Retrospective

Alex's Retrospective

Introduction

Contrary to what I often seem to write, I’m a very insecure person. I suppose that’s something I need to work on. However, in the past couple of months, I’ve written several little ‘articles’ on this website that could be construed as being less-than-modest, or worse yet, as being cocky. I apologize for that. But here’s the way I’ve been looking at it: I love reading about and discovering the things that my favorite musicians are thinking when they’re writing, recording and touring. Anytime I read an interview in Rolling Stone or Spin or come across a journal entry posted by one of my favorite bands that reveals a bit of personal information, I feel like I’m getting a private glimpse into an artist’s real life.

Now, before I go any further, let me clarify. I definitely do not think that we’re anyone’s favorite band. And frankly, I’d be surprised if anyone is even interested in hearing about how we write our music and what the thoughts are behind it. I’m shocked if you’ve read this far.

But if the band really is reaching a point of closure after 7-years, then I can do pretty much whatever I want. I built this website, and, by God, I can burn it down…

So, without (much) further ado, I present something of a 7-year career retrospective/review/critique.

Be warned, the views presented do not represent the beliefs and opinions of the band as a whole. Hopefully, I can get the rest of the band to write down their thoughts as well, but for now, this is my (Alex Ward’s) personal perspective on much of the band’s history. It will probably be pretty incoherent. And there may be many a tangent. So I’ll do my best to break this down into sections. I’ll try to touch on all of our music, the website, playing shows, and some “other stuff.” I’ll be as blunt as I can while remaining objective. Eh.

Pond Monkeys EP (2000)

This isn’t actually our first recording. Sometime in 1999, Derek, Austin and I recorded four songs (I think) at Chris Ellis’s studio in Kansas City. Chris Ellis is a long-time friend of my dad’s who has played in bands all his life (several with my dad). Mr. Ellis is, without a doubt, one of the most interesting and entertaining people you will ever meet. He has jet-black hair, a killer goatee, dark shades and a big-ass, toothy smile. All of us in the band, and a few friends (Matt Brown), quote him pretty regularly. I think Austin even ended his FSHS Tiger Times editorial with a Chris E. quote. “Got your goggles on?”

Anyway, the three of us recorded “Happy,” “Saved,” “Confusion” (I think), and something else. The masters from that session are buried somewhere in my big box of Pond Monkeys material under my bed. We made a couple of cassettes, but I don’t think we did much else with the recordings.

It’s weird for me to think about, but at the time we first started, some of the people who would later become really great supporters/friends/fans were in grade school. I think Jillian Overstake would have been in 5^th grade. Trent Pruitt would have been in 4^th grade. Duncan Cheney in 3rd grade. Odd, no? No.

Anyway, soon after the KC recordings, we entered the studio at Phil Ward’s Woodland Studios in Pittsburg, KS, for our first “official” EP. Phil is a cousin of my dad’s. Since 2000, we’ve worked with him on several projects. He does very good work, but there is absolutely no reason for him to have such a nice recording studio hidden between Fort Scott and Pittsburg, KS. At the very least, he should be living in Kansas City.

The EP that resulted is a 7-song collection of pop songs that were written pretty quickly following our performance at the 1999 Fort Scott Middle School talent show. It was there that we debuted our first original, “Saved.” Derek’s bass guitar was bigger than he was, I played my first Danelectro guitar through a blown amp, and Austin’s drum set was pretty embarrassing. Incidentally, a year or so later, footage of that event was broadcast on KOAM 7 News as promotional footage for a benefit concert we played at the Armory in Fort Scott.

I guess “Saved” and “Happy” have held up alright over time, but most of the music on the EP is pretty weak. It’s probably well above-average music for a bunch of middle school kids, but it’s nothing memorable. The most positive thing to be said about the EP is that almost every song weighs in at a mercifully short 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The biggest mistake on that EP was putting “Confusion” as track #1. Arguably the worst song on the EP, and it was placed at the starting line. Argh. “Don’t Go Away” and “Drop” were fun little attempts at “hard-rock.” Derek did some heavy screaming on “Drop” that freaked us all out at the time.

Wing It (2001)

This particular album isn’t really a Pond Monkeys album per se. I did most of the recording for Wing It by myself in my bedroom using a single microphone, my Danelectro, my dad’s old Fender bass, my new Yamaha keyboard and a drum machine. What can I say? I was obsessed with Trent Reznor at the time. I had Austin play drums on a couple of tracks, and Derek played bass on at least “Senseless.” I must say that “Dent in the Car,” despite shoddy production, was a pretty ambitious attempt for a 15 year old. Lyrically, a couple of reoccurring themes that would appear on later albums were presented.

Many of the lyrics I write can be classified into a couple of different categories. I didn’t realize it until recently, but I seem to write about religion (“Down On Religion”, “Backdoor To Heaven”), illness (“Dent In The Car”, “All The Work In The World”), politics/war (“Prepare…”, “Keep Moving”) and relationships pretty regularly. Now that I think about it, these are actually pretty common topics among many bands. Here’s to originality.

Wing It suffers from horrible production. And there are several really bad songs including “You’re The One With The Glitch” (a sincere, but failed attempt at a power-ballad), “Southern Pictures” and “Roly-Poly Pie,” which is just flat-out stupid.

Also of note: Wing It marked the start of a re-recording/re-imagining-of-previously-recorded-songs trend that lasted up until The Cannonball Picnic EP. “Saved”, “Don’t Go Away”, and “Happy” were re-recorded from our debut EP for Wing It in attempt to spice ‘em up. Several songs have since been re-recorded for following albums. I can’t help but try to make songs better and fix what usually isn’t broken. Some kind of obsession with tinkering with the past. Maybe it’s an inability to let go. I don’t know. Reminds me of George Lucas, who keeps jacking with his old Star Wars movies even though they're perfectly fine.

Start The Reactor! (2002)

We went all out with this sucker. Including the budget. Hands down, this is the most expensive album we produced. Was it worth it? Yes. But not in the way you might think. We wanted to invest in something that would make an impression on the so-called "music scene" and help get our name out. Thus, the expensive “digipack” design and packaging. Screw the music, it’s all about the packaging. However, I think we may have shot ourselves in the foot with the intentionally distorted image on the front of the album case. Quite a few people commented that they thought the image looked horribly cheap and nasty. Touché. I guess it did seem to defeat the purpose of spending a lot of money on the whole “digipack” package. Everything else about the packaging looks good, but that cover may have been a mistake.

I do like the colors though. The nasty green was chosen unanimously by the band as we thought it would help the album stick out. It did. And there are a couple of copies still available at Hastings in Pittsburg, KS. It is so awesome to see a Pond Monkeys CD on the rack at Hastings.

We had a hell of a time coming up with an album title. Finally, Derek, Austin, and I were together on an FBLA school trip or something and heard the phrase used on an episode of South Park. It was destiny. We knew it was perfect as soon as we heard it. Fortunately, Daniel agreed to it without too much persuasion.

Musically, Start The Reactor! marked the beginning of what would become the Pond Monkeys sound. Forget “Senseless”, “Blame It”, “Halos” and “Make A Difference.” While respectably ambitious, they’re not very good songs. Especially “Halos.” That s**t sucks. And I hate “Senseless” for the fact that I referred to the song itself in the lyrics. That’s a songwriting tendency nearly all bands that are just starting out seem to have. It's meta... like Julia Roberts playing a character who admittedly looks like Julia Roberts in Ocean's 12. An attempt to be clever that comes off as smug. What?

Ironically, the very worst moment on Start The Reactor!, a short little section on “Blame It” that was sung horribly out of key and just sounds all-around bad, was played multiple times on Channel One News. I still can’t get over that. Channel One News is broadcast to millions of teenagers across the nation on a daily basis, and thanks to Bryan Weilert’s persistent voting, we somehow managed to get a song on there. But the audio clip selected by the Channel One News Music Director just happened to be the worst section of the worst song on Start The Reactor! Oh, cruel fate. We were inducted into the Channel One News All-Request Thursday Hall of Fame though. The name Pond Monkeys was nestled right in between Avril Lavigne and B2K.

“Fallout” from Start The Reactor! is a damn good song. Right after we recorded it for the album, we added in another section that bumped it up another notch. Performed live, when we combined it with Radiohead’s “National Anthem”, it became my favorite song to perform. On record, it’s not quite as powerful as it should be, but I still love that song. It should have been the first track. It is an angry little tune that, with much hesitance, allowed me to say “whore”—as risqué a word as you’re going to hear at a Pond Monkeys concert. It was written about a particular girl who seemed to have a talent for making me angry and who moved to California after high school. For the record, we have since reconciled our differences. “Misconstrue” is another good one. It’s not really the sound of Pond Monkeys though, so we didn’t play it for long. That was another one written specifically for a female, but it was quite a bit different in tone than “Fallout.”

The three purely-novelty numbers on the CD are decent at best. Daniel brought Dwight Yoakam’s “Fast As You” to practice as a joke, but we all decided it should be on the album. Alien Ant Farm had just had success with a punked-up cover of a non-rock song. “Throw Money At The Band” isn’t very strong on record, but you’ve gotta admit it’s a clever idea. “Friends” is a semi-secret song that allowed Derek to go nuts.

“Needs” does tend to get pretty repetitive. But it’s a beautiful song and I guess it seemed to show that we weren’t afraid to try new ideas or styles. In a Rockkansas.com review, it was said that “Needs” sounded like a Barenaked Ladies song. I think that pissed Daniel off.

Demonstration IV (2003)

The album on which we discovered the power of the riff. This record is extremely hit and miss. When it does hit though, it’s because of freaking huge guitars coming at your face. Sadly, the entire CD suffers from pretty bad production. It was a rushed recording, and I didn’t take as much time as I should have to really get the songs recorded right. I can’t even stand to listen to the CD anymore. It’s unfortunate because there’s some really good stuff on here. “Sweet Movement”, “Solo” and “Prepare The Noose” are great songs that just don’t sound very strong on this CD. I really love “Solo.” It’s a combination of a crunching guitar riff on the verse and a melodic chorus. The lyrics are a bit too simplistic and cheesy, but they’re interesting when juxtaposed with the sheer rockness of that song.

“Bless Tonight” is bad. Written about the whole teacher-tanning-booth-voyeurism-incident that occurred about the same time, it has some pretty harmonies and guitar parts, but it just didn’t come together very well. Nor did “Freedom,” which has cool lyrics, but didn’t quite gel. “Feel Sorry For Me” is weak but has a really neat harmonized pre-chorus and a trademark Derek-charged guitar lead. I like the lyrics on that one.

Both “Florence” and “Prepare The Noose” were powered by heavy riffs, but suffered under the poor production. “Frightened By Salad” sucks. As does “She’s Out Of The Way.” “Start The Reactor” is also pretty rough.

All in all, this is a pretty spotty record. We were experimenting a lot with new sounds and song writing ideas, and it shows. We didn’t quite know how to put the songs together.

Now somewhere around this time, the four of us made a one day jaunt to Chris Ellis's Re-Flexx Studios in Kansas City, KS. We completed a three song demo of "Prepare The Noose", "Feel Sorry For Me" and "Frightened By Salad." Obviously, we didn't do much with the recording. If I recall correctly, we didn't put any of the three recordings onto Demonstration IV because they were of much higher quality than the rest of the record and it would make too much of a noticeable clash. So these three songs recorded in the studio, which I'll dub the Re-Flexx Sessions, remain hidden in the Monkey vault.

The Cannonball Picnic EP (2004)

Alright, I don’t care who or what you are, there’s something on this little EP for everyone. You want some hard rock? Suck on some “Prepare the Noose” and “Florence.” Power-pop? Play “Play.” Something a little mellower? Check out the slow burn of … “Burn.” And to kick it all off, “Your Fiction” – a mini-epic about the value of classic literature in an increasingly technical world.

If we could have sustained the energy found on this EP for a full-length album’s worth of music, it would have been an incredible CD. Unfortunately, if I remember correctly, we went through a little creative dry spell about this time and didn’t produce much more quality material. Oh well.

I really love the Cannonball Picnic recording, and when we’re long gone, I hope that the few people who have followed our music will look back at this and think, “Wow. That was alright.” It was recorded over a single weekend at Phil Ward’s. It was done very quickly and efficiently, and the final recording did a good job of capturing the energy behind our songs.

The writing process for the music on The Cannonball Picnic varied from what usually took place. Normally the band collaborates when working up a song. On this CD, I wrote “Your Fiction” mostly by myself, “Play” was written with Austin, and Daniel wrote “Burn” mostly by himself. “Prepare The Noose” and “Florence” were more collaborative, but they were originally written for Demonstration IV. “Your Fiction” took forever to come together, “Play” was written literally in a matter of minutes, and “Burn came together pretty quickly.

Lyrically, I spent a lot of time on “Your Fiction.” I wanted to try something that I hadn’t done before in regards to narrative structure and subject matter. The song is kind of a futuristic science-fiction story. The lyrics work well with the song, but I’m not entirely sure they clearly convey the story I was trying to tell. Before it was officially titled, "Your Fiction" was referred to as "Nacho" by the band. And it's still titled "Nacho" on most of our setlists. Before Daniel knew what I was singing, he thought I was saying "Cheese is melting" during the choruses instead of "Where's your fiction?"

I approached the lyrics for “Play” in a completely different way. That song isn’t so much about telling a story as about setting a mood. Sometimes when I’m bored in class I try to think up phrases that make me think of certain images or make me feel a certain way. Kind of like that discussion about the phrase “cellar door” in Donnie Darko. The line about “…a party going on at the hospital…” puts really creepy images in my head. I like it. “Prepare the Noose” was written semi-abstractly about the War on Terror. Very vague, but strong, lyrics.

There were several other songs that were written at about the same time we were preparing to record The Cannonball Picnic EP that didn’t make the final cut. Two of these songs were actually played live a couple of times, but they never reached the point where we were confident enough to record them. One was tentatively titled “Spilt Milk.” It was a grungy little number written by Daniel. Another was an untitled song by Derek that we debuted at a FSHS band showcase. I might touch on Derek’s songs later. I also had written a song that we worked up but never performed live. It was about hunting vampires. I liked it a lot, but Daniel thought it sounded like “emo” (it didn’t) and I’m not sure what Derek and Austin thought. I guess I should say that I had been listening obsessively to Cursive at the time and it definitely "borrowed" from “Gentleman Caller.”

“Your Fiction” might be a bit long. And the nasty sounding jet-take-off introduction is obnoxious and unnecessary. “Florence” drags on for too long without really going anywhere. “Play”, “Burn”, and “Prepare The Noose” turned out exactly how they should have.

In the end, The Cannonball Picnic EP is my favorite recording.

Breathing Buildings (2005)

There’s a lot I can say about this album, both critically and about the history behind it. Let me begin by saying that I have never worked so hard on a personal project in my life. I literally spent 100+ hours sitting in The Jam Room, staring at my computer monitor, adjusting knobs, my eyes glazed over, my brain turning to mush. Oddly enough, it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my musical career. I had complete creative reign over the production of this album, and I used that power to the fullest. Austin and I felt like mad scientists experimenting with sounds and ideas out in The Jam Room. There are several criticisms I have, but overall, I’m really happy about the resulting CD.

For much of the time I spent in The Jam Room, I was in very good company. Several people helped out, if not by actually recording, then by keeping me entertained.

Here is a list of some of the people, including band members, who contributed to the recording and an approximate percentage of the total production time that they were present in The Jam Room:

Austin Ward: 70.3%
Elizabeth Grantham: 49%
Daniel Brasuell: 48.8%
Derek Wright: 29.421%
Logan Payne: 18%
Matt Brown: 7%
Jared Holloway: 6.57%
Others (Quinton, Elizabeth, Kaylie, Lauren, Lindsey, John, foreign exchange students): 3-6%

That’s ridiculous.

It wasn’t originally our intent to have a bunch of “guests” appear on the record. But by the end of recording, if someone stopped by the house to say “hi,” we would look for a way to fit them on the CD. It's too bad we couldn't get some Andrew Klonowski or Tim or Duncan or Trent on there. Maybe next album...

I think the guest musicians started with “Who Stole My Tears?” When it was first recorded, it was about a minute long with a single verse and a short guitar lead. I told Daniel I wanted to try looping it to see if we could incorporate some other instruments. For some reason, I wanted Thomas Gregory to play a violin part. He’s a good kid and he’s always been really cool about supporting Pond Monkeys. He’s not on the final recording. But we did end up with John Sercer playing clarinet and Lindsey Lewis and Logan Payne on violin. Fair trade, I suppose. Sercer came in and nailed a little improv clarinet part that turned out beautifully. Listen for it with a pair of headphones.

One of the nicest surprises came when Quinton Cheney showed up with two girls from Pittsburg , KS -- Elizabeth Darling and Kaylie Bernhardt. That was a very weird moment when they entered The Jam Room. I was staring at the computer monitor, shirtless, hair disheveled (as usual), I hadn’t showered in days because I’d been locked in The Jam Room, and I had just woken up. It was an awkward introduction to say the least. Incidentally, I had seen these two girls perform at the Potter’s Wheel with Quinton about 6 months before. They played a couple of extremely solemn (creepy) versions of Nirvana and Tori Amos songs, and I have to admit, I developed an immediate crush on both of them. Was it fate that brought them literally to my doorstep? No. It was Quinton. Anyway. I do like female singers, especially ones that are into good music. But that’s another story. They added some very pretty harmonies to “Blood Soaked.” I later invited my cousin Lauren Allen over to do another harmony track. She has a beautiful voice, and I had wanted her to sing on a couple of my songs, but due to time constraints, we only finished “Blood Soaked.” For the final product, I wish the harmonies were a bit louder. But that’s an issue of debate between Daniel and me. I actually didn’t care for “Blood Soaked” when we first started playing it. I thought it was too predictable and boring. It grew on me. It’s one of those really good singer-songwriter songs.

The foreign exchange students Raphael Lam, Ricardo Salinas and Sebastian Nemcek were awesome about recording. Having their voices sprinkled throughout the album added a completely different element that gave the CD an even more diverse and exotic flair. That sounds fruity. I have the translation of what they’re saying in their respective languages somewhere in my room. There are only a couple of curse words. Or so they tell me.

Musically, I’m extremely proud of Breathing Buildings. It really is a good representation of the diverse musical influences and tastes among the band members. I can see how there might be something for everyone who listens to it, and I can also see how not everyone will enjoy the whole record. Some listeners may not care for the introduction and instrumental interludes, and I admit, they might be a little pretentious. But if you listen to the album in its entirety, they definitely help blend all the very different songs into a more cohesive whole.

“Backdoor To Heaven” and “Truth Be Told” are easily my favorite songs. Despite being fairly straight-forward, “Backdoor To Heaven” is by far one of the most “out-there” songs we’ve written. That may be because it so easily fits within the parameters of the traditional rock-song formula (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-lead-chorus-done). We generally try to avoid doing anything too formulaic or predictable, but “Backdoor To Heaven” was deliberately written to embrace the typical song structure. That could be one reason why Daniel dislikes it so much. Lyrically, “Backdoor To Heaven” is a very big stretch for me. It’s the only overtly “sexual” song I’ve written. I’m not exactly a really “sexual” person. I may be asexual, actually. I don’t even know what that means. Anyway, I’m really quite prudish about a lot of things. I blush when I hear songs about sex. I’m not even sure that Jimmy Eat World’s “Night Drive” is about sex, but the first time I heard it, I felt really uncomfortable. Long story short, I figured the best way to address this problem of mine was to face it head on by writing a song with some sexual undertones. I had a ton of other issues that I wanted to write about about, but not enough songs, so I crammed several other ideas into the lyrics of "Backdoor..." It's a passively-aggressive song about hypocrisy within organized religion (and one Fort Scott cult/church in particular). It was also meant to express my disagreement with those who oppose homo-sexual marriage, but that part didn't come out very clear. Tree-hugging, liberal I am.

The one song I wish I could’ve tinkered with longer is “Wishful Thinking.” I was remixing that song all the way up to the morning I sent the CD off for duplication. The final mix is a bit too muddy and uneven for my taste, but I guess it works. Austin's right -- it needs more snare. There is a rough mix that I used as a demo that actually sounds better. There’s not much I can do about it now. "Wishful Thinking" was also the song I was worried about most. It was the last song written for the album and I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Now that I can actually hear it in its final form, it might actually be the strongest, most upbeat song on the CD. The breakdown was written completely by accident, but I love it. And if you listen closely, each chorus is slightly different. That was Austin and I trying to be as experimental as possible while confined to a pretty straight-forward song.

The instrumental that follows “Wishful Thinking” is complete self-indulgence. It’s not an essential part of the album. And it’s way too long. But it had to reach the little dueling guitar part that comes at about the 2 minute mark before I could fade it out. Why? Because that little 2-second riff sounds like Cave In. And Cave In is incredible. Seriously, if you’re at all curious about why I push so hard for diverse sounds and styles within our music, look no further than Cave In. Cave In started out as the hardest hard-core band I’ve ever heard before morphing into a psychedelic, space-rock band for an album and then into a purely alternative-pop band. And they mastered each respective genre. Now they’re on hiatus. Damn.

The three hard-rocking center-piece songs on the album (“Wishful Thinking”, “Raumfuller”, “Backdoor To Heaven”) are purposely book ended by two of Daniel’s mellower tunes, “Truth Be Told” and “Who Stole My Tears?” I think the order of the songs shows the huge difference between our writing styles. Daniel took a subdued, minimalist approach to both of his songs. I didn’t even play guitar on “Who Stole My Tears?” For “my” songs, I intentionally opted for a “wall-of-sound” approach that is intended to be both melodic and brutal. I just kept layering guitars until my CPU couldn’t handle anymore. I can see how this might bother some people. It makes it a bit more difficult to penetrate the music, to distinguish the melody, and it may give the songs a detached feel. Daniel's songs on this CD tend to be a bit more personable with noticeably more warmth. After listening to it, most of my songs are a bit more ... harsh. I can’t help it. That habit of layering noise upon noise and sometimes dissolving the song into a pile of distorted fuzz (such as on "Wishful Thinking") stems from my love for noise-rock bands like Fugazi, Desaparacidos, NIN and Sonic Youth. I intentionally try to make some of my songs difficult to access, if not completely off-putting during the first listen. I’m not sure how much of that makes sense, but what I’m trying to get at is that I recognize the huge differences in the sound Daniel and I prefer.

Excluding that noise track before "First Comes Love," “Love In A Box” and “First Comes Love” are the weakest tracks on the CD. I guess it’s hard for us to make any song with “love” in the title good. “Love In A Box” rocks, but it just doesn’t seem to go anywhere. “First Comes Love” takes my fuzzed-out tendencies to the extreme. It’s a perfect ending to the diversity of the CD, but other than Logan Payne, I can’t think of anyone who would say that song is actually good. Logan Payne contributed some screams to that one. He sounded like a banshee from hell (or at least an angry little girl) and I had to keep turning him down in the mix.

I think it was always kind of understood that “All The Work In The World” would be the opener. It’s the most obvious choice. And it’s a good choice. It gives the impression that Breathing Buildings is going to be a different experience compared to our previous stuff. The song sprawls all over the place without ever really repeating much, and it has a beautifully melancholic spaced-out sound to it. It’s very different from anything else we’ve done.

I need some more time to listen to the album and to get used to the songs. There's obviously several production issues that I wish I could change. And a couple of the songs seem to drag in spots. But I'm happy with it. And Logan Payne's artwork turned out great.

Website

From the time I was in 3rd grade until last summer, I kept a private journal of my day to day activities. Lot of people do it; I just didn't post mine online. I finally stopped doing it though. Instead of spending time writing in a personal journal, I made a conscientious decision to immerse myself in the www.pondmonkeys.com website. To an extent, the website became my journal. It was also hobby. Whenever I had some free time on my hands (rarely) or was bored (also rare), I would further tinker with the website. It has been fun to learn about and experiment with web design/html. There's still much I have to learn though. Thanks to Logan Payne who first taught me the ways of html and to Brian Graves who showed me the efficiency of Frontpage.

I wanted to make the Pond Monkeys website different from the sites most band's seem to have. My intent was to cram so much information, music, and photos on here that people would have to come back repeatedly in order to see it all. With 7-years worth of photos and band history, I've had plenty of material to work with. But more importantly, I wanted everyone outside of the band to feel like they were a part of this. I don't know if I completely succeeded in that aspect, but I do feel like the website has been a great way to interact with and meet new people. I make it a point to post as many photos of the audience at our shows as possible as this website is as much about them as it is about the band. Five "as"'s in one sentence.

My imagination tends to run wild sometimes. I fantasize about things and create lots of stories in my head. To me, the website has taken on more than just a promotional function. It has served as host to our 7-year-long epic story. It has documented the adventures of this band and the many situations and characters that we have encountered. My imagination has been allowed to go nuts. The website has served to develop what I'll call Pond Monkeys Mythology. J.R.R. Tolkien couldn't have written a fantasy as complex and populated as this saga. This has all been an amazing and sometimes perilous journey, complete with challenges that the band has had to overcome and an always-changing cast of characters that have come along for the ride. Friends and fans have come and gone. People that started out as supporters from the very beginning (such as Brian Graves) have completely disappeared from the Pond Monkeys universe. Other characters like Matt Trotter entered into the story when Daniel joined the line-up several years ago. Some friends (such as Jennifer and Bobby from Parsons) met us about mid-way through our trek and have since remained in close contact. And a select few have been with us from the very beginning. As far as I'm concerned, Matt Brown, Jared Holloway, Kyle Wright and Tanner & Quinton Cheney may as well be members of the band. These people and so many more have helped to make our career exciting and interesting. More importantly, they are all friends, which will last long after the band is gone.

The hundreds of photographs on the website serve as a testament to the diversity and dedication of many of our friends. I'm so thankful that we have had such great supporters. Thank you.

Live Shows

I'll be honest. It has taken us quite awhile to grow comfortable onstage. I'd have to say we were pretty damn boring until September 20, 2003. We had some great shows before then, including an insanely packed house at The Boobie Trap in January 2003. But it wasn't until our performance at The Route 66 Theater in Carthage, MO, on September 20, 2003, that we really hit our stride. Earlier that same day, we played an energetic show at the Pittsburg State University Battle Of The Bands. We ended up taking first, beating such well known acts as The Sound And The Fury and Kansas City's Eye Theory. Needless to say, we were very excited.

By the time we got to Carthage later that evening, we were exhausted and experiencing a major come-down from the Battle Of The Bands adrenaline rush. It was this mixture of exhaustion and apathy that somehow created a lethal force of rock. That evening, we put on what I would call our best show ever. Derek may have worn a cape. And we had a cardboard cut-out of Sean Connery's head onstage. We started with "Solo," played "Prepare The Noose" and "Florence" and some other rockers. Ironically, there were only a couple of our regular fans there to witness the birth of the new and improved Pond Monkeys live show.

I've always been intrigued by bizarre stage shows. I saw Local H years ago at Sandstone, and they put on a very interesting performance. During their set, random people from backstage would join the only two full-time band members for a song or two before leaving the stage, never to return. Different people would take their place, usually on different instruments. It was odd. And amazing. I never knew what would happen next.

I like those wtf moments. After our Bottleneck show in which Trent Pruitt wore a tux and a mask, and wandered around onstage with a Megaphone while we played, one of the guys from another band on the bill commented to me that he just "didn't get" the guy playing tambourine. Exactly. Our live shows have started to finally get interesting over the past year. I thoroughly enjoyed Logan Payne wearing a Richard Nixon mask onstage during our Foxtown show. I liked it when Derek wore a cape for a series of shows last year. I had fun when Austin and Daniel wore dresses and I wore a tux when we played to an empty field at Bonecreek Lake. We had an inflatable Wolverine doll onstage. And some of Daniel's cosmetology school heads. I like having an accordion onstage. We don't use it much. And I don't even know how to really play it. But it sure grabs people's attention. It's fun having a Megaphone on stage. And roto toms. And Trent Pruitt playing percussion. I have fun when we crowd the stage as much as possible with as many random objects and people. I like tripping over each other and cords.

Here's some of my personal favorite shows:

September 1, 2002 - Little Balkans Days in Pittsburg, KS, at the band shell in Lincoln Park. Trotter smashed an acoustic guitar into the ground. Lots and lots of people joined us onstage.
December 18, 2002 - Mound City Star Assembly. It was a small auditorium packed with high school and middle school students. We ended with "Friends" for some reason.
January 31, 2003 - The Boobie Trap in Topeka, KS, with The Primetime Heroes and Podstar. It was insanely packed, (not because of us, because of TPH) and one kid crowd surfed into a rotating ceiling fan.
September 20, 2003 - Route 66 Theater in Carthage, MO.
November 28, 2003 - Elks Club in Fort Scott, KS.
May 7, 2003 - Foxtown with Sound and The Fury, Axium, Midwest Kings. More people joined us onstage.
July 31, 2004 - Liberty Theatre in Fort Scott, KS. Not really a Pond Monkeys show. Just Derek, Austin and I. But it rocked.
May 7, 2005 - Foxtown. My favorite show yet.

Unfortunately, we're not very consistent live. I've always felt that was something we needed to work on. Some shows are amazing. Others.... not so much. Sometimes we were able to go from one song into the next without missing a beat. Other shows we would stand onstage in an awkward silence trying to figure out what to play next. Not cool. Very embarrassing. And worse, unprofessional. I'm a stickler for the setlist. I want to know ahead of time what we're playing and I want to know that we won't veer from the planned set when we get onstage. I don't like spontaneous song switches--especially onstage. It never turns out well. I won't comment on which shows I thought were our worst, but there were several. All of the shows that took place at the Pittsburg Stage University Gorilla Village gazebo were pretty rough.

Let me briefly touch on my attitude toward touring. We've discussed numerous times the possibility of going on a "mini-tour" across the country, or at the very least, throughout the Midwest. None of us have really been too excited about it. Ultimately, it was my failure to try and book shows outside of a 200 mile radius that prevented us from traveling too far. The reason? I would have to drive. And I hate to drive. Daniel doesn't like to drive either. And I don't trust Austin. And Derek? That's not an option. And unless we would be willing to return to those far away venues at least once every couple of months, we wouldn't build a fanbase anyway. So what's the point? I would much rather stay in our little Eastern Kansas/Western Missouri region and develop a semi-strong following than have a non-existent to weak (at best) following across the Midwest. I've been content with building a good group of fans in the Southeast Kansas, Joplin and Topeka and Leavenworth areas. Until we have a label that provides us with a tour bus (or at least a small RV) with a driver, beds and a shower, I think I'll be ok with not trying to live with Daniel, Austin and Derek in a van for a couple of weeks at a time. Am I asking for too much? Hell yeah. I'm spoiled.

I've always felt bad about having our friends pay money to see us live. First of all, I'm not entirely sure that we're worth paying to see. Second, paying to see us play on a weekly basis adds up pretty quickly. The weird thing is, we generally don't ever see any of the money that our fans are paying. That's another thing I've always had mixed emotions about. I'm not sure if our fans would be happier or not to know that their money isn't actually going to us. But, honestly, I'm not complaining (much, anyway). Pond Monkeys didn't get into this to make money. But occasionally it's nice to at least get enough pay to cover travel expenses to the venue.

We recently played a show with four other bands at which we clearly had the biggest audience and we clearly attracted the most people to the venue. That sounds really conceited. And I sound like an ass. Sorry. But it's true. Of the couple hundred people that were present, we had at least 50 paying customers at the show who came solely to see us. At $5 a pop, that's a decent chunk of change. We didn't see a penny of it. Not even $10 to cover the gas it took us to get there. My point: we have never made a profit doing this. I guess I could say that for us, it really has been about the music. Ha. The only guaranteed pay is our annual Good Ol' Days show. And that money goes right back into the band fund to cover merchandise/recording costs.

Band

I have encountered dozens upon dozens of local and independent bands over the years. Only a few have really struck me as amazing. The Rich Kids is/was one of those bands. Amsterband from Springield is another. And I've seen lots of talented musicians. But you know what's funny? Two of the most talented and unique musicians I have ever seen, anywhere, just so happen to be in this band. I still laugh about the fact that of all the young, confident (and cocky) musicians in Southeast Kansas, the two very best happen to be playing together in Pond Monkeys. And I don't even think these two realize it. I'm obviously not the only one who feels this way. I can't tell you how many times people from other bands and strangers at shows have come up to me absolutely mesmerized by Austin on the drums. It's an every-show occurrence. And Derek, while far more subtle onstage (usually), is just as amazing.

Daniel and I are both decent enough songwriters. And we can both play multiple instruments fairly well. We are incredibly different though. Daniel seems to favor a raw, improvised, anything goes style of instrument playing. I prefer to have everything planned in advance. Every guitar lick, riff and lead. I want every song to be precise and to be played the same, every time. I strive for consistency. Though we've improved a great deal, neither one of us have much of an ability to just "jam" or improvise, especially in regard to playing guitar leads. Ironically, I can see how either one of us might get more credit than we deserve. Because it's Derek and Austin that truly make Pond Monkeys special, and they're usually further in the background.

I don't want to talk much about Austin. He's my brother. And I'll have plenty more opportunities to perform with him. I hope. I will say that he has all the makings of a really good front-man. Just watch him; you can tell that he hates being trapped behind his cage of drums. He wants to be center stage, which is in direct opposition to his position as drummer.

Derek, on the other hand, is much different. He's not unnecessarily flashy onstage, nor does he crave the attention that us other band members seem to. But he knows how to get the job done. When the band is working up a song in practice, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, I'll occasionally make a comment like, "here's where you do your thing, Derek." And like a shot of Red Bull, the song jumps to life. He has an ear for the most obscure, eccentric and unpredictable guitar lines. Sometimes I think he intentionally tries to hit the wrong notes, but they always turn out right. Magic? Yes, I think it is. The ironic thing is, Derek usually doesn't get much time on guitar. With Daniel and I doing most of the singing and songwriting, it's turned out that Derek has often been relegated to bass duties. Which is unfortunate, as it's no secret that the 6-string is his first love. But he's become an unrivaled bassist. Just listen "All The Work In The World", "Truth Be Told", "Keep Moving" or any other song with Derek on bass for an example. And when Derek is on bass and Austin is on drums, Pond Monkeys have what is undoubtedly one of the most unique and rocking rhythm sections in the area. After Daniel leaves, I would wish nothing more than to continue performing with Austin and Derek. It would definitely be different from what we're doing. The three of us have extremely different tastes in music now. But I think that would only work to our advantage. Along with Austin, there's no one else but Derek that I've ever been comfortable with when writing music. And I feel comfortable saying that as Derek probably won't ever read this.

Future

I plan to keep the website up and running for as long as I can. I will definitely continue to post information about what each respective band member is involved with and doing. If new projects and new music are developed, I'll post the information. I'll also continue to keep updating my "movie opinions" on my personal page just because I'd be doing that whether the band was together or not. You can be sure that the message board will remain operational as well.

I'm not sure what will ultimately happen with Pond Monkeys. It's possible that in a couple of months, Derek, Austin, and I will try working some stuff up. We may play a few shows. It's something we've been discussing, and I'm feeling pretty positive about it. My ultimate dream for the band (aside from staying together as is, becoming famous, and touring the world) would be something of an experiment. I think it would be a fun challenge for us and entertainment for our friends if we played a few shows in all of our regular venues every couple of months, each time performing completely new songs with completely different sounds. We could record several CDs as well. It would be hard to gain much of a fan following this way, but it would ensure that the three of us would never get bored. The band would become more of a hobby than the full-time profession I originally wanted it to be. But if the show Derek, Austin, and I played at Liberty Theatre last year is any indication, it could be a lot of fun. That particular performance was one of the most fun concerts we've done, simply because there was absolutely no pressure to impress anyone. We worked up the 7 or so songs over the course of 2 or 3 band practices. The songs were by no means perfect, but they were strong, energetic, and most important, enjoyable to play.

I'm also working on a retrospective DVD of our past shows with tons of pictures of all of our friends and the band over the years. I think it should turn out pretty neat.

Hm. I'll be done now.

Alex Ward

May 30, 2005