Monkey Child
MONKEY CHILD is a rock band playing music written by founder Chuck Clawson and keyboardist Dave Bauer. Monkey Child is also an aggressively indie songwriter collaboration that keeps its chops sharp as a local bar and party band. We play a lot of very different covers on a three or four set night. With bassist and singer Mark Byrd 's influence on arrangements, and exceptionally solid licks on the p-bass, MONKEY CHILD's sound has been compared to John Hiatt, John Mellencamp, The Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison and Ryan Adams.
We call what we do alt.roots, but that's OUR name for it. We've been labeled heartland, americana, and pop-rock. Whatever it is, we write, play, and produce it ourselves. This is a pretty long-lived project. We've been working together close to five years now and plan to continue. Portions of our next album are already recorded. Dave and Chuck continue to write new material, and we continue to gig. Thanks for reading, and please enjoy "The Long Shot."
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
2003 to the present. Many drummers.
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
We usually play live twice a month in clubs or at parties along the Front Range -although mostly in the Denver area. Our long time favorite gig is at the Jamestown Mercantile Cafe, in busy downtown Jamestown, Co., where Steven Stills, Joe Walsh, and other Caribou artists once graced the stage.
Your musical influences
We tend to write songs in a pop format, but the influences are called a lot of things: Americana, Country, alt.roots, indie rock, rock, Heartland, blues based, even singer/songwriter.
What equipment do you use?
Good solid stuff that can handle gigging. Yamaha and Alesis keys through a Roland , Fender pBass through some massive Peavey, Dennis uses a couple of very nifty drum kits. Chuck plays a G&L ASAT through a SF Deluxe Reverb most of the time. Other times he uses a variety of other tube amps with 12 string, slide, and acoustic guitars.
Anything else?
We've begun pre-production of our first video. We're writing the script and blocking the scenes -with any luck we'll have it up in time for the CD release.
