Lezbelib Interview With Anything But Monday

Details: Published on Saturday, 12 March 2011 01:56; Written by E-Li

anything but monday

After they contacted me saying me they were a lesbian group having their last song quadruple platinium, I wondered who was this band.

Personally, and maybe are you in the same case, I never heard of Anything But Monday before.

You may have already danced on their music in clubs or watched this commercial for a beer and enjoyed these sexy girls who introduced it not knowing that it was Anything But Monday.

That was not always easy for Anything But Monday. When you asked them how it feels to be lesbian? They answer you that "it's terrific to be lesbian!!! LOL" because it's nothing compared to the most "terrific" thing in their career.

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In addition to the fact that they are a lesbian group, they are all sexy so they were not always treated like something else than a sexy-girls band, worst, some people even said they were idiots.

However they didn't give up and finally here they are and we heard more and more about them. And if people like what they do, it is because above all, Samanda, Porscha, Atussa, Nayer and Katrina are talented!

E-Li: The name of your band is Anything But Monday, where does it comes from?

The name ANYTHING BUT MONDAY comes from the idea that we never want the weekend to end!

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E-Li: What kind of music are you doing?
Our music is POWER POP, but we do lots of different styles on the remixes for the DJ's in the clubs. But basically, we're a POWER POP group.

E-Li: And how the band was formed? How did this big adventure s tart?

We formed the group in high-school a couple years ago. Actually Nayer and I (Samanda) have known each other since kindergarten. But we all got together and were singing at the mall a couple Christmas' ago and some guy comes up to us and says he thinks we are good and that we should call him. He didn't have a card and just wrote his number on a piece of paper... so when I told my mom about it she said to stay away from people like that because he was probably a pervert. And then Katrina's mother decided to call him, just to investigate, and he turned out to be real. It was Stephen Stone and he had recently sold his record company RUFFHOUSE/SONY and was putting together a new project. He had already done Kris Kross, the Fugees and Lauryn Hill and was involved with Destiny's Child and J-Lo and a bunch of other people. He had some new project he was putting together with Universal and we got the gig. So the next thing we knew, we were in the studio for like a year getting worked like a pack of rented mules!! LOL... but we were really happy about it. We would put our heart and soul into singing a particular song and just when we thought it was the most spectacular song ever to be created in the history of the universe, Stephen Stone would stop by and tell us it was really good and in a nice way tell us to do it all over again.... hahaha.... and sure enough it would come out even better the next time.... so we took our whippings with grace.

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E-Li: We can say that nobody believed in you at the beginning, in particular in the music industry because of your marketing choice (your songs were available to be download for free as you think that a band will have popularity if it has the talent), how do you succeed to make them change their opinion because now you are labeled?

Stephen Stone's plan for us was that we were going to be a "test" for the Universal label and the digital marketplace. After we record our music we put it up on the Universal serves and let any DJ who wants our master files take them. And then the DJ's get to sell their own remixes without the fear of getting sued.
The idea was that if the DJ's liked our music enough to remix it, then we would become popular from their efforts and the record label - who is out of money - will not have to spend millions of bucks trying to make us popular. So the DJ's win because they have a chance to become superstars with their remixes - which what they all dream of, just like us. The record company wins, because they save money on marketing. And we win because we get to become popular. The only downside is that if we give away all the music for free, then we have to figure out some kind of new business model for the music industry.

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I can tell you that there were tons of people that thought that we were idiots for doing what we were doing.... but at this point our song BUMP has gone quadruple platinum and we have never hit an industry chart..... and we probably never will because there's so many different remixes of it all over the world that the chances of a million people buying one particular remix is basically not going to happen. They're thousands of remixes on BUMP and the DJ's who made them are pushing them, because for the first time ever they get to legitimately make money on their own remixes. And even though we give our stuff away for free or for really discounted prices on all the Internet music sites, people still buy it. But most importantly our goal is to sell an ancillary product and let the music become the promotional tool, rather than the conventional "end result".

I can tell you that when we told the people at Universal that the record label was going to have to make money selling something else beside music, there were a lot of frowny faces with dumbfounded looks in the room. Absolutely nobody believed in us. They were even waging bets on how bad and how fast we would flop. But since Stephen had swept the Grammy's with Lauryn Hill and turned Ruffhouse into a company that went from unable-to-pay-the-rent to the Fortune magazine's list of Most Successful Companies In the USA, they were kinda afraid to boot us out on our butts... so they all just shook their heads and said good luck....

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oh and some big executive, who I don't know who it was, but it was some guy from the New York office, looked me right in the eye with the meanest look I've ever seen and when we were walking out he told me "try not to ruin the music industry with your ridiculous plan". The old fart actually made us start crying after got out of there.... but now he's the one doing the crying because things are working out GREAT!!!!! I can't wait to see that mean old bastard again some day. I'm gonna have to kick him in the balls no matter how much trouble I get in for it. But I guess maybe you shouldn't print all this if you don't want to because it would good to surprise him!!! hahaha.

E-Li: One of your video clip was recently the number 1 of the most seen videos on MySpace? What did you feel when you heard about it? I suppose it was a great surprise.

We put it on MySpace and the DJ's started remixing the song and it's been getting played in all the clubs all over the world, and the commercial hit #1 on the MySpace music video charts.... and is still holding pretty strong always staying in the top 20. But I can tell you that one day when we were going to check our MySpace messages and saw the opening page of MySpace with our commercial featured along with all the other top hit acts on the page I took a double take because I never even considered that people would watch it.... hahaha..... Let alone enough people to make it #1. All of us were in total shock.

ANYTHING BUT MONDAY best sexiest World Cup beer commercial ever!

E-Li: Your last song is quadruple platinum, 3 of your video clips are in the top 10 of the most viewed videos on MySpace and you recently collaborated with Britney Spears on a track called Circusgroove, it seems that everything works for you?

When the commercial hit #1 on MySpace, all the sudden the peeps from Universal were calling and congratulating us like they believed in us from the very start! hahaha. We learned that some of them were actually making bets on how long is would take us to flop. LOL But thankfully it's all working out....

And to put the icing on the cake, we just got a call now from NIKE and they are putting together a $50 million ad campaign for a new beverage brand this summer and they wanted to "talk to us".... hahaha..... they were one of the people that hung up on us when we first started..... but we're not gonna hold it against them. They simply did not understand at the time. hahaha.

E-Li: After all this, what will be your agenda for this year 2011 (concerts, new songs)?

For 2011..... We're getting offers for tours from everybody. Stephen Stone still has a connection with the management for Lauryn Hill and she's doing a big comeback tour this year.... so we're trying to get on that. That would be a big one for us. But no matter what happens, we're gonna make something happen for 2011 I swear to God!!!

E-Li: To finish, a last word for our readers?
If you have an idea and believe in yourself no matter how stupid everyone else thinks you are..... just go for it. It's OK if things don't go exactly as planned.... just keep trying and you will figure out a way to get results one way or the other. But most importantly, and from everything we've learned so far, make sure your idea is helpful to someone else - whether it be a DJ or a beer company or somebody down the street.... if you're idea hinges on helping someone get someplace, you will most likely find that your success will be directly proportional to the success you have helped that someone else achieve. I promise!

anythingbutmonday.com