monument of a memory seeking somewhere video
[Photo via Monument Of A Memory]

Monument Of A Memory explore new sound in "Seeking Somewhere"—watch

Monument Of A Memory are experimenting with a new sound in the video for their latest single, “Seeking Somewhere.”

Singing about broken promises and shattered hearts, vocalist/drummer Dylan Newhouse also put his love of fashion to use for the extravagant visual. The blood, romance and longing depicted in the video all add to the song’s irate, cinematic vibe.

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While the group pull inspiration from a number of genres such as early 2000s metalcore and thrash metal, Monument Of A Memory have a distinctively modern tone. “Seeking Somewhere” marks a turning point for the band toward a more mature and relatable sound. Additionally, it leans on broader rock influences in comparison to the rest of their heavy-metal discography.

The group worked with Ice Nine Killsguitarist Ricky Armellino to produce the new track.

“The band had a really broad range of material that they entered the studio with. From that point on, we kept finding more things that they were good at,” Armellino says. “Dylan is in his own universe. Recording him was criminally easy.”

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You can watch the video for “Seeking Somewhere” as well as exclusively read about the band’s inspiration for the track in an interview with Newhouse below.

Take us through the process of having the initial idea for “Seeking Somewhere” to creating the finished product.

“Seeking Somewhere” started as a basic synth idea that we had in our demo folder. We never thought the song was even going to be used until we brought it to Ricky. He saw a vision for the song even with such a small idea, and he wanted us all to work together to bring it to life. From there, the song just grew into this rock anthem that we never would’ve thought could have come from that small demo we had. We just started building these riffs on top of the ambiance, and when it came time to do vocals, we just knew this song had potential. Looking back on it, we are super lucky that we didn’t overlook this track in the early stages of the writing process.

What was your goal with the visual for this track, and what do you hope fans take away from it?

We really wanted to do something theatrical. It’s just something we always appreciated in other artists. So when it came to the imagery for the music video, we wanted to give off this modernized classy Victorian type of look to really make the song and video come off as super dramatic and visually very eye-catching. We wanted the lights to look like we were in an “infinity room” that never ended, and we wanted the outfits, makeup and the entire aesthetic to really give us our own identity. We knew we wanted something over the top. I’ve always been super into fashion and imagery in music, and it’s cool that this band found our own way of expressing ourselves, not only musically but also visually. 

We hope fans get a sense of nostalgia from earlier acts from the 2000s, like when My Chemical Romance did their huge concept record The Black Parade, just to name an example. But we also just really want the video to stick in people’s heads, and a specific image tends to separate artists from the rest of the pack. When people see the look we’ve gone for, we want people to associate that look with Monument Of A Memory.

You pull from many different genres as well as musical inspirations such as At The Gates, Killswitch Engage and Parkway Drive. How do those influences shape your unique sound?

All those bands have definitely had an impact on us growing up and have influenced our music, but we like to dabble in everything. I think it’s allowed our music to become a lot more versatile because of it. We love pop, alternative, heavy metal, jazz and more. It’s allowed us to be more open-minded creatively, and it’s allowed our new songs to be able to breathe and just be what they’re going to be. We don’t want to limit our sound to just one style. The blend of all these genres is what I think allowed us to create our own lane while still reminding people of other artists that they might have grown up with such as Parkway Drive and other amazing acts.

How does “Seeking Somewhere” show your progression as a band since your formation, and what do you hope it shows fans about the future of Monument Of A Memory?

“Seeking Somewhere” is the first Monument Of A Memory song that showed off more of a straight-up “rock” sound from the band. We’ve always been a heavier band, and I think for a while we were afraid to experiment more because we were worried about what people might’ve thought. Eventually, that gets tiring, and we just said that we were going to write the music that we wanted to make. I think this song shows that we aren’t going to just do one type of sound. The heavy songs will still be there, but we also want to show that it isn’t the only side to our music.