And then there was From Monument to Masses.

I had come across their blend of rock, funk, jazz, samples, melody and message via the Information Superhighway (!), aka the interweb, sorry, the Internet. It honestly and truthfully blew me away. I was amazed that they hadn't been played all over the indie and college airwaves, that indie rock critics hadn't applauded their clever music, that they weren't in line for all those hip indie rock magazines that I haven't read in years, that they weren't everywhere.

In some respects, that may be a good thing, for the three members of From Monument to Masses are making big noise with small waves.

01. Give us a little background, how did you start, how did you meet, how did the band come about?

M: In December of 2000, I posted a listing on an online bulletin board, Craig's List. It's big for getting musicians together in the Bay Area. That's how I met Francis. We got together at an hourly space in San Francisco. We really just messed around and didn't have any specific ideas of what we were doing. We just made noise. Francis liked my guitar sound, and I liked his drumming. He knew Sergio from Santa Barbara.

F: Sergio and I attended UCSB together and eventually met through our mutual friend Steve Aoki of Dim Mak Records. There was definitely an immediate bond as we were both two Asian kids alienated by a predominantly rich and white atmosphere. We both needed out of the Santa Barbara environment, so I transferred to Berkeley and Sergio moved up shortly after to start his career. The odd thing is that we never really discussed playing music with one another until Matt came along. He was like this prophetic apostle. Heh.

M: We got together and threw ideas around about what we wanted to do. We didn't really come up with any specifics, but we agreed that it was going to like an experimental lab where we could bring a number of different elements to the table and try to work them all in. It was very freeform in the beginning…

S: Francis hit me up and asked me to play. At that point I hadn't really played bass for five years...really committed, enthusiastic playing anyway. For the last three of those years, I kinda stepped away from guitar-driven "rock" altogether, especially after moving to the Bay Area. I'm not sure what it was, but I decided to check out what they were working on. He mentioned that it sounded like some bands that I was really into. Franny also enticed me with the possibility of fusing the project with my other musical interests outside of the indie/punk canons and the possibility of using it as a cultural forum for me to help agitate politically--help create the "Revolutionary Culture" that Francis and I always use to exchange ideas about. Bottom line was that he promised that the project was open to becoming the perfect blend of art and revolution that I always longed for. (And the project's definitely been living up to that promise.)

02. Apart from FMTM, all three of you have different mediums through which you create. According to your website, Sergio has web design and makes t-shirts, Francis does film and Matthew paints (and also plays in another band!), how do you feel these things fit in creatively with the way FMTM sounds and also in the way you contribute individually to the music?

S: I'm actually going back to school to be a high school art teacher. I've been a visual artist at times, and I've done graphic design and been a partner at a small design studio for a while. I still do freelance design. I think that my general openness to checking out new ideas (visual, written, sonic, or otherwise) plays a part in how I contribute to FMTM. Plus, when I'm doing visual work, I always acknowledge that I'm using ideas and styles that others have done--sometimes a million times better than what I do with them--and that I'm not all Mr. Original Creator guy. I know that I'm just processing what I consume. Anyway, I think that's true of our music too. It really is this stew of different ideas, politically, creatively, whatever. Yeah. We're all visually-oriented people. Matthew paints, Francis does video work, and I futz around with graphic design, multimedia stuff, and have gone back to sketching and painting. In fact, when we started the band we said that we wanted to incorporate projected video/multimedia in our live show. We're still not rich enough to buy the necessary equipment, but one day such toys shall be liberated! We have plans in store such as multimedia releases (CD-Rom), web stuff, as well as the lovely world of print. As far as documentation goes, I'm a firm believer in documenting art projects or projects in general. Part of it comes from art school--being hammered with the idea of documenting your work; also it comes from my People's history (and all oppressed People's history)--the historical track record has shown that if we don't document our work and stories, the system sure as hell won't. For People engaged in resistance, it's crucial that we take steps at collecting our stories to share with others and ensure continuity. So I guess I kinda push this idea of documenting what we do through recording demos, collecting news clippings, doing flyers, etc. That in turn helps push FMTM forward, I think.

M: I'm a painter as well as a musician although I'm not practicing at the moment because I'm so heavily invested in music. I do this band, and I play bass in a spastic jazz-metal band called The Mass (http://www.the-mass.org/ ). I work doing distribution and accounting for a not-for-profit bilingual paper called War Times (http://www.war-times.org/ ) which is based out of San Francisco. That's not particularly creative, but I think that independent media is really important, so I want to support that. I suppose that generally, since we're all artists of sorts, we push ourselves to try to be different… but we still want to stay as accessible as possible. I think art can move people, and people can move mountains, but critical art theory can't move shit, so we try to stay away from that.

F: I play in another musical project as well, which many consider the bipolar of FMTM. I enjoy it as it allows me to do more conventional vocals and explore some of my pop-sensibilities (which I think FMTM can learn from if our goal remains to explore various genres of music and musical execution). In addition to that, my other forte and passion is filmmaking. I have a BA in film studies and go about cinema with the same philosophy as I do music: that is, to politicize the popular entertainment medium and use it as a means to bring political knowledge and issues to the masses. I am currently applying for graduate programs to start school again in the fall 2003 semester.

03. Your music is multi-layered, and dynamic. Longer songs, samples, different melodies. There are hints of other bands in there or at last it reminds me so. One of the bands would be Rage Against the Machine, not so much musically, but also from a political standpoint perhaps? Granted there are very few vocals, yet there is a strong message with the samples. What is the kind of message you're communicating?

S: Love them. [Rage Against the Machine.] Many people think, "Oh they're sellouts." I think that's a simplistic argument that denies their efforts at radicalizing rock. Regardless of musical taste, they're into politicizing rock music content/lyrics. I have to give them props on even touching subjects like the prison industrial complex, Chiapas, or 9/11 when most mainstream lyrics are either the self-indulgent angst of "nu-metal" or corporate "bitches, niggaz, 'n' hoes" hip-hop. Sure, you can argue the whole selling out issue to death or whether subversive acts like this work, but if out of that bunch of initial fans even a few are moved to research current events and rally for change, that's pretty moving and effective.

M: It's strange with FMTM, because (and I can only speak from my own opinion) we're putting stuff out there, which might make it seem, to some people, as if we're espousing a particular belief system, and that we represent only one political ideology. The band and its message are actually works-in-progress. It's a protracted process of developing and finding our voice, but trying to do it in such a way that we assert our fundamental concerns, and ask very fundamental questions. We definitely have our ideological biases, but they don't always dictate how we wish to connect with people. I see most of my community as political blank slates, who are sometimes willing, but in most cases have not identified their liberal "americanness" as an obstacle to true foundational change. I want those people to hear this music. I want them not to feel disenfranchised -- to feel as if there's a place for them in the struggle. Ideally (and this is a slow arduous task) I'd like this band to become a strong contributor to a dynamic culture of resistance (which is ailing in this country, particularly among young white people) which will help to promote an internationalist, anti-imperialist analysis of world politics and to help organize those interested in doing political work. To do this, however, I have a lot of learning to do, and a lot of guidance to take from other organizers, particularly organizers of color. Oppressed communities of color will not be "led" or "liberated" by white people, but white people can play an important role.

F: To me, I first and foremost play music because I enjoy it and the performance/audience dynamics. Connecting with Sergio and Matt was just a lucky and added benefit in that it has allowed us to put a collective, political slant to the music. The people are initially lured to the music because they like it, so we try our best to make appealing music that attempts to amalgamate different genres and reach a diverse cross section of people. Within that sonic structure, we apply passionate political sampling and vocals of which will either peak people's curiosities, or perhaps even turn them off. Regardless, when in the end a single individual walks up to us and asks whose voice that was or where they can learn more about certain issues, then our objective is done. The music itself is only a catalyst that will hopefully urge people to start their own information process.

04. You're based on the West Coast (SF), but Matthew is from Omaha and was based in Chicago for some time. How do you feel about getting your sound out nationally, to build awareness? How do you feel the different scenes differ, from the west coast, to the northwest to the midwest and the east coast?

M: Well, I can't see us dwelling on this, but suffice it to say, our distaste for the Bay Area scene is partly what drew us together. I played music in Chicago from '94 - '98, so I had pretty high standards for how powerful a scene can/should be. Francis & Sergio were for a while pretty deep into the SoCal hardcore, indie, and emo scenes, which, for better or for worse, were pretty thriving during those years. We love to play in the Bay Area, but our focus is national at this point. Dim Mak, Lumberjack, and most recently A.D.A. have been pretty helpful in that regard.

05. Your backgrounds are ethnically diverse. I noticed a news item where an interview is coming out with FMTM for Yell!, an Asian American and Pacific Islander magazine. My own band is ethnically diverse, and despite the Midwestern white suburban cry boys making noise stereotype, that seems to be rampant in emo and indie rock, how has that shaped anything in the band? What does that bring to it?

F: As far as being Asian in America, I went through the typical rejection of my culture growing up and creating internalized self-oppression. I was embarrassed to speak the language in public, embarrassed of the smell of my home, embarrassed by my parents' naivete of simple American culture. It bothered me to feel this way, and I was very bitter and conflicted, especially growing up in a racist and reactionary town like Bakersfield. It was a disorientating dynamic, trying to maintain my ethnic pride because it was and is who I am, but at the same time, attempting to camouflage myself and maintain the role of the invisible and model minority. This was why I eventually got into the "tolerant" punk scene. The whole PC politics and idea of color blindness was comforting at first, but not realistic. It let me avoid the issues of race and analytical politics when they were issues that deserved to be amplified in my community. I eventually saw that the scene could inherit that philosophy because they were mostly privileged white suburbanites who never had to deal with racial oppression. But I can't help the fact that I love the music and the DIY nature of it all which is why it's so comforting being in a band with Sergio, and promoting our shows to people of color. The number of non-Caucasians has actually outnumbered Caucasians at some of our shows. That's a feat!

S: The work I involve myself mostly in is the Filipino Kilusan or "movement" for National Democracy in the Philippines as well as the improvement of our communities all over the world. So from that stems a lot of issues-- For example, currently, War on Terrorism stuff is demanding a lot of time and energy. Particularly around the return of U.S. troops to the archipelago after the People's Movement worked so hard to push them out to begin with. The Philippines has had a long history with U.S. Imperialism, which in a lot of ways is the cause of why so many of us have had to leave the country for places like the U.S., Canada, Saudi Arabia, China, Europe, etc. The return of the troops is just another blip in a long history of struggle. In the U.S., our community faces issues that most communities of color face here in the Belly of the Beast: Gentrification, loss of culture, limited economic opportunities, police brutality / racial profiling, incarceration, scapegoating, etc. Right now, the Filipino Community living in the U.S. is also being affected by the War on Terrorism as many are facing massive job loss due the government's decision to partially blame 9/11 on Airport Screeners. In the Bay Area, a majority of the Airport Screeners are Filipino immigrants who have retained their Philippine citizenship. The Federal gov't recently called for all Airport Screeners to be citizens, meaning all those folks are gonna be laid off simply because of their citizenship status. Nevermind the fact that many of them have been working the job for upwards of 14 years and are the most qualified for the job. Now they can't work it cuz they're not U.S. citizens? What does that say about non-citizens? Are they a "security risk"? And of course, there is an emphasis with strengthening ties between my community and other struggling Peoples, domestically and internationally. The struggle is international, so the strategy is to strengthen each community internally so that they can stand on their own and then bring the communities together. For those of us in the U.S., we have a special role to play in bringing communities together, I believe. Especially when it comes to highlighting the problems in our nations of origin. How has that shaped the band? Well, again, FMTM is the product of our experiences. It affects the types of shows that we play (benefits, community celebrations, etc.) as well as the content of our shows. We often change up the samples for our live shows to reflect recent world developments. Of course, stuff in the Philippines gets a place in the FMTM show! Heh. I think that the things that we try to communicate in our music are ideas that don't get covered by the "suburban cry boys," as you call 'em, simply because they too are products of their experiences. Can't really expect much else. But, as Francis mentioned, since there aren't many people of color in the emo/indie world, I think Francis and I are helping to bring something new to the table simply by the nature of who we are.

06. I found out about you through the internet, which I truly love, this fact that I can find some amazing amazing music out there. How do you feel that has helped (if at all) with people knowing about FMTM? Has it helped?

M: Francis should talk about that. He's our resident critical internet theorist. I'd say the internet is pretty indispensable for us. If there were no internet, we'd have to learn to use the phone and mail postcards and shit...

F: Funny anecdote: since our band name is long and often confused, we initially bought several domain names with 'monument' and 'masses' both singularized and pluralized and had them all directed to our official site. But back to the question, it's quite simple. There are lots of sites these days dedicated to introducing a broad range of independent music to people (e.g. epitonic, insound, sputnik7, etc.). They have the music split up into genres and sub-genres, list comparisons with other bands, offer mp3 samples and sales as well. I can't see any other better way to find and try out music as many bands can't tour or tour extensively, nor is it even economically feasible for the listener to attend every show that comes into town in the hopes of finding one he/she likes. It's a great forum to get your music across. At the same time, it's such an accessible forum that it's easy to get lost in the crowd, but regardless, the music is only a search engine away.

S: Plus for me, if I had the Internet a while back, I probably would've saved a lot of money seeing bad bands I'd never heard of! I'm sure people think the same about us.

07. What sort of band ethic have you guys come up with? How do you work with each other, both recording wise, on tour and in the studio?

F: I equate our songs and our live performance to something more like a short play. We adhere to a set list as the samples need to be chronologically pre-set (That's currently a limitation of the budget technology we employ). Yet, we tend to blend from one act to another without making abrupt statements that a song is over. While we like the seamlessness of it, this is also strategic because we'd rather not have our morale destroyed by "hearing" the sounds of a non-enthused crowd. We try NOT to approach our song-writing as a formulaic verse, chorus act in which revisiting parts is convention. Instead, we often sit down and come up with small segments and musical themes, build layer upon layer, and attach another new and interesting link. This can explain both why we take forever to write a song and why our songs last forever.

M: Our songwriting is extremely slow, and extremely collaborative. Very process oriented. At first, the politicized samples were laid into the song after it was written, but now we write with the whole picture in mind. We definitely try to write a song as a series of movements that tell a story, like a soundtrack for a film. We're all very visually geared people, so it makes sense to us this way. As far as how we get along as people, on tour and stuff... we're making progress. Honestly, we're an unlikely aggregate of folks - but we talk to one another a lot, and have gotten to a point where we are great friends, and communicate fairly well. ...but it's taken a long time to get to this point. Maybe the struggle has fortified our friendships, and made them more "real" somehow.

S: Absolutely! That's the nature of struggle. I think, in the end, we're better for having worked through stuff rather than ignoring things. The three of us have definitely gotten closer simply out of dealing with arguments, playing great shows together, touring, etc. So band ethics…number one is realizing that while it's fun and we're getting a few things accomplished, we try to keep things in perspective. We're all busy people with a lot going on in our lives. With the band and its politics, it's important that we remember that it's "just a band" with limitations. Writing great songs alone won't change things. That's why each of us does other work, some with organizing, some with other cultural work, some with publications, etc. Movements are broad and we gotta remember our place in them. FMTM is not the movement, just a small part up in it.

08. I'm dying to see you guys play out here in Chicago (and the Midwest) sometime, and short of flying out west to see you, what are the future plans for touring looking east?

M: We're working on getting booking representation right now. We've DIY'ed it thus far, and that's great experience, but exhausting as you probably know. So we've tentatively got our sights set on early summer 2003 for a full national tour, and probably a couple little jaunts towards the middle of the country between now and then. We'll keep you posted.

F: I'm actually considering moving to Chicago so I'd be happy to do a solo fmtm jug performance.

09. And on that note, what are the future plans for the band and individually?

M: We intend to keep on keepin' on. We've had vague discussions about the probable longevity of the band. There's no way to tell just how far we want to take this, but it's safe to say that we'll be around for a while. We're making arrangements now for recording a new full length that we hope to get out by early spring of 2003. We're really excited about that - psyched about our new songs, and psyched to put much more love and effort into the recording. My personal future? I just want to keep making music and causing problems for the State. Hopefully IT Administration will continue to bankroll those efforts. Thanks for interviewing us, Naz. You rock.

S: Yeah, just keep plugging ahead. Continue to push ourselves to create, innovate, and elevate as much as possible. Personally, I'm looking forward to getting into the classroom as well as building up a new body of work--paintings, personal music projects, more Cell68 in 2003. Thanks for the interview. Hope it works out.

F: I need a job.