About three years ago, Daniel Monkman was rod busting in Calgary. Having just come off of a long period that saw him in and out of rehab, hired and fired, housed and homeless, he figured he was going to quit music and get back on his feet.
"I was going to get off medication," Monkman tells Exclaim! "I was going to get off hard drugs. I was going to get off everything that was making me the person that I was. I was going to bypass all the bullshit, and I was going to try to be better."
Things were going well, but one day, while carrying a bundle of rebar on his shoulder at a Calgary construction site, he slipped on a patch of ice covered in oil. The heavy bundle landed on his neck, and he tore ligaments in his knee. "I think that was the universe," Monkman says. "I think when you're doing what you're not supposed to be doing, it creates a breach in the simulation and all this bad stuff comes your way."
Monkman started spending some time at a downtown Calgary mall where there was a piano he could play. After holding court regularly for a few weeks, people started gathering to listen. He would go through his old material, and eventually started writing new music.
Fast forward to 2018 and Monkman has moved to Hamilton, ON, formed a band called Bloom and recorded a new shoegaze EP, Bleached Wavves. (Monkman refers to their sound as "moccasin gaze.") Along with fellow musicians Seppel Bruyere (guitar), Jon Tiberi (bass), and Evelyn Charlotte (drums), Bloom toured to Calgary and back this summer. Upon their return, Monkman was contacted by numerous labels.
"I think a lot of us take our lives for granted until something tragic happens," Monkman says. "In recovery, we call it hitting rock bottom. But that doesn't make any sense. The further you go down the rabbit hole, the more you realize that the pit is endless, and you're the one who keeps jumping down it.
"My heart has stopped a couple times. When I tell people that, they always ask me why that wasn't a sign that things need to change. That's the insanity of addiction — you just keep doing something, even though you know it's going to kill you and all your friends. Now, I want to live, and that's what this whole record is about."
Last spring, Monkman returned to his current home in Hamilton after visiting his family. He had one track in the can, "Down to the River Dressed in Black," produced by local legend Dan Edmonds. He also had three years' worth of songs written, but other than that, he hadn't recorded anything to write home about since his old band, the Blisters, broke up in 2015.
This season, the sap was flowing. At the rate of roughly one track per week, working on his own in his apartment and in his jam space, he pulled together Bleached Wavves by the early summer.
This wasn't the first time he'd written and recorded by himself. When Monkman was growing up in the Brokenhead Ojibway nation, and later in the neighbouring town of Selkirk, MB, he couldn't convince his friends that shoegaze was cool. "My friends used to make fun of me, like, something would drop on to the floor, and they'd pretend to put a mic up to it," Monkman says.
Playing as the Blisters, he recorded his first EP, Insects, mostly on his own as well, with help from friends on a few tracks. With soft acoustic intros that break into a noisy, reverb assault, one can hear the echoes of My Bloody Valentine, Brian Wilson and the Brian Jonestown Massacre that would converge in Bleached Wavves ten years later.
Speaking more in noise than words, Monkman's new EP is mostly autobiographical. "You can tell with the second song, 'Vibrant Colours,' Monkman says. "It's very abstract, it's all looped guitars with reverb experimenting, some drums from a drum machine." While it isn't always articulated clearly, the songs are deeply emotional. With his slide guitar, Monkman elicits bitter angst on "BrokenHead," which turns to calming reassurance on "Light Prisms."
"By the end of the record, you can tell that I'm … not triumphant — addiction is a battle every day — but there's a resolution," Monkman says. On "Help Me Understand," toward the conclusion of the song, lead guitarist Bruyere plays audio of traditional Ojibway drumming on his phone speakers and sends them through his guitar pickups. Monkman's descending vocal appeals switch direction into ascending crescendos. "The song and the whole album are about humility" Monkman said. "Humility saved my life."
Bloom celebrate the release of Bleached Wavves on Thursday, November 22 at the Burdock in Toronto. Bloom are weighing interest from various labels but aim to release Bleached Wavves by the end of the year.
"I was going to get off medication," Monkman tells Exclaim! "I was going to get off hard drugs. I was going to get off everything that was making me the person that I was. I was going to bypass all the bullshit, and I was going to try to be better."
Things were going well, but one day, while carrying a bundle of rebar on his shoulder at a Calgary construction site, he slipped on a patch of ice covered in oil. The heavy bundle landed on his neck, and he tore ligaments in his knee. "I think that was the universe," Monkman says. "I think when you're doing what you're not supposed to be doing, it creates a breach in the simulation and all this bad stuff comes your way."
Monkman started spending some time at a downtown Calgary mall where there was a piano he could play. After holding court regularly for a few weeks, people started gathering to listen. He would go through his old material, and eventually started writing new music.
Fast forward to 2018 and Monkman has moved to Hamilton, ON, formed a band called Bloom and recorded a new shoegaze EP, Bleached Wavves. (Monkman refers to their sound as "moccasin gaze.") Along with fellow musicians Seppel Bruyere (guitar), Jon Tiberi (bass), and Evelyn Charlotte (drums), Bloom toured to Calgary and back this summer. Upon their return, Monkman was contacted by numerous labels.
"I think a lot of us take our lives for granted until something tragic happens," Monkman says. "In recovery, we call it hitting rock bottom. But that doesn't make any sense. The further you go down the rabbit hole, the more you realize that the pit is endless, and you're the one who keeps jumping down it.
"My heart has stopped a couple times. When I tell people that, they always ask me why that wasn't a sign that things need to change. That's the insanity of addiction — you just keep doing something, even though you know it's going to kill you and all your friends. Now, I want to live, and that's what this whole record is about."
Last spring, Monkman returned to his current home in Hamilton after visiting his family. He had one track in the can, "Down to the River Dressed in Black," produced by local legend Dan Edmonds. He also had three years' worth of songs written, but other than that, he hadn't recorded anything to write home about since his old band, the Blisters, broke up in 2015.
This season, the sap was flowing. At the rate of roughly one track per week, working on his own in his apartment and in his jam space, he pulled together Bleached Wavves by the early summer.
This wasn't the first time he'd written and recorded by himself. When Monkman was growing up in the Brokenhead Ojibway nation, and later in the neighbouring town of Selkirk, MB, he couldn't convince his friends that shoegaze was cool. "My friends used to make fun of me, like, something would drop on to the floor, and they'd pretend to put a mic up to it," Monkman says.
Playing as the Blisters, he recorded his first EP, Insects, mostly on his own as well, with help from friends on a few tracks. With soft acoustic intros that break into a noisy, reverb assault, one can hear the echoes of My Bloody Valentine, Brian Wilson and the Brian Jonestown Massacre that would converge in Bleached Wavves ten years later.
Speaking more in noise than words, Monkman's new EP is mostly autobiographical. "You can tell with the second song, 'Vibrant Colours,' Monkman says. "It's very abstract, it's all looped guitars with reverb experimenting, some drums from a drum machine." While it isn't always articulated clearly, the songs are deeply emotional. With his slide guitar, Monkman elicits bitter angst on "BrokenHead," which turns to calming reassurance on "Light Prisms."
"By the end of the record, you can tell that I'm … not triumphant — addiction is a battle every day — but there's a resolution," Monkman says. On "Help Me Understand," toward the conclusion of the song, lead guitarist Bruyere plays audio of traditional Ojibway drumming on his phone speakers and sends them through his guitar pickups. Monkman's descending vocal appeals switch direction into ascending crescendos. "The song and the whole album are about humility" Monkman said. "Humility saved my life."
Bloom celebrate the release of Bleached Wavves on Thursday, November 22 at the Burdock in Toronto. Bloom are weighing interest from various labels but aim to release Bleached Wavves by the end of the year.
