The Beautiful Monument has kept busy music-wise dropping three singles over the past three years. They’ve also toured with Evanescence and RedHook and they’re not slowing down any time soon. In honour of these huge experiences, and their latest single ‘Duerme’, we grabbed frontwitch Lizi McIntosh for a chat about it all and a glimpse into the future...
Emo bangers and sick tours go hand in hand. They've just finished up a run of shows with RedHook, and the Beautiful Monument are here to chat latest single ‘Duerme’, we’re joined by Lizi. Welcome!
Hello, thank you.
It's a pleasure to have you on. How was the RedHook tour? Was it fun?
It was so fun. Cursed, but fun.
Yeah, I did see the accident. Did you think twice about touring at all?
It makes me think twice about driving. Unfortunately, Jindabyne was not somewhere we could fly into, but hey, here we are. We're safe. We're all in high spirits.
That's the best thing that you guys are safe, that is what we want. The Roo didn't even leave their insurance details.
Absolutely not. He just jumped away. He didn't give a shit. He was like, “see ya!” He was unscathed and he shat on the car. No blood, no nothing. The tiniest bit of fur and then just shit. So we're like, thanks. Thanks so much.
Jumping back to last year, touring with Evanescence in these huge arenas. Were there any really cool moments or lessons that you took away from this, probably the biggest tour The Beautiful Monument has been on? And were you able to bring these lessons into this tour with RedHook perchance?
Absolutely. We got insanely good at being super-efficient with setup times. We were always relatively fast because our setup is just pretty much patch-and-go. But we absolutely nailed it. Every night we found ourselves with 10 minutes extra to spare and twiddling our thumbs on the side of stage and just panic of like, “Oh God, we're going to go on.” It's that extra stress for another 10 minutes. But yeah, definitely the efficiency was something we took from those big boy shows, which was good. It's nice. The sound engineer, the sound guy who we had, Brock, he was very grateful that we were very, very quick because he could chill out, take his time. If anything went wrong, he had time to fix it.
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Photo Gallery by Charlyn Cameron @chuck_stuff
I like that. You can just focus on you for a bit before coming up in front of thousands of people in those arenas. Did you get any cool bits from the legend Amy Lee herself?
She was just honestly so sweet. She came out of her way to introduce herself to us. I almost dropped dead when she said she handpicked us and that she loved my voice. I was like, “Get out of here. What the fuck? Do you know who you are? Like my voice doesn't even compare to you, girl.” Like, damn. Their whole crew and the whole band were so nice and every night their security guard would come in and say “Yo the band want to hang out” and we’re just in our green room chilling out or winding down after our show and they were like “What are you still doing in here? Come and hang out!” It was super humbling.
That sounds amazing. And while Evanescence are the legends they are, RedHook are still another legendary Australian band. Their energy is next level. What was some of the highlights of the crowd in the Redhook Tour? Like any memorable fan moments or crowd moments?
There was a couple of girls that had followed RedHook throughout the entire tour. So it was really nice getting their feedback every night and just having a chat to them and getting to meet them. RedHook fans are super, super lovely. I can see why they're obsessed with RedHook because they're just the nicest bunch of humans. I absolutely adore them all. Yeah, it was so much fun. We kind of went into it as we chat online and whatnot, but actually being able to hang out was nice. It was like, "Oh, instant best friends. I already know you." It was nice that everyone in the tour party was just friendly. It was so, so easy because everyone just got along and just wanted to have a good time and play shows and just hang out. It was nice.
Did you see an influx of maybe new fans after your shows with Evanescence? Do you think you maybe got an influx of new fans on this tour?
We did. Yes, we absolutely did. People would probably think it's weird, but we get so excited when people have never heard of us before. Because Australia is so small, we tend to share a lot of the same fan base as a lot of the bands that we tour with already. So when people don't know who we are, and they have just discovered us and the excitement and just - it's so nice. Because they just, they must really like our performance because they just come up to us and they're like, “I'm so sorry, I can't believe I've never heard of you before.” And it's totally fine, it's cool!
Yeah, well, every time I've seen you I’ve been pretty stoked. One thing that will be really exciting will be playing such a really cool new song like ‘Duerme’. It's got real vulnerable lyrics and real personal themes that are really integral to the songwriting that comes from The Beautiful Monument. And it really follows suite and does a deep dive into self-doubts within the music industry. When you write something so personal, what's it like? Do you ever find yourself challenged to strike a balance emotionally?
Absolutely. I think one of my biggest fears was potential backlash I would have gotten from certain people, which hasn't been the case. I'd have to be pretty specific of who it was about or what have you. But it's not even just specific people. Like it was just a whole era. So there was people coming in and out and it was just a lot. But it's definitely hard. I was a little bit worried about how people would take the Spanish to be honest with you. The bilingual sort of addition to the track just because I know some people would be like, “What the fuck is she saying?” And if you don't understand certain words, you might not take as much away from the song. So I definitely think I need to do some sort of translation thing, but it's literally just Spanglish.
Well, that'll be cool because I noticed that obviously when I listened to it and I really liked the inclusion because I get to do a bit more of a deep dive, sit with the song a bit more. And when I did discover what Google could tell me - which obviously is only so accurate - this strikes as much of a chord as it would without the Spanish inclusion. So that's really cool that you're able to include that, I love it.
Thank you. I mean, it's my heritage. So it's nice to have been able to include my Spanish side into our music and even the band (they can't pronounce 'Duerme’ to save their fucking lives), but they're like, “You need to add more Spanish in like our songs in the future.” So it's nice that I got the green light from the team.
On the topic of some of your heavier work. You and your lovely wife Amy are in Vilify, switching bass and vocal duties. How does managing two bands affect The Beautiful Monument? I'm curious, there was quite a delay between ‘Misery’ and 'Duerme’, I was wondering if this was maybe a factor to the time between singles?
A lot of that just came to do with just timing with releases because obviously TBM is with Greyscale (Records). So we need to make sure that there are no clashes and stuff. And obviously TBM is a logistical nightmare. Alex lives in Adelaide, Adam lives in Melbourne and then we're in Newcastle so just even with all of us having full time jobs or Adam does a lot of session work too. Trying to get together to film or do promos and shit can get a bit hard. But yeah, I think it was mostly just poor timing in terms of releases and shit.
Yeah, that's understandable. I think I've seen Adam in Better Half?
Yes, he plays in Better Half, and he's been doing some session work like for Belle Haven and touring around with those guys.
So yeah, it's a lot to manage. But it’s so cool that you do have your different outlets for creative expression. You’d have the real emotional lights and beautiful singing in TBM while bringing the heavy and more punch sounds with Vilify.
Yes, it is so much fun. It's definitely exhausting being in two bands. It's a lot of time because not only are we in two bands I also work full time and then I run a small business full time. So my time is very, very limited, which would probably also be like a factor in things taking a little bit longer. But TBM is currently in the process of writing some new stuff. So I'm very, very excited for it. We're actually going to the studio in like two weeks for round two. So it's sick.
So hopefully, after dropping singles like single by single - I think it was ‘Hellbound’, ‘Misery’ and this - I'm really excited to see maybe another record in the future?
That's what we're aiming for. We're aiming for another full-length next year. So hopefully by this time next year, it will already be out. But yeah, we are currently in the process of writing and recording it. So it's very, very exciting. Like two of the songs that we have, I'd say [are] probably 95% done, maybe just needs a little bit more fairy dust and fucking cherry on top shit kind of sprinkling on it. But they're so rad. I haven't been this excited in such a long time for new music because like I've said in interviews of what 'Duerme’ is about, the recording process is super daunting to me. And it gets very, very scary, very, very quickly having to write music. But this experience we've gone with Chris Lalic from Windwaker. And it has just been an absolute dream working with him. We bounce off of each other so well and I haven't had that in a long, long time. So yeah, I'm very, very keen for everyone to hear this new stuff.
In comparison to the stuff, we brought out like the last three singles, this shit's otherworldly to us. I think we're very, very excited because obviously there's been some changes and shit. So it's good. I'm very excited for the new direction.
I'm keen as hell. To wrap things up, I wanted to ask, can we expect anything over the next couple of months or so, like spooky season next month with Halloween on the end? Possibly with your store Shadow and Thorn, you know, like the witchy vibes. Any cool stuff planned perchance?
We're doing a freeze show, an all ages show because I know people have been bugging us to play all ages and we finally found a venue! So that's I think the 12th of October. But other than that, no, we're pretty quiet just because we're in full focus, We’re in “We’ve got to get this record done” mode.
Well, I think we're going to visit Monte Cristo myself because it's so close. I remember seeing your post when you were there with the Vilify crew and it looked so amazing.
Definitely go! That place was so rad. So beautiful. I just wanted to take all the furniture and shit home with me. And Amy's like, “You're so weird.” I'm like, “But it's cool and spooky.” She's very supportive. It doesn't stick. Just go and sage yourself after you go visit.
Oh, well, thank you so much for this chat Lizi, it’s been an absolute pleasure chatting with you.
Thank you for having me. [spots one of my kittens] Oh, kitten. There's a cat. There's a kitten. You caught the eyes of the crazy cat lady. I spotted cat.
We've got three! I was wondering if they’d make an appearance.
My turn to interview the cats now!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CyIgWq2SoqQ/?img_index=1
I'll bring them to the next one!
Yes, please. The day that I can put cats on my rider, I will be a very, very happy girl. Just bring me a whole bunch of rescue kittens so I can pat them and calm my nerves and cuddle them. But then you'd like never see me. I'd never be at merch. I would never leave the green room. They'd be like, "Where's Lizi? We're about to play." And I'll just be there with cats.
Hey, if you need to do what you need to do to vibe on tour and that’s cats, then go for your life.
Hell yeah. Get them little earmuffs. So cute. I love that.
Thank you so much for stopping by Wall of Sound again.
Thank you!
Interview by Tyler Lubke @huntsman421
The Beautiful Monument are cooking.
Listen to new single 'Duerme' and vibe.
