The Comeback Kids
Everything is a Blessing
Photographs by Rick Perez
After a two year hiatus, San Diego’s Stray Monroe are back with their EP, “We Can Always Start Over.” The band talks about almost quitting music, how they evolved during the hiatus, and the new sound of Stray Monroe.
San Diego, California, USA
Stray Monroe is a duo made up of Blake Imperl and Matt Magnaghi. What are your individual histories as musicians?
Matt: When Blake and I reconnected in January of 2020, I realized that, after writing/playing original music in various groups/projects since middle school, I had all but relegated my lifelong passion to a hobby while becoming more consumed by corporate work over the past couple years. For me, this project represents a best-and-final effort to indulge in my love of writing, performing, and promoting music.
Blake: Oasis inspired me to pick up a guitar and start writing songs around the age of 14. These songs were very much just for myself and my friends. I never thought I could be in a band until I started Stray Monroe in college. Music has always been a form of escapism for me and something I’m forever grateful for.
"We Can Always Start Over" is the long awaited EP since your last release of "Momentary Vertigo" in 2018. What's the story behind the two year gap?
Blake: A lot changed in those last two years. In 2018 I graduated college, I lost my singing voice due to illness for many months, I was deep in demoing new material, and I started working full time.
In mid-2019, after lineup changes, I faced the dilemma of whether to shut down the project or carry on as a solo project.
I decided on the latter. I scrapped everything I had demoed up until that point and I spent the remainder of the year learning how to find joy again in songwriting and getting in touch with the desire that lead me to start writing many years back.
As fate would have it, Matt and I reconnected at the tail end of 2019 and set forth writing what would become our new EP.
It took a while to find my way back but I’m very thankful for everything that happened in shaping this comeback.
How has Stay Monroe evolved during this time? What have you been learning?
Blake: I think I’ve learned to become a lot more grateful. We had some pretty awesome experiences during the “Momentary Vertigo” release that I wish I spent more time being in the moment for. It all happened so fast. One day we were playing on a Tuesday night at Soda Bar to 5 people and the next we’re opening for Weathers to a packed House of Blues Anaheim. I don’t think I spent enough time being thankful for it all... but now with this release, everything is a blessing.
Musically, what is the biggest change in "We Can Always Start Over" compared to "Momentary Vertigo"?
Matt: On the surface, the heightened inclusion of synths is clear, but this EP, like “Momentary Vertigo”, is the product of the environment in which it was written. Blake and I wrote these tunes over the course of months exchanging demos made with MIDI elements/loops in our bedroom studios. It wasn't until rather late in the process that we played these songs live in a rehearsal space. This results in a pretty different product. However, I'd add that we are going to love playing these songs live; imagining the live performance of a song is an important part of the writing process for me.
What were your biggest struggles and positive memories in making "We Can Always Start Over"?
We released this EP 6 months later than we originally planned--plenty of 2020-related logistical problems. But that's boring so I'll highlight one musical struggle: we went through a TON of different arrangements of Your Side, the last song on the EP. We had verse/chorus melodies and lyrics we liked but had a lot of trouble settling on the right vibe and instrumentation. In the end, we leaned on the vision of our producer Matt Fowler and are happy with the balance that the song brought to the EP.
Since the new EP is heavily influenced by 80s New Wave, which band from the 1980s would Stray Monroe want to open for?
Echo & the Bunnymen!
What's next for Stray Monroe?
We're in the early stages of putting new material together, and are really excited about the ideas we have so far. We've set up a proper writing/rehearsal space and will have our drummer Evan Dadswell writing live with us and expect our next release to benefit from that live feel during the writing process. When possible, we can't wait to get back on stage and help rebuild the local music scene.
