A HUGE congratulations to the winners of our Monkey Music Competition!
It was a tough call with so many great songs and we want to say a big thank you to all who entered. Thank you to Neumann & Sennheiser for generously sponsoring the competition by giving away your quality gear to our winners. And last but not least, thank you to our Muso Monkey Judges, for using your talented ears to choose our winners.
1st Place
"A Musical Epic that combines influences from Progressive Rock/Metal (Dream Theater, Plini), Virtuoso Guitar (Joe Satriani, Polyphia), and Cinematic (Hans Zimmer)."
Judges' Comments
"It just stood out. Right from the very beginning, it gripped me.
The intro got my attention and from there it just got better and better. It starts off quiet, but ends up pushing you into the song. The string section throughout allows for breaths between the heavier sections. Tight rhythm section throughout and epic guitar playing. It feels like a modern day equivalent of legendary classical compositions of the past. I’m sure it could be arranged for an orchestra. Overall epic tune, felt like an adventure to listen to.
It set the bar very, very high."
Prizes
2nd Place
"The writing of this song is inspired by the movie 'Her' about a lonely man who ends up falling in love with his AI companion, that quickly evolves into some transcendent divine being and leaves him lonely again. Super sad movie! But that premise felt like a really fitting story for these recent times as digital dependency is ramping up. I really wanted the production to feel really romantic (strings, harp, staccato bass, etc) but also eerie digital sounding elements floating around."
"Julius Black is a duo project between vocalist Jono Boyle and I (producer/composer Struan Finlay). We've been making music together for about 2 years now, but recently Jono went on a trip to Shanghai for family matters and got stuck there with the recent lockdown, so this is our first song we made entirely remotely! The song also features our friend Nick Dow on strings, who also sent his violin stems remotely, so the whole thing was a really interesting process using entry level mics and interfaces, but I tried to still mix it really intimate for a fun headphone experience. It feels like a really strange hybrid of worlds, but it magically works with the song's intent."
Judges' Comments
"This song easily had the best melody in the whole competition! Very smooth overall flow to the song with beautiful vocals and instruments that perfectly accompany each other. With gorgeous vocal harmonies that are unique and refreshing, it builds and layers the vocals creating a slightly haunting composition that is tense in parts, but always seems to give you that resolve if for only a short time."
Prizes
Sennheiser MD 421 II Microphone worth $799
Sennheiser HD280 PRO Closed-Back Headphones worth $199
Gravity TMS 4322 B worth $129
3nd Place
"The week I wrote this song with Joseph Faris, I was house sitting for my manager alone and I ended up getting super lonely, drunk, ordering Uber eats and diving into a very depressing state where I just wanted to people to be with me. We explored the almost delusional state you can slip into when you’re alone with your thoughts and a bottle of wine and came out with something quite special! This was recorded at parachute studios, drums played by Douglas Bagg, Production and Mixing, by Joseph Faris.
Let The Doorbell Ring is out soon!"
Judges' Comments
"I was immediately drawn to Benjamin’s voice, his vocal style immediately evoked memories of Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and grabbed my ear immediately. Coupled with the really cohesive lyrics, melody, and instrumentation, it was a pleasure to hear the full version of this track, as it's certainly one to come back to time and time again!"
Prizes
Sennheiser MK4 Condenser Vocal Microphone worth $479
Sennheiser MKS4 Elastic Suspension worth $189
Tascam AR-1 Acoustic Control Filter worth $259