for a few days, drinking away crafting the demo of the song, which I also feel it necessary to say the current song that is out is not a representation of the original, which will be fixed when our album is released as it’s completely redone towards more of the direction I went into with the demo version which is pain stakingly depressing .
But ultimately in writing that song it felt like I got a piece of my soul back, during that time leading up to the writing of that, I’d never felt more truly broken and dead inside which it definitely shows in the original song.
It was a therapeutic experience to say the least finishing that song locked in my bedroom.
What is the best show you ever played?
We played a Radio hosted show awhile back, still probably one of my favorites mainly because Ian our singer fell off stage like a 6 foot drop, was then caught by the crowd and didn’t skip a beat on his vocals. It was so good it almost looked choreographed.
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