Q&A with Monark

The past 19 months have been nothing short of a chaotic joyride the five guys from Potchefstroom who make up Monark.

From the release of their first sing Smiling which peaked at third on the 5fm top 40 chart, and got stuck in the heads of every person who heard it, to the release of their debut album Negatives the group quickly established themselves as one of the most entertaining live pop-rock acts in the country.

Their sound, which resembles the love child of Maroon 5, King of Leon and the slightest hint of Sinead O’Connor has proved to be an instant hit among pop-rock fans.

I caught up with the band’s lead singer Eugene Coetzer and bassist Deon De Klerk to chat about being unashamedly pop and surviving the temptations of stardom.

A lot of bands get antsy when they’re lumped into the pop category but you guys don’t seem to have a problem with that. Why?

Eugene: We are comfortable with being labelled a pop band because for us it doesn’t mean that we’re selling out, it means that we’re actually reaching people.

Deon: From the start we set out to make music that was accessible to a lot of people. We didn’t come together and say we want to be a pop band and we want to only make money. We just set out to make music that people can relate to.

I think part of the reason the pop scene gets so much flak is because people connect it to to a kind of fakeness but that’s not us. What makes it easy for people to relate to us is that the songs Eugene writes are from his own experiences.

The pop genre is pretty full at the moment, what makes you guys any different to the other groups out there?

Deon: We all know that the thing that makes Monark different and unique is the quality of Eugene’s voice and the fact that he can pull it off live as well.

So our aim as instrumentalists and Ewald’s [a fellow band member] aim as a producer is to create as much space in our music as possible for Eugene’s voice.

What has been the biggest criticism of your music?

Eugene: Sometimes people can get the perception that the lyrics are too positive but obviously on our side that’s highly debatable. We are positive guys, we are intense and go through hardships but we try to find a way to get people through that.

In no way are we concealing the realness of life. We speak about hardships in our lives and try to focus on how we got passed that.

Since the runaway success of “Smiling” how difficult has it become to juggle other aspects of your lives like your marriages?

Deon: We have been doing a lot of travelling and interviews and shows and stuff and that can be difficult to manage. We have a little boy who is almost a year old and I miss him like crazy, and my wife of course.

But the amazing part of this is that they [the wives] are also invested. They are the one’s selling some of the merchandise and helping out and stuff.

Eugene: Being as busy as we have been has been really difficult. We are all married except Graham but even he is in a long term relationship.

It’s hard to explain to our wives sometimes how intense this is and why we’re so tired all the time but they have been extremely supportive.

Your success has obviously meant an upswing the amount of romantic attention you get from fans. Being married how do you deal with that?

Eugene: It is tough because you have to connect with people but it’s hard to connect and not create a situation where someone thinks you’re into them. Also there are always these perceptions about the music industry and the lifestyles musicians live but we are not really interested in that at all

Deon: Luckily we have not had that kind of thing yet. Women are smart and can generally pick these things up from your attitude. They see the rings and see from your body language that that’s not what we’re about.

We’re definitely not going to lie and say that we’ve got this all figured out but we all kind of have the same ideals and try stay away from that.

• Monark will be performing at Joburg Day on the 16 of September. Their album Negatives is in stores now.

Watch: Smiling

The new single: Build it up