Much More to Come: almost monday at Gov Ball 2022
Photo by Natalie Bakwin
Surf Rock Sunshine is the energy that San Diego band, almost monday emulates anywhere and everywhere, from Argentina to New York. At Governors Ball, the band introduced festival-goers to new songs including rockier “cough drops” as well as their more pop-inspired and summery-sounding tunes. Dawson Daugherty, Cole Clisby, and Luke Fabry dive deep into both their musical backgrounds and futures.
[UNPUBLISHED:] This is your first show in New York, so how are you liking New York so far? What have you done?
[ALMOST MONDAY:] Yeah, first show in New York. It was pretty surreal just being out there. We played on the main stage at one, and it was super surreal being in a city that’s this iconic and has so much amazing music history. Just being here is super rad, we are stoked! And the show was fun. It seemed like people had a good time and, hopefully, at the end of the day that’s just the goal––that everybody has a good time.
[UNPUBLISHED:] We were able to catch your set. You guys killed it. It was so good, especially the way you ended it. It was crazy. I could hear everyone say, “That was the best.”
[ALMOST MONDAY:] Oh my gosh, you’re so sweet. Thank you so much for saying that.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Of course. So now that your show is over, we know you’re preparing for another show on Monday, do you have any post-show rituals? What’s your plan for the rest of the day?
[ALMOST MONDAY:] We’re just doing a few interviews then hopefully catch a little bit of music.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Who do you wanna see?
[ALMOST MONDAY:] We’re stoked to see Roddy Ricch. We’re kinda hype for “The Box.” We’ll be done around six, so go to Roddy Ricch, go to Flume. It’s always fun to just run around festivals. It’s the best part. Like you’ll play, and still have time to run around.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Exactly. We know you all love performing, so is there a favorite performance that comes to mind or a favorite moment onstage?
[ALMOST MONDAY:] We were just in South America, which was pretty mental. In Argentina and other places, the crowd was so loud. Another fond memory is when we were just starting, playing with everybody at surf shops. It was just a cool feeling that people were there to see us.
[UNPUBLISHED:] That’s amazing. Do you have a favorite song to perform?
[ALMOST MONDAY:] We have an unreleased song called “cough drops.” That one’s super fun. “sunburn” too. It’s a new song we just released. It was really sweet seeing the crowd’s reaction to just announcing it, like “oh wow you guys have heard this song.”
[UNPUBLISHED:] Can you guys tell us a little about how each of you got into making music and how you came together/knew you wanted to pursue it in this way.
[ALMOST MONDAY:] I grew up learning music just by playing in church, so I was eight. I always joke: it’s kind of the only place that will let a kid who’s not good at music just get up there and try. So I grew up doing that really young and from there, learned guitar. I always loved performing on stage and writing music. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid. Similarly, we grew up playing in church together. My dad played music and my sister played some music just around the house, so I think just being around it helped. Then going to shows––there’s no energy like going to a show. It’s not matched anywhere, so I just wanted to be around it more and more. My parents were taking me to concerts since I was a baby, so I’ve been going to shows for a long time. I started playing guitar hero when I was eight. I always thought, “this is sick!” I asked my parents for guitar lessons and then started playing when I was nine. Eventually, I started playing in just random bands from then on until now.
[UNPUBLISHED:] That’s incredible. Has your creative process changed a lot throughout your career together?
[ALMOST MONDAY:] I mean we’ve kept the same kind of room where we write music. It’s usually just us three and our producer, Simon. We’ll collaborate with some people here and there, but for the most part, we just keep it kind of our group. It’s always changing. It’s hard to explain but from song to song, there are always such different processes through which you get there. For the most part, it’s always the same team, and we’re just trying to make something we’re all stoked on.
[UNPUBLISHED:] So out of anybody who would you most want to collaborate with in the future?
[ALMOST MONDAY:] I like this band called Babe Rainbow. They’re an Australian band. There’s another Australian band that somebody recently had said our music kinda sounds similar to––Parcels. That would be cool.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I could see that.
[ALMOST MONDAY:] I don’t know if they do collaborations, I mean we’ve never done one before. I would be stoked for this singer from Alvvays, Molly Rankin. I’m obsessed with her voice, so it’d be cool to have a female on an almost monday song. I doubt she would be down.
[UNPUBLISHED:] That would be a really good collaboration! In the meantime, we know you’re working on some new music. What can fans expect in terms of the future sound and vibes that you guys are putting out?
[ALMOST MONDAY:] We have some more singles this year. Being out of the pandemic and playing live again is influencing us. Like that song “cough drops” is a more live song. It makes us want to write more of it since it’s so fun to play, and people interact with it. I think it’ll always change, but playing more like “cough drops.”
[UNPUBLISHED:] This is kind of a sillier question, but if you had to marry one of your songs, which do you think is the most marry-able?
[ALMOST MONDAY:] We like the following: “don’t say you’re ordinary,” “cough drops,” “this is growing up,” and “don’t say you’re ordinary.”
[UNPUBLISHED:] Looking ahead at the rest of this year, what are you guys most excited about?
[ALMOST MONDAY:] We have some really exciting shows later this year that aren’t 100% confirmed so we can’t say yet, but it feels like they’re going to happen. They’re places we’ve always wanted to go. We just love being on the road. Just playing shows for people is what we love most.