Upon leaving the Midwest for Nashville, MONA quickly captured the attention of audiences and critics with driving, post-indie rock delivered with a rebellious energy. Looking back, singer and songwriter Nick Brown describes the band’s vibe with a string of adjectives and nouns: fist pumping, white t-shirts, Marlon Brando, James Dean, sex and God. It all led to a major-label overtures and eventually a deal with Island Def Jam.
As Brown tells it, he and his bandmates were more than happy to embrace the narrative as they were swept along through green rooms, VIP tents, label offices, television studios and the world’s largest festivals. But in the end, major-label life wasn’t the right fit for a band that had ap-proached songwriting, recording and live performance in their own way from day one. “
As much fun as it all was most of the time, we wanted to be more than a trend,”says Brown. “We’re in this to connect with other humans.”