Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlo Monni.
Hi Carlo, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in Seattle, WA and first started dabbling in music as a teenager in the 90s. There was a vibrant all-ages music scene until about 97 when some do-gooder politician created a “teen dance ordinance” that subsequently caused the implosion of the rock scene. That’s when the underground sketchy warehouse parties really started taking off. My interest in hiphop and electronic beats starting to solidify. I started collecting records, salvaged a few belt drive turntables, and got my hands on a rudimentary dj mixer and dual cassette deck for overdubbing. It was the perfect distraction from and teenage gloom and anxiety. I spent countless hours learning how to mix and scratch various genres spanning from 80s electro beats, hiphop, techno, house and everything in between. I had always been fascinated by the process of production. I remember going to events and absolutely loving the heavy syncopated beats but wondering how in fact they were engineered. I spent a lot of time in the late 90s at Seaskate which, at the time, was adjacent to the Seattle Super Sonics training center. The Seattle skate scene at the time was pure chaos: no social media, no cell phones, and no GPS.
In retrospect, I’m amazed at how efficiently us young humans would effortlessly navigate an urban environment. One afternoon a few of the homies invited me to go to this place called “guitar center”. We mobbed in and caught a few eye rolls from the staff, knowing very well that we had zero money and even less intention of buying anything. I ended up stumbling into the pro audio section and was greeted by a squirrelly long-haired agent of synthesizers. He sat me in front of this new groove box contraption called the Rave-0-Lotion 309. It was a 5-track drum sequencer with a monophonic bass section. My mind’s gears started grinding. I now had a rudimentary understanding of how electronic music was made. After a summer of lifeguarding, I’d saved up enough to cop the shiny aluminum German drum machine/synth and spent months pissing off the entire household with that thing. Flash forward to Y2k. I had slowly been acquiring little tidbits of audio gear, including mixers, samplers, and mics but I still needed a pair of Technics 1200s. I’d been logging long hours at my homie Deejay Sessions’ place practicing scratch and beat-juggle routines. It felt like we were training for World War III. At this point, I realized I needed my own set of turntables, so I marched down to Platinum Records in Capitol Hill, handed over $750 cash, and delicately placed ‘em in the back seat of my 1978 Toyota Corolla lift back. I spent the next few years cutting my teeth in the Seattle Rave and club scene. By 2003 I realized I was starting to hit a wall and, If I wanted to take my music career seriously, I’d have to jump into a larger market. In 2005 I left my hometown and moved to San Francisco.
Moving to a new city can be exciting and equally terrifying. All I knew was that I was there to do music and find my sound. I spent the first few years in SF bouncing around industry jobs: bartending, valeting cars, random focus groups, and eventually found employment with Virgin Records. I was hired to run the hiphop and electronic section. Despite receiving comically low pay, I convinced management to let me contact distribution and start ordering vinyl records. That Virgin connection allowed me to get my hands on some seriously sick promo vinyl. I started sliding into a few small clubs and DJing happy hours. Back then, there were no “all vinyl” nights in SF. It was just DJing. There was no social media, no influencers, just a bag of records. If your records were good and you knew how to mix them, people danced. It was that simple. Just drop new bangers every show. From unreleased Justice singles to Too $hort Blow Whistle. I wasn’t just playing tracks, I was breaking them. Within three years I was playing music at a single club in SF and throwing my own branded events.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There’s always going to be challenged when running a business but probably the biggest was moving my entire operation from San Francisco to Los Angles in 2016. The Dog Patch neighborhood in SF was getting heavily developed and all the creative spaces were getting plucked off one by one. I’d been looking for several years for a replacement live/work space but at this point, the rents had skyrocketed. I was looking for spots as far away as Vallejo but was finding comparably sized and priced units in DTLA. In July 2016, I pulled the trigger and stuffed a truck with a literal metric ton of records, several sound systems, and my recording studio. I spent a lot of time going back and forth between SF and LA for the first year but eventually, I started gaining clients in Los Angeles. It’s always challenging building new client lists and breaking into a new music scene. One of the things that’s great about LA is that if you are determined, you can brute force your way in. Even with all the smoke and mirrors surrounding the entertainment industry consistency, passion and motivation will always get you noticed faster than a fictitious social media following.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I started out as a professional nightclub DJ in the early 2000s. I still work in this industry but my career has now split in several directions. In 2010, I started adding sound system components which allowed me to run several events in the same day. I ended up having a few extra sets of speakers that I’d rent out to colleagues, too, which ended up being a nice little side hustle. At the time I was being paid fairly well and DJ’ing 4 to 5 events every week. The extra income allowed me to upgrade my recording studio. I went on several unhinged buying sprees and ended up assembling a formidable collection of vintage synthesizers, drum machines, and recording equipment. The studio was still mainly a hobby when I lived in SF. I was consistently putting out original productions and mixes, but the concept of actually getting paid still seemed out of reach. When I jumped ship from SF in 2016, I had the intention of focusing on developing myself as an artist, but the talent pool in LA is just wild. I’ve been really taking sound engineering seriously, both in studio and live. I currently have one of my larger sound systems installed in a lovely creative space in DTLA. Along with performing and production, I’m obsessed with quality sound systems. All the hard work that artists put into making sick tracks needs a fantastic listening environment. What could be more fun than a slamming sound system rearranging your molecules with sound waves?
Any big plans?
The future is my new band, Wavelords. We are a futuristic, sci-fi, turbo-punk rave band. Let’s get weird. Folks have been reacting so positively to our live music. The vibe I’ve been catching doing live performances has been phenomenal. The hybrid project has elements of DJ’ing mixed with live instrumentation and vocals. The minimal configuration has allowed me to look at music with a fresh perspective. It’s been a blast to write with Megan Sutherland, our vocalist. It’s so fun to bounce our dystopian dance music concepts back and forth, and It’s even more amazing to hear these concepts manifest. It’s like writing a science fiction comic book with music. I can’t wait to drop the next two tracks, “Goblin Mode” and “Dine & Dash,” along with a mountain of other releases. I’ll be posting release dates on socials very soon. The Los Angles music scene as a whole has been on fire. Even with the corporate consolidation of music media, incredible underground sounds keep bubbling up all over the city. Anything is possible in this city and I’m here for all of it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.koolkarlo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kool_karlo/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/KoolKarlo
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/kool-karlo
- Other: https://audius.co/koolkarlo
Image Credits
Wavelords poloroid https://www.instagram.com/bobby_weirdo/
