Interview: Chelsea Monteiro

Art by Chelsea Monteiro.

"Anything you find your hands on can be used to make something cool."

Chelsea Monteiro (she/her and they/them) is a lot of things. She's the daughter of Mike Monteiro, a visual artist, a label owner, and a musician with a rich catalog under her belt. Her knack for songwriting and soundscapes are ambitious to say the least, taking influences from House to Progressive Electronic to Hypnagogic Pop and beyond to meld into a style that is uniquely hers. With the announcement of her new album Submarine, scheduled for a January 2021 release, I wanted to catch up with her and see what she was up to.

 

Melissa: How are you doing, Chelsea?

Chelsea Monteiro: I'm doing alright, sitting on my couch. You?

M: I'm doing okay myself, a bit hyped.

CM: Oh sweet, we're hyped!

M: Yeah! You've put an album on Sonemic called Submarine, slated for a late January release. Can you tell me a little bit about it?

CM: Yeah, it's a largely Downtempo album, all focused on a journey into a surreal, psychedelic sea as it shimmers all around you. It's probably around 40% done as of typing now, as long as I don't throw anything else in. I've always had an attraction to the sea, and the many mysteries it holds underneath the waves.

Album cover for Chelsea Monteiro's upcoming album, Submarine.

M: Would you say that there's a concept to Submarine beyond its focus on the ocean?

CM: I'd say there's an extremely loose concept to it, like my other albums before. It's not spelled out, but I generally arrange my albums in a way where there's an attempt of progression in the music. My brain will often find concepts in albums that aren't intentional, and I wanted to plant seeds like that in the music for other people to possibly make.

M: Well on that note, would you say there's a sort-of overarching theme across multiple releases of which Submarine is a continuation?

CM: Not in a narrative way, I don't think, it's more of an exploration of atmospheric work and soundscaping placed in a new element. It's almost more of a Disneyland ride in a way, where you sit down in the submarine and go on an adventure staring out the porthole. The album is structured in a way where you are slowly getting closer and closer to the sea bed, and I really hope it comes across to the listener.

M: That sounds frankly amazing.

CM: Thank you!

M: Speaking of rides, you recently created a new alias called Circular Dynamics and dropped the sequel to Loopy!. What's the process behind creating albums for this alias?

CM: My process for that side-project is basically rummaging through a toy chest and smashing things together as I find them. Right now, that toy chest is the Garageband loop folder, which I think is surprisingly versatile. Of course, when I drain that oil well I'll find the next deposit. It's my belief that there's no right or wrong way to make music, and that anything you find your hands on can be used to make something cool.

Album cover for the Circular Dynamics album, Loopy! 2

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M: You seem to exercise a good amount of eclecticism with your projects, what with your four latest albums all having radically different styles and sound palettes. How do you juggle all these ideas?

CM: Well it depends on the order they happen to fall in. Some of my releases this year, like Loopy! and The Long Highway, I had been compiling for a year or two before finalization, while Welcome to the Playground was done in two weeks of improvising on a phone. The Long Highway specifically was originally supposed to be longer, but I realized that dividing it into more manageable sections was the better idea.

M: What would be your musical inspirations for creating these works?

CM: It's hard to pin down exactly sometimes. I kinda grab from everything around me, as someone with a neverending hunger for more music. The Long Highway was largely inspired by me having downloaded a bunch of old albums, mostly Library Music, Krautrock, Musiqué Concrete, and Vaporwave. I just started throwing them together over each other, to see how the sounds clashed together. I'd say it was inspired by Graham Lambkin, but the truth is I need to listen to more of his stuff before I can claim that.

M: Your visual art similarly seems to be eclectic and collage-inspired. How do you make it, what's your thought process behind it?

CM: For the 100% hand drawn stuff, it's all improv. I almost never have a specific design in my head before I start, mostly because I know I'll immediately fuck it up if I do. I just let my hand go until it lands on something that I can build off of, and see where it goes from there. For the collage stuff, I have a folder in my phone of pictures I take exclusively to use for collages and covers, and usually I'll take something from there and keep a flow from it to another part of the collage.

"Little man goes on a big walk" by Chelsea Monteiro.

M: What's next after Submarine?

CM: After Submarine, I'll likely take some time off from full releases so I can work on my next vocal project, Safety in Numbers. I'm hoping that I'll have it finished before this fall, but that comes down to me recording vocals, which is always a crapshoot.

M: How's it like running Camp Cryptid Records?

CM: It's working out pretty well! For something that I did primarily to have a place to give album covers away, I'm glad that we have a team that puts out their own unique projects. It's largely designed as a way to get the artists to put their weird shit to an audience that hopefully will grow over time.

M: Lastly, anything you want to say to the readers at home?

CM: Um, drink water, remember to eat, fight cops, lower your shoulders, unclench your jaw, wear a mask, wash your hands, and buy Camp Cryptid stock because it's cheap as hell right now. Oh, and hug your pets.

Stream and buy The Long Highway here, and browse Camp Cryptid Records here.