Artist Feature: Space Monkey Mafia

Once upon a time, a guitarist from Minnesota had a pet monkey named Tanya. Tanya was an exceptional monkey. So exceptional, that NASA decided she was the perfect monkey for space exploration. Despite the guitarists wishes to keep Tanya home, she was blasted out of this world, never knowing if she would see her beloved friend and guitarist again. This guitarist was Blake Foster.  Foster knew he had to do something to reunite with his monkey. The answer was to build a spaceship. Such a venture could only be done with a team. Thus, Space Monkey Mafia was born.

But, when the Space Monkey Mafia isn’t building their spaceship, they’re making music.

Space Monkey Mafia formed in late 2016 after band members Blake Foster (guitar), Riley Jacobson (drums) and Joe Barren (bass) met at the late McNally Smith School of Music. The group later acquired Tim Kingstrom (saxophone) and Dante Leyva (lead vocals and saxophone). All members hail from Minneapolis, Minnesota and its surrounding areas. 

The band refers to themselves as a “hodge podge,” but feel as if a fan at a show in their college town of Winona, Minnesota hit it on the head when they described the band as an “anti-capitalist, brass punk” group.

2018 has been filled with milestones for intergalactic punk/ska band, Space Monkey Mafia. The band released their first, full length studio album “Sorry for Your Time.” They have been busy touring this summer in their van, Bernie Vanders, and are anticipating a fall tour as well. On the evening of July 19, they had their Chicago debut at Fuller’s Pub. This is the largest city they have ever played in.

The intimate bar is located in Northern neighborhood, Irving Park and served as an ideal venue for the band’s Chicago break out performance. They also chose to debut their new song, “Chicago,” featuring the lyrics “You don’t have to go to Chicago.” Much to their awe, the crowd ate it up.

Their album “Sorry for Your Time” was released in late March of 2018. The band was recording the album at McNally Smith School of Music’s studio up until the very last day it was open. Unfortunately, time was not on their side and the band finished the album in Jacobson’s basement.

The title for the album was born when dedicated Leyva was making campaign calls for a Minneapolis, mayoral candidate while the band was on tour. Literally, calls were being made from the van as the band bounced down the road, in and out of service. After a particularly fuzzy call, and realizing he had interrupted a family’s dinner, flustered, Leyva apologized with “Sorry for your time” and hung up. He had made an unintentional mix between “Sorry about that” and “Thank you for your time.”It became the joke of the trip.

Later, Jacobson presented them with album artwork featuring “Sorry for Your Time” written on a clock with a deep red background.

They have come to consider the album a self deprecating, tongue in cheek call back to late 90’s, early 2000’s punk.

There are many factors that set this band apart from the rest. Multiple members of the band contribute to the writing and every member contributes vocals. Each has their own, unique musical styling that makes the dream come alive and the crowd dance. While Foster writes a majority of the tracks with a southern rock twist, Riley Jacobson’s tracks can be picked out for their ambiance and RadioHead’s influence, and Kingstrom’s punk influence and passionate political views.

“Definitely put in capital letters that RILEY LOVES RADIOHEAD,” said Kingstrom.

After the songs were all composed and recorded, Riley Jacobson ordered the songs to tell the story of a person from birth to death. They were not written as a narrative, but similar life experiences brought individually written songs together as a story.

“We’re all 20-something dudes living in the city experiencing our own hardship,” said Leyva. “It has a message of being frustrated about the system that has turned its back on values. All tracks express a wishing for something to change.”

Kingstrom shared that he saw the album as “half protagonist and half world problems…Our next one will probably be more political”

The band is currently half way through it’s summer album tour and is looking forward to the second half which is heavily laden with festival stops. The band is particularly excited about its  stop in Houston, Minnesota at Galactic Get Down Music Festival.

“The festival is a testament to not needing sponsors  – just a Cambodian food truck and good bands,” said Kingstrom. The formation of the festival comes from two broke music fans, it’s for the people and by the people. I believe in it on a lot of levels.”

The event is the perfect concoction of home state support, family, friends and keeping busy. The brass section will be joining other bands at the event, including female power group, The Von Tramps. The rest remains a surprise.

The band hopes that those in attendance to their show will leave feeling energized, connected to the people around them and hopefully, a little drunk.

The band will be announcing a fall tour schedule, new songs and videos on their social media. To listen to Space Monkey Mafia’s “Sorry for Your Time”, check them out on Spotify.
If you’re wanting to catch them at Galactic Get Down, check out the festival’s website for tickets.

This one’s for you, Tanya.