The San Diego trio almost monday joins Megan Holiday to talk about their hit, "can't slow down," and more.
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00:00What is going on? It's the world-famous K-Rock. I'm Megan Holliday, and I am here with Almost Monday.
00:06It's so great to see you guys, and welcome to K-Rock for the first time.
00:10Do you want to each introduce yourselves and tell everybody what you do in the band?
00:15Yes, of course. I am Dawson, and I sing and play guitar.
00:20I'm Cole, and I play guitar.
00:22And I am Luke, and I play bass.
00:24Nice.
00:24Nice. Nailed it.
00:26What's up, pal?
00:27Right, right.
00:27We've been working on that for a while.
00:28You want to know what, though? It's like, with the newer bands, I don't know, because I haven't seen you guys play yet.
00:34I can look it up on the World Wide Web, but it's hard to...
00:38ChatGPT it real quick?
00:39Dude.
00:40Are you on that?
00:41I love ChatGPT so much.
00:43I do. I kind of use it a lot.
00:44I use it a ton.
00:45Yeah, I use it instead of Google now.
00:47And you know what I did earlier? I said, ChatGPT, tell me about the band Almost Monday.
00:51Yo!
00:52And it told me some things.
00:54Yeah.
00:55And it was fantastic.
00:56Now you're informed now.
00:57I use it for radio segments that I do. I'll take an article, and I'll be like, give me a breakdown of this article for a radio segment.
01:05Yeah.
01:06And it makes it all fun, and then I just tweak it.
01:09Right.
01:10It's so weird, you guys.
01:11It is weird. It's scary, but it's good.
01:13It kind of is. I think what the important thing is, is if we're critical thinkers, and we're not relying on it to think for us, then it's a great tool.
01:23Yes.
01:24You know, it's like you have to use your phone with a sense of respect, in a way.
01:29You know what I mean?
01:29Yes. Amen.
01:30Okay, let's talk about real band stuff, though.
01:32Yeah.
01:32You can keep going.
01:33I can get off on a tangent sometimes.
01:35So, you guys, I was talking to you earlier about how you're from San Diego.
01:40San Diego, you guys have been friends since high school, and at what point did you say, hey, let's start playing some music together?
01:49I think it was when we were like 15, maybe a little earlier.
01:53Me and Dawson have been friends for a long time, and Dawson, coincidentally, at the same time, met Cole Out Surfing.
02:01Cliche San Diego story, but it's a good one.
02:03It's a real one.
02:04And we just started playing songs in the back of a garage.
02:07I mean, we never really recorded music until kind of a couple years later.
02:11We just threw songs together so we could play live and invite all our friends, texting all our high school buddies, and trying to get our friends to emcee the night.
02:18It was a good time, very DIY.
02:20And you guys said that you would do a lot of covers.
02:24What were some of the, name a few of these covers that you guys would do, that you love doing.
02:30Man, we did Message in a Bottle.
02:32Yes.
02:32That was classic.
02:34In Excess, U2.
02:36Like, kind of anything you can think of was done.
02:39Oh, wow.
02:40Smash Mouth into The Office theme song.
02:43Oh, my God.
02:44We made it into Star Wars.
02:46Coming out into then John Mayer, Waiting on the World to Change.
02:50Wow.
02:51Coming back into Don't Change in Excess.
02:53Like, it was like if an AI was like, give me the weirdest thing you could ever think of, AI.
03:02And we were like, we'll play those songs for these kids at UNIV.
03:06Oh, my God.
03:07On top of that, we'd get asked to, you know, play a wedding or a bar mitzvah, and the set's
03:12two hours.
03:13Mm-hmm.
03:13You know, and we barely wrote four songs.
03:15So, you know, what do you do?
03:16You play covers.
03:17Oh, remember that bar mitzvah?
03:18I remember the mom or whatever.
03:20I remember she was like, yeah, we just have our song.
03:22Right.
03:24Journey.
03:24Don't Stop Believing.
03:25Don't Stop Believing.
03:26Oh, wow.
03:26She's like, that's our song.
03:27So, if there's one you guys can do.
03:29And we had to learn so many covers that me and Luke just fully forgot the song.
03:34And Cole was just playing the guitar.
03:36Just nothing else going on besides just, like, drums.
03:39And, like, it was so bad.
03:41And I'm, like, looking out to this family, and they're just so bummed.
03:43Well, and the vocal range on that song.
03:46I mean, that's very ambitious.
03:49Yeah, I know.
03:50But you know what this says?
03:51You just say yes.
03:52You say yes.
03:53You just do it.
03:53And it shows that you have range.
03:55You have diversity.
03:56You have a lot of different musical influences to draw upon.
04:00And that is why you have a number one song on alternative airplane charts called Can't
04:07Slow Down that is so catchy and gets stuck in my head, but in a good way.
04:11Oh, you like it?
04:12Are you kidding me?
04:13Thanks.
04:14It's so, how can people not like it?
04:16Cool.
04:16It's fun.
04:16It's dancey.
04:17It's a good vibe.
04:19That means a lot.
04:20Yeah.
04:20So, tell me a little bit about that song.
04:24Yeah.
04:25It's one of those songs that wasn't like, you know, how some artists will be like, oh,
04:31we wrote this song and it was like, we know this is something special.
04:35We wrote that song like at the end of a day and like wrote just like the chorus and then
04:40it was just like sitting for a few weeks and then Luke kind of brought it like, oh, we
04:45should finish this song.
04:46So, it's funny.
04:47It's like one of those songs that like totally could have not gotten finished, you know?
04:50And for whatever reason, Luke kind of brought it up and we're like, okay, like, let's
04:54just write a verse and like try to like flesh it out.
04:57And it's, yeah, it's just funny.
04:59I guess it's like a testament to just like try to finish your songs because you don't
05:02really know what it could be, I guess.
05:06So, yeah, it's a funny one for sure because of just the lack of, I guess, excitement on
05:13it and then it ends up being a song that did well for us, you know?
05:16Yeah.
05:16You had zero expectation from it, you know, let's just throw it out there and see what
05:21happens.
05:22Truly.
05:23But that's the world we live in now, you know?
05:25It's like you're just kind of throwing darts at the wall.
05:28Yeah.
05:28And did your song blow up on TikTok and stuff?
05:31I'm not on there, so I don't know.
05:32You know what?
05:33We started posting it and it like had like some traction on TikTok and we had another song
05:39before too called Sunburn and it kind of had a similar thing.
05:42It's so funny how like that is so connected with like it having a moment on TikTok.
05:47I know.
05:48It connects so much to like it doing well.
05:50It's crazy.
05:51Which I know every artist is talking about.
05:52Every marketing person in music is like, how do we get it on TikTok?
05:56I know.
05:56It's so weird and I refuse to get on it, you guys.
05:59I just don't want to.
06:02I don't know what it is.
06:04Good for you.
06:04But I do.
06:06I love it when, you know, a song will just randomly go viral for people.
06:10I mean, it's a huge moment, you know?
06:11So it's like, I guess it's however you get there nowadays, you know?
06:15Yeah.
06:15So you have only one album.
06:17It's your debut.
06:19It's called Dive.
06:20What do you want people to know about this album?
06:23Cole?
06:24Cole takes the hard one.
06:25How about this?
06:26Why is it called Dive?
06:29Dive?
06:30We call it Dive.
06:31It was just like a title I had sitting in a notes app for a long time.
06:33And then I was like, oh, that's a cool one for a song maybe.
06:36And then we were, I remember last summer or longer than that, we were like, oh, we should
06:42make an album, like make a debut album.
06:45And we kind of, you know, put together some of the older songs that we had really loved
06:49that we wanted to be on it.
06:50And then we also like wrote a lot of songs for it.
06:52And then just kind of felt like a fitting title.
06:55Like dive into our first, you know, discography of the band.
06:59And, um, yeah.
07:01Well, it's kind of like for people just jump in, just, you know, just like go for it.
07:06You know, I, I love the title.
07:08It's great.
07:09And, and I know this is kind of a dumb question, but your band name, Almost Monday.
07:14Yeah.
07:15Yeah.
07:15Why?
07:16It's a good question.
07:18Okay.
07:18It's a fair question.
07:20Well, we initially wanted to be called the Mondays.
07:24Oh, I like that.
07:25Yeah.
07:25Right.
07:25It's probably a better name.
07:26It sounds like from the sixties.
07:27I know.
07:27I love that.
07:28Oh, it's cool.
07:29It's a cooler name.
07:30Rebrand.
07:30I'm just kidding.
07:31But we were doing this very odd show thing in Syracuse.
07:37And there was a cover band there that was called the Mondays.
07:39Oh man.
07:40They stole it.
07:41They had it.
07:42And so we decided on Almost Monday because we couldn't be the Mondays.
07:48Oh my God.
07:49It's not that deep, everybody, but that's it.
07:51I love, I love that so much.
07:54I love that so much.
07:56Nothing, nothing crazy, nothing profound.
07:59It is always funny when you meet people and they're like, oh, I like assumed it, like
08:02man, like, you know, cause it's like almost Monday, it's like the weekend, like we're
08:06going to like live our lives.
08:07We're like, yeah, you're right.
08:10That's totally what we met.
08:10But that's the thing with music and band names and all that.
08:14It's like, whatever you want it to be, let it, let it be that, you know, and tell
08:18me a little bit about, uh, the song Jupiter.
08:22Jupiter.
08:23Yes.
08:23That is a song of ours.
08:25Another fantastic song.
08:28It's another song of ours.
08:29Yes.
08:30And it's kind of oddly enough, we were just kind of joking about it, but it has a similar,
08:38um, arc, I guess, of Can't Slow Down.
08:42We like wrote it at the end of a day and then didn't finish it.
08:46And that one sat for even longer than Can't Slow Down.
08:49It was like probably a year.
08:50It just sat around without any verses or anything.
08:52And then, yeah, it was just a song where like, oh, like, is this cool?
08:57Like, should we finish this?
08:58And then we like did a bunch of iterations of it.
09:01So we were just like laughing cause Can't Slow Down and Jupiter, the two are like the
09:05ones that like, we're like least sure of.
09:07And it's just so funny.
09:08I guess it's just a thing.
09:09And being a creative is probably, it's usually like the one you don't expect.
09:13Yeah.
09:13Like don't really think about totally and then like come back on it.
09:17And anyway, so I always read about bands like from the nineties, especially where they
09:21were like, oh, we weren't even going to put that song on the album or it was, we wrote
09:26it when the album was already getting mixed or whatever.
09:28And then we showed it to our A&R guy and they were like, we have to put that on, you
09:32know?
09:32So it's so weird.
09:34Like I always loved hearing like, uh, foster the people guys, like they'd talk about pumped
09:39up kicks and that was such a huge song and they're like, oh, we didn't really like, we
09:43thought it was like an album, like a deep cut.
09:45Totally.
09:46Yeah.
09:46Yep.
09:46It's just so funny.
09:47Like you really just, I, you said it kind of perfectly.
09:50It's just like, you just throw the darts and like make stuff you think is cool.
09:55Yeah.
09:55Stay true to yourself, you know, just be the artist and be like, this is what we're about.
10:00Hopefully you're going to like it.
10:02You know?
10:02It's all you can do.
10:03Yeah.
10:04Even now that it's just, that's it.
10:05And it's really working out for you guys.
10:07You know, I'm, I'm so happy for you.
10:10You're playing tons of festivals this year.
10:12Like I said earlier, I'm going to see you guys at Outside Lands, which I'm super, yeah,
10:15I'm super excited.
10:16Oh, heck yeah.
10:17That's cool.
10:17You'll be all there for that.
10:17So yeah, we'll meet up.
10:19And yeah, it's just, it's just amazing to see, you know, up and coming bands and getting
10:25to watch you guys blow up right now.
10:27So.
10:27Thanks for the support.
10:28Oh my God.
10:29Of course.
10:29Seriously, it feels surreal to be like sitting here with you on K-Rock.
10:32It's weird.
10:32Oh my God.
10:33Like in a good way.
10:34It's like, just like, wow, I started a band and keep going.
10:37I know.
10:38Oh, for sure.
10:39Oh, this is only the beginning, you guys.
10:40I love it.
10:41Yeah.
10:41Thank you, Megan.
10:41So thank you.
10:42Almost Monday for coming, hanging out at K-Rock.
10:45Yeah.
10:46See you later.
10:46Later.
10:47Bye.