Monsoon is a two-piece art rock band from Athens, Georgia. Members Sienna Chandler and Joey Kegel were on tour in Fayetteville back in November when they stopped to record a KUAF live session at Fayetteville Public Television with Ozarks at Large. Sophia Nourani spoke with the pair about the band's discography, touring live and the story behind a song that ended up on a 2016 Super Bowl commercial. Chandler says she began playing music at an earlier, formative time in her life.
Sienna Chandler: I started this band so early, and I was nerd girl, flute, anime club. I never really expected to be in a band. Out in the sticks, about as alternative as it got was liking Naruto. Me and my friends would pass notes back and forth of our stories and plots. And then when marching band kind of exited, I funneled all of that into writing. All of that kind of making stories and creating characters funneled into my first project, Ride a' Rolla, and it was a really honest process. I think it really captures who I was at the time, just youth and kind of coming into myself with this new passion. It reminds me of being young and starting all of this. But then Ghost Party, as you grow, you learn how to play your instrument a little better. I really didn't know how to play guitar very well. It all happened very quickly.
Sophia Nourani: It sounds like you were just thrown on stage.
Chandler: It really was truly like that. It was definitely like a Hannah Montana moment — you're drawing your little cartoons and now you're rocking and rolling. I was a little surprised by all of it, but it really seemed to take off. I never expected anyone to hear those songs. I just thought it was kind of like a hobby and I would figure it out, but people kept asking for shows and I just kept saying yes. And then it slowly started to become my life. Ghost Party is special because truly, it did become my life. Now all we do is tour. We were so lucky — about three years ago we quit our jobs and this is all we do. It's a very magical story. Ghost Party I think is a little more seasoned. I had a little more time to fine-tune my writing and singing and all of that. The albums are quite a distance apart and you'll kind of hear the difference. That's just a product of growth.
Nourani: I think what I hear frequently is that touring and playing in front of people has a big impact on how the music ends up coming out. You guys have singles as well that kind of vary from the beginning of that to where we are now. Do you want to say anything about those?
Chandler: There was definitely a transitionary period between the two albums. It was kind of an effort to try and keep it going and figure out life. I thought, I should probably go to college and become a doctor and all those lovely things. But my life just kept steering me back. During that time there were some one-off singles, songs that I had written. But come Ghost Party, I really wanted to make it a cohesive story, and locked in.
Nourani: On your website, you mention that you were on a Super Bowl ad. Do you want to give me the details about that?
Chandler: It's the craziest thing. I never expected any of my little high school songs to ever see the light of day. I grew up really liking anime, and so I wrote "Ride a' Rolla" because I wanted it to be like an intro for a show. We were playing it in Athens over and over, and then randomly on Facebook, someone hit me up. I thought it was like a college commercial or something. Then I clicked on the link and it said, "We represent Baskin-Robbins and Toyota." It was unbelievable. That kind of thing is unheard of for a local punk band, especially one that was so new and had no idea what they were doing. I said yeah, I would love to do that. We filmed a little commercial and the song got some airplay. I didn't know it was going to air on the Super Bowl proper, right after the halftime show. We were all watching, crossing our fingers like, is it gonna play? It's unbelievable. I still kind of don't really register that that happened. It was so early in our career, and it was one of those things that really gave me a pat on the back.
Joey Kegel: This tour has easily been like one of the best, if not the best, that both of us have ever done. Twen is so nice. Every member of the band is so nice. The people that they bring to the shows are also very nice, and it's been reflected night after night. Which is very uplifting. Sometimes you play some wacky shows, sometimes there's some strange people there. But Twen has been 100% consistent. Great, great, great night after night.
Chandler: That's something we're not super used to on tour. It can be very dynamic — you'll play a city that's very good to you and then some cities you can't get to as much. But this consistency of just good show after great venue, great sound person has been really nice. Twen is sort of reshaping our image of these towns we've already been to before. We've already been to Fayetteville, we've already been to St. Louis, all these places. But now to come back and have such a positive experience at bigger, better venues with great audiences that are all very receptive and very kind — it's kind of rewiring our brain. Now when I recall Fayetteville, Arkansas, I think, oh yeah, that show with Twen. We had a great time.
Nourani: Looking forward a bit — do you guys have any new music or things that you're working on coming out soon, or has this tour kind of put you in that mindset?
Chandler: Before we left for this tour, we've been working on a new album. It's been tricky finding a balance between touring a lot and being creative, sleeping, driving, spending time with your family. But this year I feel like I really nailed how to do that. We have a lot of new songs. We're playing one on this tour, and when we get back home, that's the first thing we're going to do is record. Hopefully by the next tour we'll have more new material and hopefully a record release. We'll definitely be back to Fayetteville.
Ozarks at Large's Sophia Nourani spoke with Monsoon, a two-piece art rock band out of Athens, Georgia, as part of KUAF's live session series. You can keep up with Monsoon and their work at monsoonforever.com.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
