Kris Chau :: Monde UFO Interview
What was growing up in Honolulu, Hawaii like during your formative years? Tell me about your initially connection to music and art and how that unique phenomena came about.
I grew up in Honolulu as a teen youth in the 90s, and young, it was wonderful and tough. Art is hard on the island, but it's also culturally really rich and deep. My folks are refugees from the Vietnamese/American War and in the 80s assimilation was the only way, so other than food, they hid away the language and history of our family to start their new lives in Hawaii. Art did not feel like a real possibility, like life in Honolulu. I realized pretty young I was good at drawing and making doll clothes out of my Grandpa's handkerchiefs. As an alienated youth on a tropical island, it felt like art was going to be my only way out. So, against my parents' wishes, I pretty much ran away to art school in Oakland. I have always appreciated strange music my whole life, but it wasn't until I met Ray Monde that I became a participant in making music.
Who were some of your earliest influences, and when did you realize you wanted to pursue a career in creativity and self-expression? What led to you eventually relocating to LA as well as establishing Monde UFO? 2019 saw the release of a collection of demos leading up to the official release of your debut full length entitled “7171”, which saw a proper reissue on Fire Records recently. What was the overall approach and your particular process for writing and recording this album?
Some of my earliest influences in art were the X-Men, Wong Kar-wai movies, and skate culture. All the art about not fitting in, seeing other Asians be strange and beautiful, and seeing weird drawings on stickers and shirts all led me to think I could wiggle in somewhere. My job actually re-located me from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. I wasn't planning on moving at all to LA. But there is something about LA that if you can figure out whatever it is you'd actually like to express, you will find an audience. Monde UFO is my first band! I met Ray Monde at These Days Gallery where he worked, and I was working on a mural in the hallway. I tattooed his feet. He knew I didn't have any experience with music, so he thought it would be more interesting with me in the band, and it gave him more room to explore what kind of music he didn't see in the world. The first demos were made in Ray's bedroom at this warehouse in downtown LA. It was kinda gross, he basically only had an organ, a desk, and a mattress. He eventually started sampling jazz records and writing songs in the key of the singing bowl.
Jumping ahead to your most recent effort “Vandalized Statue To Be Replaced With Shrine”, that was released last year, tell me some of the backstory to tracks like “Air Quality”, “Garden Of Agony” and the album’s thematic opener “Rectory”. What does the remainder of your year look like and do you have any new projects or shows in the works? Is there anything else you would like to share further with the readers?
The song "Air Quality" is about the beginning of COVID. When there were no planes flying and cars had nowhere to go and pollution went down. "Garden of Agony" and "Rectory" are written about Ray's moral complications of growing up within Catholicism. We are answering this interview while sitting on the floor of LAX at 1:30 am on our way to a short Midwest Tour. The 3rd album just wrapped and will be released soon on Fire Records sometime next year. We just finished 2 murals in bathrooms and Ray also has a record release with his other band, Bondo, later this year. We kinda cobble together a life where we can pay rent. Hopefully, it gets a little easier each year.
