Mona San

Hey! Thank you so much! I feel really good now that I can finally talk openly about this project that reflects so much of me on a personal level. I’m also very aware of how privileged I am to be able to release music and to be able to fully dedicate myself to my art while there is so much chaos in the world around us at the moment. So, it's with a sense of privilege and tact that I'm releasing this EP, which marks a new chapter in my life, both personally and artistically, like a poetic coming out.

I'm not really into big parties. I preferred celebrating the release this time with those who are the closest to me and that I love, to have the opportunity to dive into meaningful conversations and enjoy their presence more deeply. It was a special moment for me, almost sacred, and I just wanted to be with my friends, surrounded by the tenderness and love in which this project was born. But I do plan on celebrating it with everyone who wants to come together, and I want to share that moment with more like-minded people at a release party in the near future!

Actually, this EP is part of a much larger project that I've been working on for a while now. After my EP Brain Child, which, for context, was just a bunch of demos that I created during a series of Beat Battles I won during Covid, I decided to take a break from my solo career. I wanted to focus on helping others with their own artistic projects. I wanted to do other things, broaden my skills, and learn more about myself. So, I started producing, writing, toplining, and doing visual direction for other artists. People knew me for Brain Child, but I wanted to take the time to develop myself a little more personally before offering a true follow-up. I wanted what I was going to do next as Mona San to really strip me bare, to make me vulnerable. I was in pursuit of a deep honesty that is hard to access without confronting my own limitations as Julien. My end goal was to become completely free in my artistic creation.
Through the process of writing and producing these tracks, I discovered and learnt to embrace my gender identity. There’s a form of poetry in that; it was like a microcosmic event of self-discovery, the words I was writing and what I learnt about myself through them… It might be obvious to some, but I learnt through that process that vocal effects can be used to transcribe that fluidity, allowing me to be fully embodied and not limited in any way. The track titles are a metaphor for the paths I've travelled and some I am still on to this day.

I’d say it embodies the emotions and realities I kept at bay for too long now and that I’ve come to embrace with sincerity in my life.

The title track From The Ashes was actually created fairly recently compared to the other tracks and wasn’t even supposed to be on the EP. Originally, I was working with another artist’s vocal that I was trying to remix. But over time, I felt that the instrumental wasn’t really suited to their voice. The demo I had was much more “electronic” than the version you know now, so I decided to start over, strip it down, and take it in a slightly more acoustic direction. I quickly recorded my own vocals, and it felt great, but there was still something missing for me to consider it truly complete.
In the chorus you can hear me sing, “I can really feel divinities on my mind; they make me realise I’ve to go home and lock myself in,” and it’s important to me that we could hear the voice of that “protective divinity” that's speaking to me. I wanted it to exist in the track, really, not just as a metaphor. And that’s what we did in the end. My friend BORA embodies that divinity in both the track and the music video. The track was recorded, mixed, and mastered in record time for me too, to make sure it was finished for the date I wanted it to be released, haha.

I think it’s a bit of both. I already had a pretty clear idea of the aesthetic I wanted to achieve both musically and visually, as I’m constantly composing with an image or texture in mind, but I also heavily rely on “happy accidents”. I find that with the tools we have today and the fact that it’s so much easier now to create music by yourself, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to make electronic music organically. I’m constantly seeking that “call and response” dynamic between myself and my computer. So, I create tonnes of loops and samples that I stack up in my folders and bring out later. I layer them on top of each other to surprise myself and create some sort of seductive monstrosity, haha. That’s how I build my tracks. I make those “accidents” happen and then choose whether or not to keep them, steering the end result toward something I love.
I’ve always liked bringing the experimental together with pop or mainstream elements; I believe they’re inherently connected. It’s just a matter of choice; I enjoy mixing the extremes of both within a single track; it really excites me, and I find it incredibly sexy. It gives me enormous freedom in what I do, and I make sure to nurture that freedom to stay unpredictable.

I don’t think staying true to your artistic identity and reinventing yourself oppose each other. Quite the opposite, actually. It all depends on how the artist sets the boundaries of their art. For example, some artists choose very specific criteria, kind of like a restaurant that only serves one dish. It can be delicious, and we can go back whenever we crave that specific thing, without being disappointed, because ultimately it never changes. But personally, I like variety, and I find nothing more interesting than the element of surprise in art and within a single artist. Björk has always surprised me, taking me to different places, each as beautiful as the last. It’s her identity, but in multiple forms, and she’s cultivated that throughout her career. I love not knowing what’s going to happen in a track and letting it take me by the hand without letting me know anything. I don’t want my brain taking over because I can already guess what's coming next, like when you’re watching a bad movie. I just want to feel. And I think we’re missing a bit of that in music sometimes.
It’s often too premeditated, and it boils down to what's the best marketing strategy. We forget about honesty in the creative process. But all of that can sometimes be tied to the pressure we receive due to time-related or financial reasons. It’s extremely hard to completely detach from that. It always comes back during periods of insecurity or self-doubt. That’s partly what creates the whole artistic cloning effect; sometimes even the artist clones their own hits, trying to replicate them over and over, which can make some tracks really boring to listen to. The comparison game driven by social media also fuels this. It’s mentally exhausting for a lot of us. Your question is super complex, but I dream of a world where every artist could create for themselves, without intellectualising why they’re creating. It would solve a lot of issues in this industry.

I think it’s their courage to truly listen to themselves without being swayed by the demands and pressures imposed on them. Staying true to the love and honesty that guided us through the creative process, regardless of the “success” demanded to “thrive” in the industry. It’s incredibly difficult.

I listen to a lot of different artists, but if I had to name a few that I’m really into right now, I’d say Salvia. They're a multidisciplinary artist with a crazy universe. Their music is super fresh and exciting, and they’re constantly evolving. The whole Blood of Aza scene, including Kavari, Sednah, etc., is also incredible. And a special mention for Ian Isiah; their latest track and video are just mind-blowing.

Florian and I have been working together for years. In fact, he’s been with me since the beginning of Mona San. We met in school; I was studying sound engineering, and he was in visual arts. He made my first visual for my mixtape ~p+n|d•r~, and since then, we’ve always collaborated together. We love the same music, the same cinema, and the same aesthetics, and we’re very complementary in our work. We talked a lot about the project, what I wanted to convey visually, the philosophy behind it, and we started writing and directing the videos for Reborn and From The Ashes in that direction. I’m releasing my project through INSOLENCE, an independent label I started with a friend, so it was challenging to balance our ambitions with the financial resources we had. But that’s the magic of Florian; he knows how to make videos that look amazing without actually spending too much, haha. The seven days of shooting for From The Ashes were intense but insanely fun, mainly because I’m lucky enough to have talented friends who helped bring our wild ideas to life, like the custom outfits, my armour, the daggers, the make-up, etc., as well as during the shoot itself.

Thank you so much, and thanks on behalf of the entire team! I’d love to say yes, because ideally, that’s what I’d want. There’s so much content being released, most of which isn’t carefully crafted, but unfortunately, quantity now takes precedence over quality. Music videos are dying out in favour of Instagram Reels and TikToks. Very few people watch a full music video nowadays unless they’re a die-hard fan, simply because there’s a growing disinterest in content that isn’t instantly or easily consumable. So a music video has become more of a personal desire for the artist to showcase their visual universe, which, for me, is extremely important. But it’s generally no longer profitable.
As a huge consumer of music videos and a cinema enthusiast, it was unthinkable for me not to create fully fledged and carefully crafted videos for my project. But I’m fully aware that it’s an industry, and for many players in this field, including some artists, releasing a project is just a way to make money, nothing more. But I still hold onto hope! I’m grateful for artists like Azar Strato or FKA Twigs, who continue to push the boundaries with incredible visual concepts. And in my opinion, it serves them immensely. I think some tracks wouldn’t resonate as strongly with me if I hadn’t been moved by their visuals.

I have an incredible team working with me on this project, and they gave me all the courage and strength to see it through. My managers, my producer who works with me at INSOLENCE, my friends like BORA and Florian, who helped me with the visuals, but above all, Sednah, my soulmate, who guided my ship when the nights were dark.

I can’t say too much yet about what’s coming next… This EP is part of a larger whole that I’ve been working on for a long time, and I can’t wait to release it! I’ll share more details in the coming months. Thank you so much for all your questions!