Alt hip-hip band Monster Florence team up with legendary British punk poet John Cooper Clarke on new single 'Relax', out July 21st through Project Melody Music
LISTEN TO ‘RELAX’ HERE
Following on from the release of their highly-praised EP ‘Cowboys & Idiots’ in 2020, British alternative Hip-hop band Monster Florence have made their long-awaited return to deliver their unapologetic new single ‘Relax’, featuring legendary punk poet and fellow Colchester resident, John Cooper Clarke.
‘Relax’ sees Monster Florence explode back onto the scene with one of their most anarchic releases to date. Inviting the iconic John Cooper Clarke along for the ride, the brotherhood cement themselves as the most vital UK Hip-hop act on the scene right now, brimming with charisma and bubbling drive throughout.
Speaking about the new offering, they said, “the track came to be out of a typically sporadic piece of inspirational genius from John who, during an innocent conversation with us uttered the hallowed words… Relax, nothing is under control. It seemed playful yet so powerful, at which point we immediately knew we had something special, and we set about fusing his one liner into a track we were producing.”
Hailing from Colchester, Essex, the six-member band officially formed in 2015. What originally started off as a few studio sessions between producer Tom and vocalist Alex Osiris, who at the time was a buzzing solo artist on the hunt for some new tracks, soon turned into a full-blown musical project. However, Tom says it took a lot of convincing Alex before he finally stopped by his Rowhedge studio. “He thought it was just a bedroom set-up,” Tom remembers, “but once he saw that it was a professional studio, his attitude changed and so did how often he came by. He was there all the time.”
One of the pair’s first times working together saw Alex bring along long-time friends and fellow rappers Dream Mclean and Wallace Rice. The session also featured a surplus of live musicians, including drummer Cameron Morrell and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Poole. “It was a little overwhelming,” Dream admits, taken aback by the number of creatives in the studio at one time. But as the sessions went on, the number of musicians got progressively smaller until just six remained: Alex, Dream, Wallace, Tom, Jonny and Cameron. The same line-up that makes up Monster Florence today.
“There really isn’t anyone that sounds like us,” says Tom Donovan, primary producer of rising alternative Hip-hop band Monster Florence, who for almost a decade have been blurring the lines of contemporary music, with their diverse individual backgrounds and mixed bag of musical styles, drawing from a multitude of genres: rap, grime, punk, indie, psychedelic rock and many others.
As a six-member group, Monster Florence are somewhat of an anomaly in today’s musical climate. While it was common in the ‘90s for there to be an influx of multi-member acts, these are becoming more and more rare as the years go on. But for Monster Florence, much like The Flaming Lips, Wu-Tang Clan, Arcade Fire, and Los Angeles collective Odd Future, their strength lies in numbers - even if it did take a little time to find their feet.
“We didn’t know where the creative lines were in the very beginning,” says Alex, recalling the sonic evolution of the group. “If you listen to the opening track on our first EP, ‘The Groove’, it’s a mash-up of everything. It’s every genre we could think of crammed into one record. We needed to learn how to refine our sound while keeping the same level of experimentation.” Monster Florence continued to fine-tune their sound, improving with each release. They released the EP ‘Bad Gear’ in 2016, followed by ’48’, which was a collaborative mixtape with UK rap luminaries Foreign Beggars, in 2017. But it was the release of their debut album ‘Foul’ in 2018 that proved the most significant in their development.
“That album was a huge turning point for us,” explains Tom. With six people comes six egos and six personalities, and Monster Florence had to learn not to be precious about their ideas when other members of the group weren’t into them. Jonny remembers working on a big stack of saxes that took him and Tom a long time to put together, only to be told to get rid of them. “Dream just walked in one day and told us to bin them,” he says. “He said it was too much and felt that we didn’t need them.” This newfound courage marked the start of a new era for Monster Florence, one that saw them more comfortable with challenging one another’s ideas, which brought to light a new level of creative chemistry.
At the beginning of 2020 Monster Florence signed a long-term worldwide deal with Project Melody Music, who are an independent label enterprise based in West London. The group’s first release via the label was ‘Cowboys and Idiots’, a double disc EP that includes the track ‘Picture Frame’, a love drunk stomper featuring Miles Kane. The track, penned by Alex and Tom, was originally created for the Last Shadow Puppets musician; however, Monster Florence liked it so much that they decided to keep it for themselves.
Monster Florence are gearing up for a Monster release in 2022. But for now ‘Relax’.
Monster Florence are:
Alex Osiris - vocals
Dream Mclean - vocals
Wallace Rice - vocals
Tom Donovan - production, guitars, keys, programming
Jonny Poole - sax, keys, guitar
Cameron Morrell - drums
https://www.instagram.com/monsterflorence/