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Photo: Nolan Peters

almost monday should be everyone's go-to for an instant mood-booster. The epitome of making feel-good music, their sound encapsulates the very essence being young and carefree. Like driving down the highway with a bunch of people packed into the car and the music blasting, there's something inherently liberating about almost monday's music. Never overly complicated and effortlessly cool, the trio's music is nothing short of intoxicating.

Their latest single "hailey beebs" is an earworm, with its shimmering guitar and punchy drum pattern. The track evokes a sense of euphoria reminiscent of first falling for someone - that small skip of your heartbeat when you see their name pop up on your phone, the way hours pass in a matter of seconds because you get so wrapped up in conversation. Mirroring the simplicity of a new, budding romance, "hailey beebs" is meant to be played on repeat.

We got the chance to speak with Dawson, Cole, and Luke of almost monday about the inspiration behind their new song, how they define their sound, and how they hope to bring their music to life on stage ahead of their set at Bonnaroo.

For someone who's never heard of almost monday, how would you describe the trio and your sound?

I think our sound draws from a wide range of different emotions and feelings. I think it’s a bit hard to box it into one genre or specific sound, but it kinda lives in the alternative/indie/pop world. I've heard people tell us that it's good driving music, which is cool.

Can you give us a little insight into your creative process?

We make music in the living room studio of our producer's house. It’s honestly a very open/fluid process. Usually, we open the first hour of the session just talking and catching up on life and those conversations sometimes translate into what we want to write about. A lot of times we catch the vibe in the room, listening to some music that we’re into at the moment and start writing the song around any spark that comes to us - sometimes being some chords on guitar or a drum beat or a melody. Basically, anything goes. We never really approach it in the same way and there's not really this magic blueprint that we follow.

What do you hope people take away from your music?

I think our music can be a bit of an energy booster for people and maybe lighten their mood a bit in whatever they’re doing. Hopefully people can resonate with the songs and give them a meaning of their own.

Where did the idea for "hailey beebs" come from? How did the track come together?

hailey beebs was an old demo that we had liked for a long time but it kind of just sat on the hard drive. When we reapproached it, we still had a placeholder lyric as the title of the song, and us and our team kept referring to it as the hailey beebs demo which kinda just stuck. It's pretty arbitrary in the terms of the song but the title just took on an identity of its own, so it felt weird calling it anything else for us.

How do you feel like your surroundings impact your musical inspirations?  

Surf rock, punk music and moshing with your friends were all a big part of growing up in the San Diego music scene. It was a really cool environment to grow up in, but I think with the rise of streaming and having access to more music really broke us out of the San Diego mold. With the internet it was easier to find inspiration from all of the world and different eras of music whenever.  

I saw you guys are playing Bonnaroo, super exciting!! How do y'all envision bringing  your music to life on stage?

Playing a live show and seeing the instant reaction to the music is probably the best feeling in the world and we're very excited to do that after a year of playing to zoom calls and cameras. I think when we write songs, we are a lot of times thinking about how it would translate to a live audience. Simply put, we envision our shows being high in energy and we hope that people are just stoked to be there.

What has been your favorite memory since forming almost monday?

Dawson: There are too many to count, but one that stands out in more recent memory was playing Aragon Ballroom sold out in Chicago. It will always have a really special place in my heart because it was the first show of our first tour, and the energy of the crowd was electrifying!

Cole: I think my favorite memory was the same as Dawson's. The sold-out crowd at Aragon Ballroom was definitely the biggest to date that we've played in front of, and it felt kinda surreal.

Luke: One of my favorite memories was the last show we played at Univ which was a local surf shop that we used to play a bunch. It was so loud and packed in that tiny room. It was pretty mind bending to see how far we had come from our first show there.

Are there any other artistic avenues that you are eager to explore in the future?

I feel like we've fallen in love with the process of making music videos, and in the future, I could see it being really fun to work in some capacity in the film industry whether it be acting, writing, scoring, or directing.

Who are your Ones to Watch?

Jelani Aryeh and Postcard Boy/Carwash are San Diego artists who are killing it and making amazing music and visuals right now.