Vino & Sun Lounging: In The Studio With Young Monks

Ahead of the release of a self-produced debut album and inspired by creating in the wilderness, Young Monks took The Music exclusively behind the scenes into the 'studio' where the magic happened. Check out the new music live on their upcoming east coast tour this July — all the details on theGuide.

Here we are at Yarrongabilly, NSW. One of our favourite places to spend time away writing and getting out amongst nature. We were working on the track Swamp Creek and took inspiration from our time spent in the caves here.

A few of Stevie’s keyboards. The Nord was the first in the collection, and the love grew instantly as well as the obsession to find old sounding synthesizers.

After a long day recording we decided to take a trip up to the top of the mountain to capture the sunset. We discovered some epic delay in the echo of our voices that would travel down the valley bouncing off the mountain side, not sure about harry high pants…

We might look happy in this photo, but this was actually a bit of a shit time. We didn’t enjoy our experience at a ‘top class’ studio. We were unable to freely express our ideas, as he seemed to have some serious control issues over his studio and ideas. This reinforced our drive to self-produce the record.

Here is Santos belting out some vocals in Apollo Bay. The atmosphere in this area was so special, and it gave us extra inspiration to create whilst out in the wilderness.

After a bit of a wild night, we got home to discover that Sam had shaved off his beard leaving a thin line of thick mo. At first everyone couldn’t quite work out what had happened, something just felt weird. Then we noticed that he was without a beard. This picture was taken during the recording of Trippin’ at Apollo Bay, Victoria.

It’s got everything, fire in the back, guitars on the side and all smiles in the front. Recording vox has never been as relaxing as it was in that comfy cosy yurt in the middle of Bundanoon after a pub day.

Drums set up in our living room ready to start tracking Bad Bad Freddy. We spent countless days and nights in this living room jamming and writing songs, and enjoying a few vinos. The drums we recorded this day were the final cuts we used on the record.

Working on our track Bad Bad Freddy. Sam and Stevie locking in some guitars for the song in our home studio.

Post recording session, our first meeting with our manager Joel. Smiles all round after a solid MONKS conversation.

Playing with some new sounds on the pedal board, adding some spice to the demos we had down at the time. Mainly just playing with new toys.

Tom sun lounging at Bundanoon minutes after we arrived, the house was a complete trip out with hidden rooms and an eerie train track that lurked next door to the house. We got cosy here for the week to get some tracking down for Swamp Creek.