Monosphere have been a long-standing act in the German city Mainz with a history already spanning more than a decade and multiple releases. In 2021, the quintet released their debut album, The Puppeteer, to broad critical acclaim. With album number two already recorded, we caught up with drummer and main songwriter Rodney Fuchs to discuss the band's inner workings, the impact of cultural funding for music as well as supporting some of their biggest influences on tour.
The Draft Media: Walk us through the early days of your band and the core inspirations that started the project.
Rodney: Basically, when we started Monosphere, it came out of Lost Without Direction, which was our previous band. But the first time we thought about a new project was actually when we eventually called it quits after we had a sort of werewolf fight. And then we just saw that we needed to change something in our inner structure. And that was basically when I started writing for projects where I wasn't sure where it's going to lead to, because I wanted to write something just for myself. I was inspired by bands like Devil Sold His Soul, The Ocean, and also Cult of Luna. At this time, there was a big hype around melodic hardcore. And there are many bands doing melodic music, atmospheric music, and "posty" music, so to speak. Basically, I just wanted to do something easier than progressive music. Our palette has become more widely-spread over time. And I would say we're more open than 10 years ago.
The Draft Media: Why do you consider yourself more open as musicians?
Rodney: Basically, back in those days I would say I was a little narrow-minded when it comes to music, and I was not that open for music outside of my comfort zone. I'm not sure when it started but some day I just realised okay, there is pop music that is actually good. There's hip-hop music that I actually enjoy. Which wasn't a thing when I was 18, I actually hated everything about pop music and hip-hop and stuff like this because I wanted to be one of those cliché edgy metal heads, that isolates from his pop normie friends. For no reason, actually. But I would say I became more open to music in general. I listened to many things outside of my comfort zone and found many aspects that I really liked. And apart from this, there was so much new music coming out and so many trends that started that somehow have an impact on everything. It's always a little bit crazy to think about something that doesn't exist yet. Thinking about whether it is even possible to expand metal music. It's getting harder and harder, but there are still bands that sound different. And every band that sounds different is an influence, at least for myself, because they inspire me to think beyond what we're doing, and to maybe try and not take the easy way, but a complex way, even if it's weird, and even if people might not like it. But to be honest, when I started listening to death metal, I hated it. And I had to listen to it more and more often. And some day - I'm not sure, maybe the 20th time - I was watching a video of Behemoth, I started actually enjoying it. There was a change in my mind. I think sometimes it just takes time for people to realise and to see the worth of something, and especially when you're not used to it.
The Draft Media: I think another good example of a band that is quite outlandish in the way that they mix styles and is getting big nowadays is Sleep Token. Many people will say that it's not metal, or it's not really part of the community. But it's just breaking down these genre barriers that we have. At least from my point of view, that's a good thing, because it makes things more accessible to a broader audience, in my opinion.
Rodney: Absolutely. I just saw them hitting 2 million listeners on Spotify, which is insane, because I think they started maybe seven, maybe eight years ago, and they were a small band in a niche genre. They had a little hype because djent was a thing back then. But I think the tour with Architects and the singles they recently dropped just catapulted them to the next level. I also really like that they are getting more experimental, because when they started, it was a little bit different, definitely. But I have the feeling that they have a similar edge to their sound as probably Zeal and Ardor who are also trying to get something different into their metal thing. Sometimes it doesn't sound like metal, but it's still metal, because you can clearly see what they are doing. They have a strong musical narrative while drawing many influences from the metal scene.
The Draft Media: So if we compare this and your previous influences that you named, in analytical terms, how would you describe your band's music to new listeners that don't know you?
Rodney: Basically, I would describe our music as different and weird at some times, but actually enjoyable for each and every fan of heavy music. There are small bits of many different genres that all blend together in one. I would say there's something for anyone in there, even people that like piano music will find their part in our music. Apart from this more distinct description, I would say we are doing something in between post-metal, maybe like parts of deathcore combined with post-black metal aspects and a distinct core of math core. Our singer actually came up with the term sludgecore, which we found online somewhere. And still, even though I always wanted to push all the metalcore influences away from me, I can't deny that that's a large part of my identity musically in there. I've been listening to metalcore for 10 years, I'm still doing it, I'm enjoying it less because most metalcore bands are becoming a bit stale in the style. I have the feeling that there's no progression. And those bands that do progress are not metalcore bands anymore. But still, I would say every one that likes uncommon or weird metalcore will probably enjoy our music as well as long as they don't like it too melodic and too streamlined.
The Draft Media: Let's talk about The Puppeteer. This was your first full album release, and was delivered to the world late 2021. In my opinion, it's a tightly-knit concept album that draws the listener into the world of post-metalcore, prog and black metal infused tracks. What is the subject matter that you deal with on this record? Do you dive into worlds of fantasy? Or do you base things on your own experience? What inspires you?
Rodney: Basically, everything we have done with Monosphere is fantasy. I have the feeling that everything we do on the music side and also on the lyrics side has a strong narrative. This also reflects in the music and the lyrics and actually tries to combine both worlds. Of course there are influences from our personal lives. Everything that involves emotion, especially music, always draws influences from different periods of your life and your daily business. And I would say, there are parts definitely that do have it, and are inspired by things that happen to us. Like, especially with the shit going on in the world right now. I would say like, there's so many things that we've like, like, why is this part heavy, maybe because the situation is so bad, and Ukraine just got, like, attacked by Russia one year ago, and like, everyone is depressed, it's frightening to be on this world these days. But we're not the band that actually thinks about personal experience from an ego perspective. We like to make it a little more discreet, I would say. I have the feeling even though we are who we are and we've been doing this band for a long time now, it's not important who's singing the songs, it's not important who's writing the songs. Of course I do enjoy being the one that brings it all together and stuff. But it's probably easier for people to find out what everything that we do will do for them. And so if they find themselves represented in a passage of lyrics, in a melody or in the mood that we are creating on the album, then that's everything I can ask for.
The Draft Media: Now that more than a year has passed, what would you say the reception of the album was like, and how did you come to get a feature with Nils Wittrock from The Hirsch Effekt?
Rodney: I would say the reception was pretty good, especially from the press side. But that's probably also because I really worked a lot: It was so annoying to bother people with our music, just to pitch it out over and over again. I think the worst review we got was a seven out of ten or something like this, which is just surreal. Most people really, really enjoyed it. We weren't sure if people will actually get what we want from them with this album. But I have the feeling that we could have reached more people with our music. We got a lesson out of it, we have to do more on the digital level, we have to annoy people even more to get more fans because I have the feeling, as I said earlier, I think everyone can find something in our music. Even if it's just one song, or just one part they enjoy, as long as they enjoy it and as long as it does something with them, I'm totally happy with this. song. I would say the reception was great. But it could have been more. Regarding Nils Wittrock: I think I met Nils three or four times. I'm not sure about it, to be honest. But I met him a few times and I wasn't sure if he actually remembers me. He was writing for Fuze a while back just as me. He probably knew who I am. I saw that he was doing voiceovers for books and readings. That's when I thought, okay, if he's doing voice overs, and he does have a studio where to record it, let's just ask him if he'd be down to do feature. I wrote to him and I think three minutes later, he just called me and was like, "I'm just on the way to the rehearsal room. I could do it right now. Does this is work for you? Just decide, how do you like it?" I think the next day, he sent us four or five versions of what he did and that was basically it. So it was very spontaneous. It was a little bit weird because we didn't expect him to answer that fast. We didn't know if he would be in for it because I think he has never done a vocal feature before. I only found a guitar feature he had done. He was interested, he liked it and just did it. It was actually pretty easy to be honest.
The Draft Media: You have received the German Initiative Pop prize. What did this mean to you and how has this accelerated your songwriting and helped you grow as a project?
Rodney: Receiving support from programs like Iniative Musik, Intiative Pop, Pop RLP and BV Pop lately has been incredible! Don't get misled by most of the programs names as pop music is meant in the broad aspect of popular music in general. It's still super special to get fundings and support by those institutions as a metal band. To be honest, it gives me lots of energy and motivation to keep going. On the other side it triggers my inner imposter syndrome, as I'm sometimes not sure if we can stick up to the expected quality - but to be honest: it's positive pressure and only helps me in getting better at everything songwriting-related.
The Draft Media: It seems that you are relentlessly busy and dedicated to your project, with album number two already being finished now and writing for album three having already begun. What can we expect from these following releases?
Rodney: I think with the following releases, we will try to maintain our sound that is shaping more and more with every song we're writing. I still think there's so much room for experiments and I'd love to surprise ourselves with influences and parts that seem weird and odd at first, but only make sense for our musical development. I don't think we'll go for stadium rock at some point in our career, but what I could see coming is that we'll focus more on depth. I think the post-metal aspect will grow. There'll be more time to breathe, but on the contrary, there'll probably be even more chaotic parts and songs. Who knows.
The Draft Media: Over the course of the last year, you have played gigs supporting Rolo Tomassi and The Ocean Collective. What has this experience been like and what meaning does it carry for you to support these acts in your hometown?
Rodney: It was an honor being able to support bands like this. It also put us under pressure, as those people are incredible musicians. So we really had a benefit from this kind of pressure as we were forced to deliver, which we ultimately did. It's super cool to see our homebase growing due to shows like this. In both cases those bands have been very influential to our music and you can see that it's way easier to connect with new people at shows when your music is in the vein of the headliner.
The Draft Media: What are your plans and goals for the upcoming year?
Rodney: Our main goal will remain to expand our musical identity into something unique. We really want to push ourselves and make it clear that we're serious with this band. We won't stop and want to get the maximum out of our next record. We're paving the path, so hopefully many people will join us and follow it!
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