‘Monsters Calling Home, Vol 1’

– Track by Track review

of new EP by

RIVER RUN NORTH

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When they first formed several years back, LA-based band Run River North were called Monsters Calling Home. Years later, having evolved from a sextet, the trio of Alex Hwang (guitars/lead vocals), Daniel Chae (guitar/vocals) and Sally Kang (keys/vocals) have returned to their name – this time as the title of their upcoming EP Monsters Calling Home, Vol. 1 (out May 3 via Nettwerk).

A celebratory effort ushering in a new era for the band, the EP is about finding hope in transition and discovering your voice in a sea of doubt. Last month, the band released “Hands Up,” an anthemic, co-writing collaboration with Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi of Grouplove (the duo’s first of such sessions).

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This is a story I wrote to help describe the world and feelings of each song for me (maybe it’s a music video, maybe it’s backstory, maybe it’s nothing at all):

[CASINO]
Imagine a king’s court, a royal palace, the queen’s throne, the white house, a billion dollar corporate board room. 
Pristine, ornate, rich design, architecture, numerous employees, servants, guards.

It doesn’t matter the time period, it doesn’t matter the era or nationality. 
Wherever your imagination can populate the most visceral feeling of the 1% – the most powerful and most wealthiest. 

[HANDS UP]
Then imagine someone sitting on the throne, the head char, the pinnacle of this imagined room. 
But something’s wrong, this person clearly does not belong. 
The clothes are appropriate, the headdress, the accessories, but its in the eyes, the skin, the body. 
The clothes don’t quite fit, they look borrowed. 
The skin has seen too much of a laborer’s sun. 
The posture is not believable, he or she looks visibly uncomfortable.

Suddenly, everyone else in that room begins to notice this person. 
Everyone stops what they’re doing and their thoughts are all but audible. 
Who? How? Why? Where? Someone do something! 

[REARVIEW]
Suddenly everyone begins to look at you because you’ve become that person. 
You’re on the throne, you’re in the clothes, you’re the figurehead. 
You wonder how you got there, where is your family, where is your home, where is your life? 
How did I get here? 
Do you continue to sit, to pretend and fake it till they believe you?
Do you run out as fast, never to be heard from again, run till you wake?  

[40G] 
Or do you hold their gaze, look them in their eyes, then look past their gaze, their questions, their control. 
You have them follow you to the middle of the room, the court, the table. 
You close your eyes and begin to hear an unmistakable beat. 
It’s your heart and it is practically beating out of your chest from the attention, from the anticipation. 
And you just start to move. It begins from your chest but it moves out to your arms and hands, shooting out of your fingertips. 
You look down, you push down through your hips, your butt, your thighs and knees. 
Like electricity, it shocks your feet, making you jump up and you let out a yelp! 
Everyone is caught off guard by the sound and timbre of your voice. 
The room was silent up until then, but a collective gasp shakes you back to your surrounding for just a moment. 

[CASINA]
But before you begin to process or wonder who these people are and what they think of you, 
you close your eyes and continue to move, to dance to the next EP.

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AMNPLIFY – DB