Some Recent Press…

When singer-songwriter Matthew Davies heard actor Samuel L. Jackson shout “I’ve had it with these Monkey Fightin’ Snakes on this Monday to Friday plane,” in the edited-for-television version of the cult classic film, “Snakes on a Plane” he knew he had found the perfect name for his band… Monkey Fightin’ Snakes. Composing the band with Davies are: Dave Stoyles on bass guitar, button box, souzaphone, trombone and backing vocals; and Darren Atkinson on drums, percussion, backing vocals and mayhem.

Before the band hit the stage at The Arlington on Saturday, July 18 Davies sat down with Bancroft This Week to discuss his passion for sound and most importantly the music of Monkey Fightin’ Snakes.
“We got the name from the movie, but after sitting with it for a while we started to appreciate it for other reasons,” said Davies.
“It’s a pie in the face to the establishment, but it also makes you question if you are a monkey or a snake. In reality we are all both at one time or another.”
Growing up as part of a musically-gifted family Davies was destined early on for the stage. Having famed Canadian songsmith Neil Young as a cousin and legendary Canadian author Robertson Davies as a great Uncle, his creative roots run deep. As a young child he remembers the first time he was moved by a piece of music after enjoying a family dinner.
“We had finished eating and my Grandfather sat at the piano and my Mom and my two Aunts and he just started singing this beautiful three-part harmony,” Davies said.
“I remember thinking it was as if they were all in a secret club, and they knew the code. I wanted to know the code too! I do remember specifically my Grampa sitting me on his knee with a ukelele wrapped around me and showing me Aint She Sweet. I was probably still in diapers.”
Davies’s jam-filled guitar spoons out the flavor on each and every song when performing live, and on the band’s recently released debut album, Finish What You Star. Produced by multi Juno Award winning producer Michael Philip Wojewoda and mastered by Grammy Award winning engineer Joåo Carvalho, the album was recorded live off the floor, through an old Neve console on two inch tape to achieve the band’s heavy yet smooth and pure sound.
“We were making the record exactly the way Sabbath, Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith made a record,” explained Davies.
“We were literally using gear from the 1970s, mics from the 50s and 40s even. It has that real sound.”
Sound quality is of the utmost importance to the members of Monkey Fightin’ Snakes, as is the sequence of the songs that appear on their album. Such careful concern for quality in music seems to be going the way of the Great Auk as more and more people listen to music exclusively through digital devices.
“One of the weird things is that when music is digital and it is just being played in iTunes you don’t really think so much about how songs flow together because sometimes it is on shuffle and it can be non-linear,” he said.
“Whereas a record is a set, fixed thing when you put on a side of an LP, so now all of a sudden the spaces between the songs, how much of a gap there is and which song is flowing into the next one became more important.”
Citing a diverse list of musical influences that includes everyone from Crowded House to The Grateful Dead, Davies said there is one musician who stands out above the rest…Jimi Hendrix.
“I really love Jimi’s tone, also the way he played blues was just so fluid,” said Davies.
“I was so influenced by him that I spent many years trying really hard not to sound like him. He is just so musical, and although he was the ultimate rock star, he was never about the flash or technique, just about conveying emotion. There are many reasons why people are still talking about him, a guy with a three year career in the spotlight, 45 years after his death.”
When writing a song Davies strives to honestly convey his own thoughts and emotions with creative enthusiasm. He sees music as its own language that speaks to its audience in three different but interconnected ways: rhythm, melody and lyrics.
“Rhythm speaks to the body and makes us move in sympathy, if we are listening,” Davies said.
“Melody speaks to our feelings and makes us feel in sympathy, if we are listening. Lyrics speak to the mind and make us think or wonder if we are listening. When those three sides of a song really work and hit us together, that is LISTENING and really hearing a song in its totality. I believe the difference between a good song and a great song is how well those elements work together.”
According to Davies, for a song to truly be great it must touch its audience on all three of these levels. However, to reach people in this way a piece of music is not required to be 100 per cent perfect. In reality, he said it takes a little bit of funk, and a whole lot of soul. If a song is too perfect in its production it loses its ability to connect with us.
“There needs to be the element of risk, the possibility of wrong notes, that walking the tightrope. Great resolve is only achieved through preceding tension.”

By Nate Smelle
Bancroft This Week, July 22, 2015

2015 Summer Tour Underway and We Got Our Vinyl!

So far our shows in Toronto, St Catherines, and Wakefield have been a total blast.
Thank you so much to all of you who’ve come out to see us, we couldn’t and wouldn’t do it with out you.

We are pleased to announce that our first run of delicious vinyl has arrived and
we invite you to get it and throw a listening party. Our first record, “Finish What You Star…”
is a combination of rockers and ballads and I always kinda imagined that it would sound this way
and that I would record it the way my favourite rock records were made.

If you appreciate sonic quality and High Fidelity, you might like to know that our album was recorded
through a 1970’s Neve Console to 2″ 24 Track analogue tape, then mastered to 1″ 2 Track before going to vinyl lacquer.
We cut the tracks live off the floor to achieve a performance for each song. Some of these songs got a few overdubs added to the performance, while some songs on the record are just as we played them. Drums and Bass record extremely well to tape and have a wonderful tonal quality,  and the guitars get wonderful warm sustain. I recorded the guitars bi amped through a 1971 Fender Vibrolux
and a 1966 Pete Traynor Bassmate…just killer…and now available on vinyl!!!

We are really looking forward to our next batch of shows. On June 25 we are doing an internet streaming show through Concert Window and a live set at Sessions By The River in Fort Erie along with balladeer David Corely and his band.
Both David and us are playing songs from our brand new records, so it is going to be really cool.
Here is the link if you wanna tune in for $4 …four bucks is like a cup of coffee…

https://www.facebook.com/events/671480459662989/

Saturday June 27 we are in Port Dalousie at Murphy’s opening for the Astrid Young Band.

Stay tuned -LOTS MORE COMING UP

Finish What You Star album cover

Gearing Up For Our Vinyl Record Release and Summer / Fall Tour

In preparation for the upcoming vinyl release of our debut album “Finish What You Star”, we recently completed the mastering for vinyl and re-sequencing with Grammy Award winner João Carvalho. We are now eagerly awaiting test pressings from California.

Because we recorded our album to tape, we got incredible “bottom end” and because the record clocks in at just over 19 minutes a side, we are going to have some bass-loving giant grooves on that vinyl!

We can’t freaking wait. Really.

We are starting to get a rough idea of how many shows and where we will be playing this year,
and it’s actually making sense on a map. With any luck, we will play about 25 shows on this tour.

As any of you who have ever tried to promote and organize your own tour well know…
it’s a “thousand emails, phone calls, texts, scraps of paper, words of mouths, friends of friends” kind of thing, and so it is a bit of a moving target…but dang it if we won’t try and play somewhere near you as soon as we can.

That said, if you know of a nice club, bar, tavern or theatre where you think we could play…
please email us. We would be very grateful.

mail@monkeyfightinsnakes.com