MONSTA is a group that I've had my eye on for some time and I truly believe this trio will be one of the biggest names in EDM. Ever since first hearing “Holdin On” I was hooked. MONSTA is made up of three members: Skaar, Rocky and Rufio. MONSTA is most known for their tech-soul vocal drops, melodic synths and impressive new twist on dubstep.
Skrillex said “His vocals are so raw and so pristine he can just walk up to any mic…. he just sounds like fucking angels are singing.”
EDM Sauce: We hear that you will be releasing the MESSIAH EP on May 7th, 2013… Can you tell us a bit about what songs we will see on it, any collaborations and really what went into making this EP?
MONSTA (Rufio): We wanted to release “Messiah” as single as it has been one of our favourite songs for a long time. There are some new remixes too – the people who are remixing it are all incredible and huge inspirations to us so we're very excited for everyone to hear the amazing work they have done.
EDM Sauce: Your music really does seem to be “next-level dubstep,” who were some of your inspirations to get to where you're at today musically speaking?
MONSTA (Rufio): Thank you very much! Well, we really are influenced by a huge variety of artists from a huge variety of genres … its hard to name just a few, but names that always crop up are Otis Reading, Herbie Hancock, Steely Dan and a huge amount of more modern artists too!
EDM Sauce: Tell us a bit of your relationship with Skrillex and OWSLA? How did you find them or did they find you? Also how's your relationship been with them been?
MONSTA (Rufio): Well we were huge fans of Skrillex and the whole OWSLA label – and all the artists on OWSLA would be in long the answer to the previous question! Dave Rene gave our tracks to Tim (Skrillex's manager) who then played them to him. We could NOT believe it when they got in touch and don't really to this day…working with them has been unbelievable, as they have supported us so hugely and helped us such a vast amount. It's a great honour for us to be working with them and we have MASSIVE love for everyone at and associated with Skrillex and OWSLA.
EDM Sauce: What has been one of your favorite venues thus far since touring?
MONSTA (Rufio): It's always very hard to say as each venue is different. Playing Webster Hall in New York and Avalon in LA when we were on the OWSLA tour last year was very special for us, we just came back from playing Swedish House Mafia's Masquerade Motel in LA which was another amazing show(s), its always amazing playing round the UK too as playing small club shows is always so exciting and energetic.
EDM Sauce: How do all of you in MONSTA know each other and what's the background behind everyone joining together?
MONSTA (Rufio): Rocky and I (Rufio) met at music college where we were studying jazz and through one adventure and another started producing. One day someone played us some demos of a singer and we were floored … it turned out to be this guy called Skaar and so we went on a mission trying to get a session with him…we had no idea who he was, how old he was or where he was from and then one day he just turned up and from that moment when we heard him sing live we knew we had to work together.
EDM Sauce: How would you describe your sound and where do you see it progressing here?
MONSTA (Rufio): Quite simply our music is just a sum of our influences. So its a melting pot of whatever is inspiring us at that time: Jazz, Soul, Electronic Music, Gospel, really anything … for us the progression is to just keep listening to music, new and old, and keep writing. We are exploring a lot with different tempos and instrumentation too…but at the heart of everything we want to write songs, so a lot of our tracks just start at the piano with voice and harmony. That way you leave everything else really open and you feel like you have a strong foundation to build upon.
EDM Sauce: Can you tell us a bit about what your future holds? More releases? More tour dates? Etc…
MONSTA (Rufio): There will be a lot more releases. The Messiah EP is out in May and in between that we will be doing a load of shows in the UK,US and Europe. We also will be putting out a load of free tracks that we have written and want people to have. But ultimately we are working towards finishing an album as we want to have a collection of music that we feel captures the time and place we're all at right now.
EDM Sauce: If you weren't in music, where would you be?
MONSTA (Rufio): Skaar is amazing at drawing, Rocky makes a mean coffee and I am quite good at one coin trick so however you can combine those would be our business.
EDM Sauce: If you're not listening to electronic music, you're listening to…
MONSTA (Rufio): Everything and anything.
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