Interview: Monument Valley
Monument Valley (Ned Younger) is inspired by classic 1950s rock and roll, postcard-era indie-pop and the modern poets of hip hop, he weaves all his musical touchstones into a passion for timeless story-telling and song-writing.
The upcoming debut EP ‘Tongues’ is inspired by old and lost photographs Younger had over time amassed from markets and car boot sales, which makes it a whole lot interesting.
It’ll be released on November 28, followed by the EP launch on November 22 (The Social, London).
Tell us about yourself and your music; how did you first got involved with writing and performing?
My name’s Ned, I’ve been recording and performing as Monument Valley for about a year and a half now. Tongues, which is our first proper release, is coming out at the end of this month. I started writing songs years ago, partly because my best friend at school was doing it, and partly because I’d just heard If Your Feeling Sinister and thought it was the coolest thing in the world.
You take your inspiration from old and lost photographs. What do you find so fascinating about them? And do you take any photographs yourself?
They’re jumping off points. My background is probably more in art than music really, so I’ve always thought of songs visually. A lot of the music I like the most is cinematic and full of images, I suppose this is a way of emulating that. I would like to take good photos – almost all my favourite blogs are photo blogs – but I don’t have a camera so don’t take any regularly. I’m just about to go to Holland and Belgium to play a couple of shows and I think I’m going to take a couple of disposable cameras – maybe I’ll send you the results!
Tell us about the track ‘Round and Round’ and the video.
The song’s been kicking around for a little while. Once we’d recorded it and I was starting to think about what the video might be my girlfriend started telling me about Pan’s People, who used to dance on top of the pops in the days before music videos, and showed me a couple of clips on youtube. i thought they were incredible/hilarious (and surprisingly bad at dancing actually), and while we were messing around it turned out that one of their clips fit perfectly with Round & Round, so my friend Amy and I made it into the video.
What are you favorite discoveries and albums in 2011?
It’s a difficult question to answer really because I’ve been re-listening to a lot of stuff I know quite well recently. I like the new Serengeti record Family & Friends a lot, which was co-produced by Owen Ashworth and Yoni Wolf (two of my idols), and I’m a big fan of Peter & Kerry, who we played with in the summer and who are our guests at our EP launch next week.
What’s the best and worst thing about London as a music city?
Best: Everyone passes through London, you’ll never miss anyone you’re desperate to see, and the general standard of shows put on by good promoters (like Rockfeedback, Upset the Rhythm, EYOE) is ridiculously high at all levels of the bill. I’ve never had the energy, but if you were dedicated enough I’m pretty sure you could find something brilliant to see almost every night.
Worst: People have a short attention span here and because there’s always good stuff going on crowds are generally more jaded and shifty. Plus a lot of the music industry’s here, so when you’re watching new bands shows sometimes feel more like auditions than performances.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given and who was it from?
Probably a piece of advice I’ve heard from a few different places over the years, though most recently from my agent Liam, who told me to know what success in music looks like for me.
Besides your new EP, what are your next plans?
More of everything. I’m looking forward to going back out on tour again in the new year, and we’re just about to go back into the studio to make the next record, so that’ll be good.
Upcoming dates :
November 18th – Crossing Borders Festival, the Hague, Holland w/ Josh T Pearson
November 19th – crossing borders festival, antwerp, belgium
November 22nd – The Social, 5 Little Portland St, london, W1W 7JD (EP / book launch)
Facebook | monumentvalley.co.uk
