Spring Break
Monty Are I throws horns with new EP
Brandon Weiss
Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Before Monty Are I landed their deal with Stolen Transmission records, the band was one of the industry's most prolific, self-managed bands.
"About a year or two ago, we were a touring, show machine," says singer Steve Aiello. "We got signed in March of last year, and before that we had been touring for a couple of years. We built a bit of a fan base on our own."
And even though the band landed a deal with Stolen Transmission, they still take care of many promotional affairs on their own.
"We still are like a machine on our own," Aiello said. "Of course, now, with the help of our label and other people, it's a little different. About a year or two ago, we were a touring, show machine. We still do all our shirt designs, write all our music, run our own website and Myspace, and most of the Internet promotion as far as that goes."
Aiello admits that label backing has been beneficial to the status of the band.
"No one was giving us attention initially and we kind of wanted it," he said. "It was at the time when we were just focusing on touring and not our songwriting. We were like, you know what, let's do what we want to do. Someone will take notice for sure, if we take matters into our own hands."
The band then continued to produce their EP on their own without the help of any label backing. Finally, after selling near 5,000 copies of their EP while on Warped Tour, the band decided to take a deal offered by Stolen Transmission.
However, prior to Before Monty Are I ever thinking about striking a deal with a label, they were almost an entirely different band. They began as a ska band in high school.
"It was kind of just for fun, messing around. We just kind of did it as a joke at first, kind of friends getting together and playing."
The only connection between the band back then and now is the horns.
"We were all in high school band," says Aiello. "I used to play trumpet in band, and me and Ryan [Muir] (vocals/guitars/trumpets), we were band presidents. One of the other guys, Andrew [Borstein] (synth keys/trombone/vocals), was all-state. We were all nerds. It was awesome."
"About a year or two ago, we were a touring, show machine," says singer Steve Aiello. "We got signed in March of last year, and before that we had been touring for a couple of years. We built a bit of a fan base on our own."
And even though the band landed a deal with Stolen Transmission, they still take care of many promotional affairs on their own.
"We still are like a machine on our own," Aiello said. "Of course, now, with the help of our label and other people, it's a little different. About a year or two ago, we were a touring, show machine. We still do all our shirt designs, write all our music, run our own website and Myspace, and most of the Internet promotion as far as that goes."
Aiello admits that label backing has been beneficial to the status of the band.
"No one was giving us attention initially and we kind of wanted it," he said. "It was at the time when we were just focusing on touring and not our songwriting. We were like, you know what, let's do what we want to do. Someone will take notice for sure, if we take matters into our own hands."
The band then continued to produce their EP on their own without the help of any label backing. Finally, after selling near 5,000 copies of their EP while on Warped Tour, the band decided to take a deal offered by Stolen Transmission.
However, prior to Before Monty Are I ever thinking about striking a deal with a label, they were almost an entirely different band. They began as a ska band in high school.
"It was kind of just for fun, messing around. We just kind of did it as a joke at first, kind of friends getting together and playing."
The only connection between the band back then and now is the horns.
"We were all in high school band," says Aiello. "I used to play trumpet in band, and me and Ryan [Muir] (vocals/guitars/trumpets), we were band presidents. One of the other guys, Andrew [Borstein] (synth keys/trombone/vocals), was all-state. We were all nerds. It was awesome."
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