Having been featured on a host of 2020 hot lists and named as one of Her.ie’s ‘Ones To Watch’ for 2020, Moncrieff has had a monumental year. Now he is set to release his second EP ‘The Class of 2020’, which is out on December 11th. I caught up with Chris Breheny aka Moncrieff to talk about the new EP and his slight shift in musical style. This EP, like all of Moncrieff’s collections to date, express his journey through life so far through the medium of music as he navigates being in his 20’s during Covid 19 while at the same time providing the listener with catchy, witty lyrics and showcasing deft musicianship in the process.
In true Breheny manner our chat meanders through many topics, from Christmas plans to EP track titles and then ventures into many tangents from there as we discuss how people are coping mentally with the Covid crises, the gym and the dangers of doing a workout beside the kitchen fridge.
“The first lockdown all the gyms were closed for however long so we just started doing runs and stuff like that.That was really good and then the gym’s opened back up, I did a bit in the gym. I stopped running. And now I’m just like, I’m just so unfit. I’m doing this circuit thing at home, I’ll do like 10 minutes and then I’ll do this pull up or push ups. It’s just not the same, when you go to the gym, you’re going somewhere to get something done. But here it’s like you’re in your kitchen. It’s close to the fridge.”
Breheny’s debut body of work ‘The Early Hurts’ EP featured lead track ‘Like I Do’, this debut radio single (released in Sept 2019) received extensive airplay across national radio racking up nearly 12 million audience impressions and 5 million streams. The success of the single and EP led to Moncrieff selling out his first headline show in Dublin in less than 3 hours. His growing reputation also landed support slots touring with headline Irish acts Picture This and Walking on Cars. His new EP ‘Class of 2020’ shows a different facet to Breheny as an artist. The EP was co-produced by Breheny and his friend Toby Scott who has a home studio in Brighton. The result is a collection of songs unconfined by genre that captures the zeitgeist of an ever changing musical and cultural landscape. However one theme that keeps popping up in Moncrieff’s lyrics is how Breheny is terrified to die. In ‘F*CK It – Dance’ (strong in the running for my favourite track on the EP) he contrasts an upbeat, vibrant soundscape with dark lyrical undertones. This mesmerising song is the result of a crazy lockdown.
“Basically, I had a very weird lockdown. I ended up getting close with a friend of mine. She’s a very good friend of mine and I was like, ‘this shouldn’t be a thing’ and she was in agreement. Then things just got really weird, she kind of, got feelings, I thought I had feelings…maybe just not as much as was on her level. Basically long story short, that song, I was right in the middle of it,..writing this song and was kind of, inspired by her.”
The lyrics in this EP are particularly well crafted, highlighting Breheny’s lyrical prowess and songwriting ability – phrases such as “this 2020 depression” can be interpreted many ways, for example, the obvious depressive mental state the world has experienced with isolation and loneliness due to Covid but also a financial depression for many people, especially musicians.
“They take time but the lyrics are always good lyrics. I always have certain phrases stuck in my head for weeks at a time. I have a couple of phrases running in my head and sometimes they’ll fit into a song. I was really worried about putting in 2020 depression because it then frames the song and that year. I’m like, ‘How will that feel in five years’ time when people listen to it?’… I was gonna put in something like “this 20 something depression”, but I just feel this year is such a weird year that it deserves to be named. Each song was written in 2020, and was written during lockdown. It’s been written about the year so there’s no better time to release the EP other than now.”
It all started this year with the release of ‘In My Room‘ however on ‘The Class of 2020’ EP ‘In My Room’ is the last track on the EP.
” I just liked it as a demo. I always like having a demo at the end. It almost feels like, on CDs where the album the last track would be super long, you’d have to skip forward like a minute of silence and then there’d be the secret track. So yeah, it’s just that kind of idea.”
The songwriting is candid as Breheny expresses through his lyrics what he was going through emotionally and physically. Again in ‘imsadandhorny’ he places dark and honest lyrics into an upbeat and extremely catchy tune.
” Yeah, both the last two tracks I produced myself so I wanted to make it like a Selena Gomez type record you know what I mean, like super pop. The melodies are all super pop, but I wanted to inject this overwhelming existential thing in there for the laugh”
“They do feel like singles. But, yeah, producing was painstaking because I’m so slow, but I had a lot of time to produce them”
The EP reflects on a difficult year through the eyes of Moncrieff as he ruminates on feelings and emotions a lot of people have had to cope with however within this EP he digs deep and finds himself looking at how he is living his life and spending his time, The experience has been an eye opener for him.
“Yeah, definitely to a certain degree, it should be an eye opener. If you let it go by, and it doesn’t teach you something about yourself, you certainly missed out. You realize what’s really important when your whole world is brought to a standstill. Anybody going to college doing a degree they have no idea why they are really doing it, they just did it because their parents thought it was a good idea, and not really living up to their own standards. When they realize you could be going to college for a job that could come to an absolute standstill just because of a virus, then you have to really look at how you’re spending your time and what sort of person you want to be.”
”Having none of those distractions (social media) you really have to be cool with being on your own. It’s been a tough year but you should try use it as a learning experience to find out more about yourself and what’s important to you.”
I’ve met Breheny in person and he is a charming and charismatic person. I was surprised to hear how tough he is on himself at times on the EP.
” I guess the side I put out in public is quite extroverted, upbeat and happy, but I don’t really talk. I need to be able to talk more when I’m having trouble and stuff. When I’m going through tough times I don’t bring it to anybody and that’s a really bad thing. My music is where I get it out, that’s where I need to get that kind of stuff out in some way.”
Each song on ‘The Class of 2020’ is catchy, vibrant and polished. When I first heard the EP as a whole I thought it would sit very well with an American audience. I wondered if Breheny had his sights set on America.
“Most of my fans on Spotify are from the States. I’ve 10 times as many followers on Spotify in America as I do in Ireland. The dream is to move to LA and be signed out there. I don’t want to go to LA and be like scraping and trying to like…I’m better doing what I have here. It’s going well and not like super super struggling, but if I go to LA without a proper deal or whatever things in place, it’s going to be a really difficult time. But America is the dream.”
Speaking of America our chat ventured onto the infectious The Fun Boys Three’s snippet of “it ain’t what you do ( it’s the way that you do it)” in his track ‘AMERICA’ and how it made it’s way onto the song
“That actually wasn’t my idea. I write with a guy called Paul Harris, I had the actual instrumental made, which is the beat that I made. I brought that to my mate, and next thing I know, we’re like, we could do this, and…. it just turns into such a sarcastic, like, weird vibe, and it just worked out. If that song went to Imagine Dragons, that’d be a f*cking hit.”
Though the songs take a different slant on the Moncrieff style, Breheny maintains the velvety soul tone of his voice, especially in ‘AMERICA’. The satirical side is quirky and very witty but his vocals never compromise on quality and richness.
” It was a weird one, because you want it to sound laid back and kind of, weird and cool but you don’t want to rap at the same time, you’re still a singer, you know. At first, I’m using auto tune as a kind of effect like an artistic thing. Auto tune is kind of the done thing in pop now.”
With Covid and lack of shows the whole promotion of a new EP is different but Breheny is getting the hang of it and creating mesmerising content, although understandably he is missing gigging terribly.
“Yeah, not ideal. I miss gigging. The songs are designed for when you’re allowed back into a venue without a mask without social distancing and you just want to let loose, having been deprived of a gig. When I do the songs live for the first time properly I’m just gonna go mad, just run down the venue for no reason. Promoting has been weird because, the fact the promoter can’t tour, can’t go into a radio station and then the fact that you can’t make any money from touring. All the videos I’ve done this year have been like 500 pounds ( Sterling ) or less. That is insanely cheap and they’re all independent, indie, low budget music videos. People haven’t gigged, all my money comes from gigs. People think ‘Moncrieff is getting radio play and stuff in Ireland” – that’s all cool – but at the end of the day, it’s me and my manager, no buffer, no label, no nothing, just music that people connect to and my own wallet.”
Breheny has suffered literal pain for his art creating videos where he is hanging upside down in ‘PLAYLOUD’ and hanging from a clothes rail in ‘AMERICA’
“Clothes rail was way worse than hanging upside down. I thought it was gonna be super chill, I had to do the photo shoot and video shoot in one day.The video shoot was done in like an hour, whereas last year it was like three days and by the end of that hanging upside down, I felt really unwell.Then I had to do another shoot and my face is all pale and s**t. But the America one I didn’t think was gonna be that bad. It was just gonna be – get some rope, make a loop at the end of it, put myself into the loop and cut a hole at the back of my jacket and have the rope out through the back. I was going to get some towels or some sponges and wrap it around the rope so that when I hang out of it, it wouldn’t be that painful. But, oh my god ! – it was so f***ing painful. We couldn’t even do a full take of the song. We actually did it in 30 second stretches and put a box underneath me to stand on, in between. It was just so bad, so yeah no more hanging. Next time I’m just gonna sit down with a cup of tea.”
I wondered what Breheny had planned for the coming months.
” I am back in Ireland right now so I’ll be at home writing. I’m looking forward to January to be honest because I have a writing camp scheduled. I’m going to be writing with Pat ( Walking on Cars ) and Conor O’Donohoe ( Wild Youth ), I’ve been writing some stuff with him lately and that’s been really cool. I want to get as many cool writers in Ireland as possible and then rent a house in Dingle for a week, and just go there, set up a camp and write during the day. Then just like, I don’t know, play Xbox at night. I’ve got a couple of live stream recording things. Then, I’m planning a load of tracks for release next year. I’ve got a bunch of tracks coming next year that I’m really excited about. I’m trying to save up my money to release those as well. I’m like, I gotta do a video for that song. I can’t get takeaway this weekend.”
Breheny is a talented songwriter and musician. It’s exciting to see him push boundaries to create music that is universal, fun and honest. His deft melodic prowess and witty character make each track a joy to listen to. Moncrieff is one of the most exciting artists to watch as he develops his sound. Each release is more compelling than the last. ‘The Class Of 2020’ is set for release on 11th December but until then check out his recent single ‘AMERICA’ below
Author : Danu
