Australian rockers Monks of Mellonwah release debut album Turn the People

Australian band Monks of Mellonwah released their debut album Turn the People last week – a very artistic take on alternative music, featuring both self-production and work by producers such as Keith Olsen, who worked with Grateful Dead and Ozzy Osbourne.

We recommend you check the album’s lead single Tear Your Hate Apart, a melodic blend of alternative rock and synth-pop. The band also recently released a  stylish and spooky video for Ghost Stories, which you can view below.

Lead vocalist Vikram Kaushik, guitarist Joseph de la Hoyde, drummer Joshua Baissari and bassist John de la Hoyde have been together for a little over four years, in which they’ve toured the US, Australia and Singapore and were named International Rock Artist of the Year at the 22^nd annual LA Music Awards.

“During the last three years we’ve developed both as individual musicians, but more importantly, collectively as a band,” says de la Hoyde. Before their debut album, Monks of Mellonwah had released three EPs, beginning in 2010 with Stars Are Out, a five-track debut that featured the single Swamp Groove, which became the group’s first popular single on Australian radio. In 2011, they followed the classic rock and retro sounds of Stars Are Out with an edgy alt-rock single release entitled Kyoto.

Monks of Mellonwah set out musically not to repeat past styles, yet rather to pave the future for alternative rock. In doing so, they take the preeminent sounds of 70s psychedelic rock and 90s alternative and blend it into something fresh and new. Their music is an adventure, not a destination.

Martina Dechevska
Photo: Trini Cromie

For further information about Monks of Mellonwah visit their website here.

Watch the video for Ghost Stories here: