“I’m jealous of him,” says Monks, when speaking of his alter-ego, Wailin’ H. “I think that if he had to do all the boring shit that I have to do, he wouldn’t be nearly as cool or energetic. He gets to have all the fun – he’s up there, prancing around, and here I am planning my next night of playing Dungeons & Dragons. I just ran into Drew [Gardner] from Totally Unicorn before, and it really hit me how boring I am. I’m not a skydiving adventure hero like he is. I think not playing shows for a while has kind of driven that home – I need to get that spirit back.”
It may have been a while since Gay Paris’ last on the road outing, but the break was well deserved. On the back of their third album, Ladies and Gentlemen, May We Present to You The Dark Arts, Gay Paris toured non-stop for four months, taking their big riffs and hip-swinging stage presence everywhere from Ballarat to Brisbane. By the time the tour ended in Launceston last December, Monks was in a very conflicted place – he simultaneously wanted to start making more music and to never make music again.
“I remember we were on the way there in the van,” Monks says. “I had a snap – a breakdown of sorts – while we were driving along. I was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ I was having a crisis. We had a meeting a couple of months after the tour ended, and I told them that I could still continue on, but I just needed there to be less touring. Then, as soon as that meeting ended, I went home and I started writing songs on my keyboard. It’s unbelievable – I was the one insisting that we spend less time together, and now I’m the one harassing the others to free up their schedule so we can head over to Troy Horse and rehearse. You just never know what you want when it comes to being in a band.”
Monks’ keyboard sketches signal the inception of the fourth Gay Paris album. Monks has been sending the music written on his own to Marks, Podmore and Simpson for them to do with as they please.
“Because I’m writing music on keyboards,” says Monks, “a lot of the songs originally sound like these cold, dark new-wave songs. Then I’ll play them to the guys and we just become a rock’n’roll band again. It’s a very interesting transition.”
In the past, a lot of Monks’ lyrics have revolved around a series of fantastical characters and beasts – particularly on their 2011 debut, The Skeleton’s Problematic Granddaughter. However, he doesn’t think there will be a well wrought conclusion to this narrative anytime soon.
“I’m just at the stage of scrap lyrics at this point,” he says. “It all seems to be about something new. I’ve dealt with art ironically on the first record, salvation on the second, social justice on the third. I don’t know what this could be. It might end up being more about social justice.
“I’m less writing a cohesive story and more writing about what happens to someone through a non-linear storyline. I have this character, Alexandra, and I have no idea what fate holds for them yet. Of course, by the time we finish this album, it could have wound up being something else entirely. I’m just interested in writing songs right now, and seeing where we can take them.”
Having played just one show so far this year, the Rock N Load festival at the Corner Hotel in January, Gay Paris are set to return to Melbourne to perform at CherryRock016 – an event they’ve taken part in many times before. “It looks like we only care about Melbourne at the moment,” says Monks. “We can’t help it, though. It’s just so nice down there. They always take care of us, and they always bring the party.”
That leads to the inevitable line of questioning: who brings the party the most in Gay Paris? “It’d have to be Dean, surely. He’s such a happy boy. He does pretty much all the partying in the band – he’s the one carrying the most weight as far as that’s concerned. Lachlan purely parties when he is contractually obliged. He’s probably having a beer right now and passing it off as work. Simmo has a kid to take care of, but who knows? Maybe that kid will grow up to have an interest in faux-Satanic metal and we can guide it.”
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
