Young Nick

Nick Brown, singer of rabble-rousing rock ‘n’ roll outfit Mona, is refreshingly nostalgic about his Pentecostal Christian roots.
“A lot of people think of church as this conservative thing,” he says. “But it was nuts. There was a full band and you’d raise hands and clap and dance around the church. If you think of where rock ‘n’ roll came from, a lot of it was really hymns that were put to music by Jerry Lee or Elvis. At the church I used to lead worship and we’d just play and sing. It was very spontaneous. It wasn’t just ‘stand up’, ‘sit down’, it was alive and real.”

But despite the gleam in his eye and the warmth in his voice, Nick Brown has left this world behind him.
“I haven’t found a church I can stomach for a long time. I really like potency. I want something real and I don’t like candy-filled bullshit. The Bible is not a passive book but I’ve seen people in church talking passively about what are really aggressive ideas in a way that makes me sick. It’s lazy and it’s the same way I feel about award shows when you see a bunch of famous people up there and only a few who really still like doing what they’re doing. You see a lot of people in costumes and masks that are really a front for a good marketing strategy. Here’s a thought – just pick up a guitar and play those chords and have that idea that made you feel good.”
So Nick found his redemption in old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. Even though, unconventionally for a rock singer, he believes that the genre is dead.
“Rock ‘n’ roll is dead. It’s the same thing with church and the government – they’re dead. Our ideas are all done.”
So why is he doing this?
“What’s the biggest platform I could use to say something meaningful? What’s the biggest platform I could have where I can say whatever I want and not be technically responsible for anything I do and still get what I believe out there? What do I do? Run for President? No, there’s too many responsibilities. Become pastor of a church? No because the second I fuck up, which all humans do, I’m going to be bashed. So I’m doing this.”
Nick speaks eloquently and passionately from this platform (he’s one of the best interviewees I’ve had in a while). Of his family he says: “I saw my grandparents work their asses off and never really get rewarded for it. I see my parents now in their early sixties with calluses and battle scars. Everybody works their asses off and get shit on and die. I was talking to someone last night who said, ‘That’s a very Irish mentality’. Well, it’s a human mentality, a middle class/working class mentality.”
And yet, behind the stirring language, Nick’s message is vague. It’s all about individuality and creativity and the notion that everyone can do what he does. He tries to avoid being straightforwardly political, he says, “because once again when you’ve ticked a box you’ve alienated the other box. In Rolling Stone, Justin Bieber did an interview where he claimed that homosexuality is a choice and that abortion is wrong even if someone has been raped. And I’m like, ‘Dude, you’re two-years-old and you’ve made these huge statements that you can’t even relate to.’ That’s a very American thing. His dad told him what was wrong and right and his dad told him and his dad told him... But there’s a bigger picture that’s called humanity. And I want us to be the most human band on the planet.”
I believe him, even though I don’t have a clue what he means.

Mona’s self-titled debut album is due out on May 13.