Interview with Mondo Trasho: ‘It grabs you with its growling guitar intro, with the rest of the band coming in as if they caught up in a speeding car’

Liverpudlian garage surf rock band, Mondo Trasho, is getting us in the mood for summer with the release today (4 June) of their third EP, Pure Trash, giving us three new fuzzed up, riffed up tracks that deserve to played at full volume in the sunshine.

The band comprises Jay Muat (vocals and guitar), Chris Demozzer (organ), Luke Hamilton (bass) and Kingy (drums). Chris and Jay met at work and ended up living together for a while and Luke joined the band in February. Their name was taken from the 1969 John Waters film of the same name as well as the Army of Lovers song of the same name from 1990. ‘We’ve all been fans of John Waters, it was his first film,’ Jay said. ‘We all like this song, it’s a funny one.’

Pure Trash marks their third EP this year and, like the others, features three tracks; ‘Gotta Hold On Me’, ‘Wolves at the Door’ and ‘Tear it Up’. The EP opens with ‘Gotta Hold On Me’, a massive 60’s infused song that launches right in with Chris not holding back on the organ and custom made tambourine attached to the floor tom, which was inspired by watching The Gories: ‘It’s the most garage rock-centred of the three tracks, it’s got a great summer feel, the start just screams at you, doesn’t it?,’ Chris said. (It does.)

Surprisingly, Chris had had the melody to ‘Gotta Hold On Me’ for a long time before they started working on it as a band and it morphed into something very different when Jay wrote the accompanying lyrics: ‘For me, it’s about love or lust, when someone is bad for you but you can’t help yourself,’ Jay said. ‘It’s about that obsession and that moment in time when you’re at the realisation that it’s not good for you.’ Chris interjects: ‘It’s a clip of the film, the part about the obsession, that’s what we do. We show you bits of a story in 2-3 minutes.’ 

As the song kicks off: ‘Oh, I can’t break this hold that you’ve got on me, when I sleep at night it’s your face I see
an it’s got me so uptight, I just can’t unwind, oh, girl you got me.’

Chris describes ‘Gotta Hold On Me’ thus: ‘It grabs you with its growling guitar intro, with the rest of the band coming in as if they caught up in a speeding car’. It’s a garage rock toe tapper with a thudding bass line, the spine of the track follows the coarse, overdriven guitar with a hammond organ layered on top. ‘The song moves you so fast with its relentless charging drums – making good use of the tambourine floor tom hybrid the band created – which provide a danceable, finger clicking beat,’ he said.

‘It’s about the end, when you’re at the end of your rope’

The second track on the EP, ‘Wolves At The Door’, is altogether darker, with Jay’s vocals sounding more anguished. Nonetheless, it is a natural follow-on to ‘Gotta Hold On Me’ because it’s also about having had enough: ‘It’s about the end, when you’re at the end of your rope,’ Jay said. ‘It’s sort of similar to the first track but it’s about a place rather than a person.’

That sense of despair comes across strongly: ‘The wolves are at the door an I can’t hold’ em back anymore. Oh, it’s the end of the line an I’ve run out of time, try to draw my last breath but there’s nothing left.’

The organ underpins this track, too, with the rest of the band nestled up like a tightly swinging pendulum behind it: ‘It’s guitars crunching away throughout, mixed with the almost Roy Orbison style lyrics on this track,’ Chris said. ‘It’s the track with surf where the band wear their influences on their sleeve and are not afraid to pull out some surf standards but it’s not Dick Dale it’s Mondo Trasho!’

They’ve made a conscious decision to release three songs at a time as opposed to an album: ‘I champion that sort of thing,’ said Chris. ‘I think that 9 tracks can be a lot for people to listen to, 3 tracks together is more manageable.’ Each of the three tracks has a different feel, which gives you the impression that you’re actually listening to more songs than you are. ’Yeah, there are a few different sounds,’ Jay said. ‘There’s the garage surf sound we’ve been working on but we’re experimenting with new sounds as well.’ Chris nods: ‘I’m glad you said our name sounds like we could play everything other than folk rock because there’s gypsy jazz on one of the next songs, ‘Strangers’ – it sounds like the music on Randall and Hopkirk!’ (A British detective series from 1969 that was remade by comedians Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer in 2000-2001.)

Initially, they had wanted to call their EPs That’s What I Call Trash 1, 2 and 3, in a nod to the music compilation albums Now That’s What I Call Music, but the publishing website they use didn’t enable them to incorporate numbers. Typically, Jay writes the lyrics but the other band member contribute to the melodies, pitching in with riffs or organ parts. ‘It could take me a year to finish a verse or it comes to you straight away,’ Jay laughed. ‘It’s about the pattern of things, the rhythm with the melody on top. I knock about with the lyrics for a while. I was making at home demos over lockdown, adding in a drum part to sing along to.’

‘I like capturing different stories, I’ll change it up from time to time’

The final track, ‘Tear It Up’ could so easily be about coming out of lockdown and trying to enjoy the newfound sense of freedom, or relative freedom, that many people now have. They agree, although it wasn’t actually inspired by lockdown at all: ‘It’s just about doing what you want, don’t be embarrassed, everyone else is doing what they want, so why shouldn’t you?,’ Jay said. ‘I like capturing different stories, I’ll change it up from time to time.’

Or, as Chris puts it: ‘The whole band seem to creep in for the intro as if they were creeping onto a dark stage to take their positions until the snare roll and organ blasts the lights on. The guitars, bass, organ and drums take you on a whirlwind and although tightly together, it seems to always be on the edge of falling apart but it never does. Each line delivered in the verse is answered by the main riff. The instruments take you on the swerves as if you were swing dancing.’

As the song winds down: ‘Tell your friends but they can’t comprehend, told the doctor but he don’t understand. You got a fever an its burning inside, come out the darkness an into the light.’

That’s Trash, their first EP, shows how broad their musical influences are, from the Echo and the Bunnymen inspired Running Scared to the garage rock of 86’d, a song they wrote about hating their jobs when they were working in kitchens around Liverpool. More Trash, the follow-on EP, took them in a new direction altogether, with songs like Bad Seed which are reminiscent of the B52’s, with its salsa-like beat and spaghetti western just walked into a saloon feel. I tell them that one of my favourite songs of theirs is ‘Twelve Thirty Six’, the opening track on their second EP, More Trash, which is about missing someone in the middle of the night. It’s such a raucous track with a seriously hooky bass line and I tell them it must sound amazing live. ‘It’s one of my favourites, it’s proper surfy,’ Jay said. ‘I love playing it live.’

A follow-on EP is already in the works, which will likely include a track with the working title, ‘The Cowboy’. ‘We’re not going to put a bull whip in there but we really could!,’ Chris laughed. Luke is keen for them not to be defined too strongly by one sound: ‘People shouldn’t say we’re this sort or that sort of band,’ he said. ‘I think bands should write whatever songs they want to write.’ Jay and Chris agree. ‘You know what you’re capable of but it’s also about having fun with it. If you want to write reggae tune or a progressive rock song, you can. Maybe the vocals will unite them or the organ could.’

If he could go to any gig tonight, Chris picks local gypsy rock band, The Shipbuilders: ‘I’d have them and Space with The Ramones headlining,’ he said. Luke is trying to decide: ‘I’ve missed seeing local band Eyesore & The Jinx and Bill Nickson, who does low fi indie,’ he said. Jay has decided: ‘I’d like to see The Coral and The Stairs supporting The Pale Fountains (a local band from the 80’s).’

‘Bands like The Cramps are like another planet, even though it’s primitive’

Growing up, Luke was a fan of bands such as Queens of The Stone Age: ‘I listened to them non-stop for a few years,’ he said. ‘And people like Mac DeMarco, I like that variety of listening to different things.’ Chris, for his part, listened to bands such as Californian garage punk band, The Mummies, and The Doors and is also a fan of New York’s psych garage rock band, The Fuzztones. Jay professed to be a fan of, in his words, ‘odder bands’: ‘Bands like The Cramps are like another planet, even though it’s primitive. I love Orcas, they’re Danish garage rock, they’re next level.’

Currently, Luke’s obsessed with the Wings song ‘Arrow Through Me’: ‘The bass line on it, I keep going back to it, at least once a day!’ Chris is laughing: ‘I keep playing that Mr. Elevator song, what was it? Oh, ‘Nico’. Jay is mulling the question: ‘I’ve been listening to a lot of Roy Orbison, song like ‘Blue Bayou’. He’s amazing, what a voice he had. You’ll see singers who are very expressive when they sing, you see their lips moving but with him, his lips don’t move, he was like a ventriloquist!’

(Photo from left to right: Chris, Luke and Jay.)