Photo Courtesy of Timothy Brixius
After three months of touring and just two days before a noteworthy performance on Jimmy Kimmel, the band almost monday stopped by F&M to headline Spring Arts. The indie pop trio known for its sunshine-infused songs from “sunburn” to “can’t slow down” transformed Hartman Green into a West Coast wonderland — their energy so palpable that it wiped the rain right off the forecast.
Before their performance, I sat down with the band members — Dawson Daugherty, Cole Clisby, and Luke Fabry. The discussion started off strong with Luke wondering if I’d ever gone cow tipping. When I assured him that I hadn’t, Dawson and Cole agreed that it’s best to leave cows standing up. From there, we covered all sorts of exciting topics, from the band’s creation to their college memories to their songwriting process. Read the full interview below!
Zachian: Dawson and Luke, you grew up together and went to the same college. Cole, you met Dawson surfing and the three of you became close friends soon after. Can you tell me the story of the exact moment the three of you decided to form a band? What made you decide to take that leap?
Luke: I remember, Dawson and I were wondering what would happen if we took music seriously when we were just 14, 15-year-old kids. Cole was brought in through surfing and we all got into a garage, started putting songs together, and then putting on our own shows.
Dawson: I met Cole out there in the water. He was a great surfer and I was enamored by that. It was really strange — I went to his house and I didn’t even know anybody. My friend was like, “Just go through the back and go in the jacuzzi.” I had just done the show “The Voice” and I was telling him about it. That’s when I found out he played guitar.
Cole: It was pretty serendipitous. I’d been playing in bands for five years. That was the one year I wasn’t in a band at the time and I was like, oh yeah, I guess I’ll do another band!
Zachian: When you were naming your band, your friend said you should be called The Mondays, but that name was taken. So you went with almost monday. Can you tell me more about that moment?
Dawson: Our friend Jonah, the guy who told me to go in Cole’s jacuzzi, is the same guy who said we should be The Mondays. We were at a JV basketball game and I told him we were thinking of starting a band. He said “The Mondays” would be cool. He’s such a big character in my life, in my lore. I met my wife at seventeen because he really wanted to go to this party. Shoutout Jonah.
Zachian: In honor of performing on our college campus, can you share some fun college memories and stories with us?
Luke: I was in a math class where the teacher would give us a study guide, but the study guide was basically the test. I was pretty on it, trying to be studious. But there were a couple of times that I ditched class to go surfing. Those are some of my best memories.
Dawson: I went to community college first. I remember this guy in my 6 a.m. class would just pull up with a full-on breakfast. Like a plate! The kind of cool thing about community college is that there will be like a sixty-year-old in your class. This guy always had a full spread and just chow it. Egg. Sausage. Bacon. Coffee. Orange Juice. And he would smack his lips eating it. That guy was insane. That comes to mind.
Cole: I was doing a really hard major. My college experience was pretty busy. I was doing Data Science at UCSD and doing the band and surf team on the side as well. Some of the best waves on the West Coast are right outside of the school, so I had great memories of surfing with my friends. Other than that — a lot of studying in the lab.
Zachian: You’ve written some of your best songs within the first 10 minutes of being in the room. Can you pick one of your favorite songs and walk us through it’s creation?
Dawson: There’s this song on our album called “she likes sports”. We played tennis that morning and had fun with it, so that song came really quick. Any way that you can, relieve the pressure of “let’s write something good”. That’s when you’re cooked.
Zachian: Can you share any fun facts about each other that most people don’t know?
Luke: Dawson’s pretty deep in “One Piece” and Cole is getting really good at this game called “Five Hundred”.
Dawson: Luke is maybe the biggest hobbyist I know. He gets really into things, gets all the gear, knows everything about it, gets really good at it, then moves on to the next thing.
Cole: I know one for Dawson. He’s really good at Mario Kart.
Zachian: If you could bring anyone (dead or alive) out on Hartman Green to sing with you today who would it be and why?
Dawson: Probably Nat King Cole for me. Nat King Cole is one of my favorite singers. I think that’d be really weird and interesting, him trying to sing our songs. I could not do his songs justice at all, but he’d probably make ours sound better!
Cole: It would be really cool if Damon Albarn from Blur came and sang on our song “she likes sports”.
Zachian: If you could have your songs be the soundtrack for a show or movie which would you pick and why?
Luke: I’ve said it before but Surf’s Up would be sick. It’s pretty iconic for our journey.
Dawson: I think Dazed and Confused. It would have been cool to have a song in there. Or Severance! Nah, I’m playing. Our music would not fit on Severance. The show would instantly turn bad.
Cole: Every time we get asked questions like this I forget every single movie and TV show I’ve ever seen. Though we do watch a lot of movies and TV on the road. I’ll go with Mad Men.
Zachian: Can you leave us with some advice for F&M students that you wish you had heard when you were in college?
Luke: Trust yourself and your gut. It’s an interesting thing that when you’re growing up, there’s always people older than you and more experienced. They can have a lot of wisdom, but that shouldn’t discredit what you think you should do, even if it doesn’t make the most logical sense. It’s still good to trust yourself and to explore what that looks like.
Dawson: Just have fun doing what you do. It’s so basic, but it’s really important to have fun. When you lose the childlike wonder of life, the senses can get pretty dulled and life can get mundane. I feel really lucky to have met these guys and be able to do something that was always fun… I would try to follow that in the endeavors that you do and life will be more meaningful.
Cole: If you have a passion for anything, follow that. It will feel less like work and more like play if you do something you’re passionate about.
My advice? Trust their advice, leave cows standing up, and go stream almost monday.
Thank you to the College Entertainment Committee for bringing almost monday to campus and making this interview possible.
Senior Skylar Zachian is a Staff Writer. Her email is szachian@fandm.edu.