You read it here first – Monty Willers is going to be huge in 2020 and, possibly beyond. He already has 600 plus dedicated listeners on Spotify with his most memorable song Paradox surpassing 50,000 streams. We will gladly claim him as one of our own, though, truth be told he emigrated here with his parents from England when he was four. Mike Alexander interviewed him for Muzic.net.nz and here's what went down:

You are not originally from 'the land of the long white cloud', so how did you end up in New Zealand?

So, I was born in the concrete jungle of Peckham, London in 2000 on February 13, so I am a  millennial.

Originally, a lot of my family had moved here for a better life and after things in the UK started getting complicated for my parents in regards to the government and family living, they decided to move to New Zealand for a better life and a better way of living. When I was four, my parents decided to move as they were sick and tired of the trouble they endured while living in the UK, And New Zealand seemed to be a country of new beginnings and hope for the future.

What’s the upside of having your world turned upside down?

Automatically I was classed as an outsider when we moved here and I was not familiar with the culture of New Zealand. My parents split when I was eight years old, which really took a toll on me as a youngster. As I grew older, I found myself within the wrong groups of people, I only cared about two things, myself and my so called ‘friends’.

I was kicked out of multiple schools until the age of 15 and, as I got older I started to learn off these mistakes. I am so thankful for everything that happened to me as a child and young teenager. I believe that if I didn’t go through these life lessons then I wouldn’t be the young creative artist I am today.

Do you miss home?

I miss the idea of being in a society where pop culture is highly valued and where the music industry is seen as one of the greatest in the world. I definitely don't miss the way of life or how things were planning out for my family. 

What was the first song or piece of music you heard that made you think I want to do that?

I grew up listening to the Beatles as my old man was a DJ back in the day and loved his electro music but would always have his vinyls for the Beatles, which I would always put on at home. For me they were my inspiration but I definitely believe that Avicii was one of my biggest “I want to be like him” inspirations. The way he composed music and made something of himself from just following a dream and never giving up, he really gave me the hope that I could also reach my highest endeavours. 

Do you consider yourself a poet, a revolutionary or a commentator?

I consider myself a poet and revolutionary to be honest. I see myself writing songs that could make a huge impact for the younger generation but then also writing songs that could just represent being young and silly, a first heartbreak, the feeling of isolation and being out of the circle.

Writing for me has always been a way to express my feelings and emotions without causing stress to myself or the closest people to me. It has been an escape of mine for years.  I can sit down and write a song in minutes, sometimes hours/days/weeks just really depends on where I am at in the moment. The amazing thing about writing music and recording is how the time will pass for me. One moment it's 7pm and I’m starting to record or write my next song and the next minute I look at the time and its 5am and it has felt like an hour, if that. For me that's a huge indication that what I’m doing is something I love and have a passion for but mostly something that I know I'm good at!

You already have some pretty spectacular numbers on Spotify. Can you talk us through Paradox, which is 50,000 streams plus and features Sophia Fisher?  Who dat, so to speak?

So, Paradox for me was my first ever appearance on major streaming platforms. I’d been in contact through Instagram with a producer from America called Cole Hunter, who has now become a good friend of mine. I saw that he did a song with Sophia Fisher who I instantly went, like, "woah, ! have to do a song with her as I’ve always wanted to work with a female vocalist". Once I’d been I’d been in contact with Cole, I got in contact with her and she sent me the instrumental to Paradox which had been produced by Cole. I spent about three weeks recording over recording trying to get this hook and verse to come out how I wanted it to!

When we released Paradox, it was super scary ii guess almost like sending your child out into the world with no idea how it’ll be perceived and what the outcome could be! After about two months Paradox had around 12,000 streams on Spotify and then one day Sophia messaged me out of the blue saying that the numbers were spiking and that the song was growing like crazy, which was one of the best feelings I had ever had knowing people were listening to something I’d put my heart and soul into and were actually enjoying something deeper than just a sound from it. Since Paradox, Sophia and I have been behind the scenes talking about another possible collaborations but the time needs to be right for both of us to really be able to work with one another on making another gorgeous body of work. 

There’s also a very poignant song called Oh Lord, which is almost confessional in nature. How important do you think having faith in a bigger picture, whether you call that God or not, is in this day and age?

So, Oh Lord I wrote one day when I'd been going through some tough times with mostly myself but others around me – seeing good friends being dragged down by rotten people and myself being dragged down by rotten people including myself. I've always believed in a higher power but I don't class myself as a Christian or a believer of God but 100000000% have always respected and understood the idea of religion and God. I think  everyone needs to believe that there's something or someone out there looking over them even if its themselves. From a different perspective, I really feel like the mistakes I’ve made in life and come out of unscathed are because something had my back and as my step dad would say “it ain't your time to cark it yet”.

Keeping that mindset of you’re not alone has made me the artist and musician I am today and I know it helps me push through any obstacle in my way.. 

The five or so songs on Spotify are world class in terms of lyrical content, arrangements beats etc?  Are you a one-man band or do you have a “production” team?

I started writing music with my friends when I was about 17 and we kinda just did it for fun but always talked about our plans for the future. We set so many goals, some achievable and some others that people may think are too optimistic. In my eyes the ones that seem unreachable are the ones that are crazy enough to change the world and ones that make me the person I am today. 

We would use normal YouTube beats from certain producers and eventually I found myself deciding to veer away from production and focus on myself as a writer/ recording artist.

I found myself falling into this genre of xxx tentacion type beats and I wrote a few singles by myself along with these beats. I then invested into getting my own studio gear, just something simple. Then I began recording on beats from a producer called “tundra beats” off YouTube who I had really grown a liking towards due to his style. Eventually, I decided this is what I want to do as a career and this is what I want to change my life. I set up to release my first three song EP which was huge for me and I dropped it on July 12 this year! For my first official solo release it did super well as the EP gained about 25,000. My song tightrope climbed  to 12,000 streams by itself with minor promotions and no decent algorithmic play-listing on Spotify!

I then dropped a few singles to be consistent with this content as I wanted my listeners to have more than just general engagement, but in doing this, I felt I rushed myself and I dropped JK I LOVE YOU, “Devil & the Angel and Oh lord. After dropping Oh Lord I came to the realisation that I needed to take my music to the next level. None of this underground stuff I wanted to go commercial. By then I’d paid for a few beats through a producer website forum called beatstars and had been recording and engineering myself and getting mix and masters done from friends or other engineers. I began planning a trip to Auckland to make the biggest move I’ve ever made for myself as an artist and my music. I linked up with a good friend of mine Jhan Arslan, who has his own videography company/ production company and our goal was to make something New Zealand had never seen from a local artist before. I then linked with this amazing producer my friend plugged me with called Roman Schwerdtfeger, who is an incredible engineer/producer who is amazing at what he does. After the session we realised that this was the step and chance we needed to take to get my music commercially viable and ready for not just the New Zealand market but for the international market too. We finished the trip up and had recorded two insane music videos alongside three insane songs which y’all will get to hear in 2020!

I gather you have some big plans for 2020. Can you tell us about them?

Sooooo, I have my big debut single release with crazy visuals dropping on January 10. The song we are hoping with the right placement and work from our end will make it to the charts. I’m so excited for everyone to hear this. For me as an artist this is about growing and showing my fans/the world that I’m still only in the beginning stages of my career!

I can’t say much more but I will say there are three singles including DMF which stands for “DRINK MY FEELINGS” which drops January12 and the other two y’all will just have to wait and see when they come…. all I can say really is 2019 I’ve been building my team and myself and 2020 we’re coming in with a huge bang! Not just any bang. I can’t wait to take y’all for the ride with me.

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