Interview with Jon Harvey of Monster Truck
Ahead of their show at Cardiff University Student’s Union, Alex Swift sat down with Jon Harvey of Monster Truck to talk about the new album, his biggest musical influences, and not predominantly listening to rock.
MoM: How has the tour been going so far?
Jon Harvey: It’s been fantastic. A lot better than we imagined after three years. It’s been a long time since we’ve been over and yeah, it’s going great. We’re having a really good time and all the crowds have been awesome. Great response, lots of singing so couldn’t ask for more.
MoM: Amazing. Just for readers who may have never listened to Monster Truck before, how would you describe your sound?
Jon Harvey: Well, the name kind of says it all. If it sounds like red-neck kind of rock, that’s heavy then that’s pretty much what it is. It sounds like Southern heavy rock. (Laughing) You might like it or you might hate it
MoM: So, looking at your time playing in Wales before, you’ve played Steelhouse Festival a number of times and last time you were here I think it was in 2018 supporting Black Stone Cherry, so what have your experiences been like playing here?
Jon Harvey: Great. Welsh crowds are always amazing. Always the most sing-along, always the most excited. It’s great. We have a few places in Canada that are similar to Wales. Our East Coast of Canada is the same idea. It’s kind of on the far side, and same kind of enthusiasm but its really cool to see and to come play here, because in my experience we’ve never had a bad show.
MoM: So, you’ve got a new album out, Warriors, which is great. You’ve experimented with everything from blues to metal, to country rock on this record and you’ve said you try and make every album different in its own way, so what specifically were the way’s you tried to do that this time around?
Jon Harvey: I think with this one we were trying to make something that sounded like who we were at the time. I don’t think we’ve always tried to do that – it was always like “let’s try and write some hits, or let’s try and do this, or try and do that”. And, on True Rockers we really tried to write hits and experiment and get out there and we decided that on Warriors, let’s just stick with who we are and be true to ourselves, because that’s what people want anyway. They didn’t want us to be different, they just wanted us to be Monster Truck. So, Warriors I think is a good snapshot of who we are now in these days, or at least who we are in this project, musically. I think its accurate to say that it captures us a lot more in our essence as our previous albums.
MoM: On that point, what were your influences going into writing the album. What are the artists or sounds that really shaped the sound of the album?
Jon Harvey: To be honest, I was trying to sound like us. My greatest goal was to make a Monster Truck record that sounded like a quintessential Monster Truck record. We had a bunch of different things after three full lengths and a couple of EPs. We went a few different places and really, I wanted to be inspired by us. I wanted to carry on where Furiosity left off and where Sittin’ Heavy left off. Rather than focus on changing again I wanted to focus on what we’ve done. Warriors is about staying true to what we started as.
MoM: What’s a band or musician that you like that fans wouldn’t expect you to listen to?
Jon Harvey: Oh, I listen to tonnes of Jazz. Like, a lot of Jazz. It’s interesting – we all listen to crazy things. I listen to every different genre. None of us really exclusively listen to rock, it’s more of a good time, but yeah, I’m very much into Jazz, the current Jazz movement, that stuff. It’s kind of weird
MoM: No, that’s really interesting. I don’t think fans would expect you to like Jazz, so it does answer the question. I want to talk about some of the guest collaborations on this album. So, Dave Baksh from Sum 41, Chris Robertson from Black Stone Cherry, and Jimmy Bowskill from The Sheepdogs. How did those collabs come about and what made you select them specifically?
Jon Harvey: Well, Dave was easy for Warriors because he’s been a friend of ours for a long time and we needed a metal solo and who better than the dude from Sum 41 to play a metal solo? He’s kind of known for that in that realm, and he’s also just an amazing player and a great friend. It was really easy to be like “Bro, do you wanna do this?” and he was on board immediately. And then with Chris we did Get My Things And Go and it’s kind of like a blues song so who better to ask to shred a blues song than Chris from Black Stone Cherry? And he’s just such a gracious dude. Such an awesome guy, so really lucky to have him on that track. And Jimmy – he’s a buddy from Canada. Fellow country boy so it was easy to get him for Country Livin. We wanted a Slide player and that’s what one of Jimmy’s talents is.
MoM: As well as that, Eric Ratz produced the album. He’s work with acts from Billy Talent to Danko Jones spanning punk and hard rock. What made you want to work with him for achieving your intention with the sound of Warriors?
Jon Harvey: He did our first two albums so the only album he hasn’t done for us is True Rockers, but Ratz did all of our other one’s and yeah, he pretty much shaped the sound of our band. So, if Warriors sounds more like our earlier records, it’s because it’s the same crew. All the same people worked on it.
MoM: One of the things I really like about Warriors is the positivity in the lyrics. So, in songs like Live Free and Love & Time and lots of your songs really, you spread a message of not wanting to be held down and striving for what you deserve while being respectful to everyone. What’s the message you’d like fans to take away from this album?
Jon Harvey: I think you just said it. Literally, the albums about living your life, being a good person and not adhering to certain things and carving your own path, basically. It’s pretty easy to tell whether you’re doing the right and wrong thing. I think we’ve always been about being honorable dudes and the interesting thing about it is a lot of people don’t look at it in a positive way, so it’s good that you looked at it that way because that’s the way we tried to come across. We’re trying to give people a good message – a message of hope, rather than a message of “this is what’s wrong?”. The opposite of that is what we want to put out there.
MoM: Finally, something we like to do at Musipedia Of Metal is to ask for two lies and a truth. So, can you tell me two false things, and one true fact about any of the members of the band and its up to the readers to figure out which is which.
Jon Harvey: Haha, what can I say? Oh, I have eleven toes, my favourite food is watermelon, and I once refused a drink from Lemmy.
Ahead of their show at Cardiff University Student’s Union, Alex Swift sat down with Jon Harvey of Monster Truck to talk about the new album, his biggest musical influences, and not predominantly listening to rock.
MoM: How has the tour been going so far?
Jon Harvey: It’s been fantastic. A lot better than we imagined after three years. It’s been a long time since we’ve been over and yeah, it’s going great. We’re having a really good time and all the crowds have been awesome. Great response, lots of singing so couldn’t ask for more.
MoM: Amazing. Just for readers who may have never listened to Monster Truck before, how would you describe your sound?
Jon Harvey: Well, the name kind of says it all. If it sounds like red-neck kind of rock, that’s heavy then that’s pretty much what it is. It sounds like Southern heavy rock. (Laughing) You might like it or you might hate it
MoM: So, looking at your time playing in Wales before, you’ve played Steelhouse Festival a number of times and last time you were here I think it was in 2018 supporting Black Stone Cherry, so what have your experiences been like playing here?
Jon Harvey: Great. Welsh crowds are always amazing. Always the most sing-along, always the most excited. It’s great. We have a few places in Canada that are similar to Wales. Our East Coast of Canada is the same idea. It’s kind of on the far side, and same kind of enthusiasm but its really cool to see and to come play here, because in my experience we’ve never had a bad show.
MoM: So, you’ve got a new album out, Warriors, which is great. You’ve experimented with everything from blues to metal, to country rock on this record and you’ve said you try and make every album different in its own way, so what specifically were the way’s you tried to do that this time around?
Jon Harvey: I think with this one we were trying to make something that sounded like who we were at the time. I don’t think we’ve always tried to do that – it was always like “let’s try and write some hits, or let’s try and do this, or try and do that”. And, on True Rockers we really tried to write hits and experiment and get out there and we decided that on Warriors, let’s just stick with who we are and be true to ourselves, because that’s what people want anyway. They didn’t want us to be different, they just wanted us to be Monster Truck. So, Warriors I think is a good snapshot of who we are now in these days, or at least who we are in this project, musically. I think its accurate to say that it captures us a lot more in our essence as our previous albums.
MoM: On that point, what were your influences going into writing the album. What are the artists or sounds that really shaped the sound of the album?
Jon Harvey: To be honest, I was trying to sound like us. My greatest goal was to make a Monster Truck record that sounded like a quintessential Monster Truck record. We had a bunch of different things after three full lengths and a couple of EPs. We went a few different places and really, I wanted to be inspired by us. I wanted to carry on where Furiosity left off and where Sittin’ Heavy left off. Rather than focus on changing again I wanted to focus on what we’ve done. Warriors is about staying true to what we started as.
MoM: What’s a band or musician that you like that fans wouldn’t expect you to listen to?
Jon Harvey: Oh, I listen to tonnes of Jazz. Like, a lot of Jazz. It’s interesting – we all listen to crazy things. I listen to every different genre. None of us really exclusively listen to rock, it’s more of a good time, but yeah, I’m very much into Jazz, the current Jazz movement, that stuff. It’s kind of weird
MoM: No, that’s really interesting. I don’t think fans would expect you to like Jazz, so it does answer the question. I want to talk about some of the guest collaborations on this album. So, Dave Baksh from Sum 41, Chris Robertson from Black Stone Cherry, and Jimmy Bowskill from The Sheepdogs. How did those collabs come about and what made you select them specifically?
Jon Harvey: Well, Dave was easy for Warriors because he’s been a friend of ours for a long time and we needed a metal solo and who better than the dude from Sum 41 to play a metal solo? He’s kind of known for that in that realm, and he’s also just an amazing player and a great friend. It was really easy to be like “Bro, do you wanna do this?” and he was on board immediately. And then with Chris we did Get My Things And Go and it’s kind of like a blues song so who better to ask to shred a blues song than Chris from Black Stone Cherry? And he’s just such a gracious dude. Such an awesome guy, so really lucky to have him on that track. And Jimmy – he’s a buddy from Canada. Fellow country boy so it was easy to get him for Country Livin. We wanted a Slide player and that’s what one of Jimmy’s talents is.
MoM: As well as that, Eric Ratz produced the album. He’s work with acts from Billy Talent to Danko Jones spanning punk and hard rock. What made you want to work with him for achieving your intention with the sound of Warriors?
Jon Harvey: He did our first two albums so the only album he hasn’t done for us is True Rockers, but Ratz did all of our other one’s and yeah, he pretty much shaped the sound of our band. So, if Warriors sounds more like our earlier records, it’s because it’s the same crew. All the same people worked on it.
MoM: One of the things I really like about Warriors is the positivity in the lyrics. So, in songs like Live Free and Love & Time and lots of your songs really, you spread a message of not wanting to be held down and striving for what you deserve while being respectful to everyone. What’s the message you’d like fans to take away from this album?
Jon Harvey: I think you just said it. Literally, the albums about living your life, being a good person and not adhering to certain things and carving your own path, basically. It’s pretty easy to tell whether you’re doing the right and wrong thing. I think we’ve always been about being honorable dudes and the interesting thing about it is a lot of people don’t look at it in a positive way, so it’s good that you looked at it that way because that’s the way we tried to come across. We’re trying to give people a good message – a message of hope, rather than a message of “this is what’s wrong?”. The opposite of that is what we want to put out there.
MoM: Finally, something we like to do at Musipedia Of Metal is to ask for two lies and a truth. So, can you tell me two false things, and one true fact about any of the members of the band and its up to the readers to figure out which is which.
Jon Harvey: Haha, what can I say? Oh, I have eleven toes, my favourite food is watermelon, and I once refused a drink from Lemmy.