Distant Monarch's New Project

Sacramento songwriter Distant Monarch announced that a new music project is on the way. His last song was released over a year ago, and there have been no new releases due to joining the United States Army.

Distant Monarch began writing music in early 2016, but didn't gain any local traction until early 2019. His first song with vocal recordings "Trusting Dead Men" had some short lived success, but was eventually taken down all streaming platforms. When brought up in an instagram live in early 2020, he said "the song was just terrible, absolutely horrific, and I couldn't stand the idea of someone hearing it and then associating it with me". It is well known by his supporters as a perfectionist that get's easily frustrated when his work doesn't meet his own standards.

His most popular song, "7:43am" was released in August of 2020. In the past, he has worked on a large number of projects with many individuals and groups including Spice Adventures and Boy House. The work with those bands made no waves.

His announcement of a new incoming music project was released on a snapchat story, and I reached out to him shortly after.

He told me "yeah, I've just been missing working on songs and music, and I figured I should try to get back to doing what I enjoy". He continued to explain that "life has just been really crazy and stressful, balancing everything all at once has just proven to be a lot. I figured that maybe putting some time into music again could help mellow me out a bit".

When asked if he would be releasing more music with Boy House, he said "probably, I'm not really sure. I've been trying to get them onboard with this project in some capacity, but I just don't know yet".

Distant Monarch's past music projects have often had underlying messages or followed personal subject matters. He admitted in October of 2020 that "7:43am" was written about "the one who got away". When asked what this project will follow, he said both that "you'll just have to wait and see" and that "it's pretty personal, if you figure it out in the future once the project is released, whatever, that's fine. But I think I'll keep it private right now while it's all still relevant in my life. Everything is still actively playing out".

Finally I asked him if this "is this project going to be an album? You keep calling it a project, but I'd like to know what you mean by that". The response was a straight up "no". I proceeded to ask what this project would specifically be. To my surprise, he said "honestly haven't figured it out yet. I'm working on a couple songs right now. If I like a couple, and they meet my expectations, it will probably be an EP. If I can only manage to scrape one song together, then a single is possible as well".

No specific date of release has been mentioned, but it's most likely that the project will come out in late 2021 or early 2022.

As a smaller local artist in the Sacramento area, the chances of making it "big time" are relatively small, but Distant Monarch's presence at some of Sacramento's underground indie events have continuously brought local fans and support. A recent viral tiktok video on Distant Monarch's account although completely irrelevant to his music, has also helped drive traffic to his songs. It's possible that this small boost could also carry over into his new project.

This may be his last official project for quite some time, so it will be interesting to see what he makes of this opportunity.