Home Entertainment Indie Folk Artist Mon Rovîa Talks Hope, Inspiration, and Echinacea Tea

Indie Folk Artist Mon Rovîa Talks Hope, Inspiration, and Echinacea Tea

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Indie Folk Artist Mon Rovîa Talks Hope, Inspiration, and Echinacea Tea
Janjay Lowe, higher generally known as Mon Rovîa, is a Chattanooga-based people musician who hails initially from Liberia. Adopted by Christian missionaries throughout the Liberian civil conflict, he self-describes his style as “Afro Appalachian,” a nod to each his origins and his present house. His lyrical, emotional ballads and soothing social media presence have garnered a faithful fanbase, and he is been praised for drawing consideration to the contributions of the Black Appalachian group to American people music.

In between stops on his tour with fellow Tennessee indie-folk act Josiah and the Bonnevilles, AllMusic had the prospect to talk with Mon Rovîa about his most up-to-date single, “Do not Lose a Good Factor,” how he holds onto his optimism, and his favourite sort of tea, amongst different subjects.

Your first headline tour, the Heal With Others Tour, bought out earlier this month. Congratulations! How are you feeling?

Mon Rovîa: I really feel really grateful and blessed for the chance, shout out to the folks for rising us up. It’s been a variety of work, and we positively put within the hours, however you may’t do something with out assist and group, and so we fostered that, and it’s been nice to see them lend us a hand.

Are you able to inform me somewhat about how you bought into writing and making music?

Mon Rovîa: Music for me has at all times been a pal as I used to be rising up, one which I knew would name me to deeper issues as I grew older. I used to be at all times on the surface somewhat bit, and would do some writing for my buddies as we have been rising up in highschool, however I by no means needed to be the forefront of something, as a result of I am a bit shy, and additionally

I spotted then there have been so many different people who simply needed to listen to another person come by way of one thing, and then they discover power in that. Music now for me has been a journal and a means for me to assist to others who expertise comparable issues.

as a result of I did not have the imaginative and prescient or the mission. I did not have something I used to be trying to consider in, actually, with what my objective was if I did do music. So I type of simply dabbled over time, and after I acquired into faculty, I had a little bit of a conundrum inside myself the place I had all these items from the previous, whether or not it’s my journey from Africa, various things I skilled, the discrepancies in America in the case of Black folks as effectively, and being adopted is a complete different journey. And at the moment at school music type of got here again to me…and it helped me discover peace, really, to have the ability to inform my tales, inform my ideas. I spotted then there have been so many different people who simply needed to listen to another person come by way of one thing, and then they discover power in that. Music now for me has been a journal and a means for me to assist to others who expertise comparable issues.

What’s your songwriting course of like lately?

Mon Rovîa: I write a variety of the songs at house on my ukulele, fairly stripped, and I do not go into it with an agenda. I often attempt to really feel the spirit – we name it “downloading from the supply” – the place you are within the second and what comes you simply begin writing and writing, and the story simply unveils itself the extra you let go. So I do not actually have a course of, I imply I learn loads, I’ve a variety of issues in my thoughts which might be concerning the world and folks and society, however what comes forth that day I can not say.

Who or what would you say are your biggest influences?

Mon Rovîa: For me it started with Bon Iver, so I am going to at all times give him that shoutout, I feel that is what made me fall in love with music – the worlds he constructed, the language he used, it actually set a listener in a spot. Vampire Weekend was one other group I liked, Ezra Koenig is an incredible author. With poetry, civil-rights period writers, I like James Baldwin so I take a variety of inspiration from him. My important inspiration actually is folks, simply being conscious, listening, being quiet, and taking the world in.

While you look again at your earlier music, do you’re feeling like your work has modified or grown since then?

Mon Rovîa: Development as within the sound of the devices the producers have been working with has gotten higher, sure. However no, I feel my writing and all the pieces has at all times been one thing that I take a variety of satisfaction in, so I would not say an excessive amount of on that entrance, however I’ll say the manufacturing that goes across the songs has develop into loads higher, and that is been superb.

Inform me about your newest single, “Do not Lose A Good Factor,” and what impressed it.

Mon Rovîa: The thought behind that music is in relationships, no matter that be, loving ones or simply friendships, you undergo collectively, and you get to a spot in life the place all the pieces’s comfy and all the pieces’s good, and you are like, “I hope this stays the identical,” however life is at all times revolving, it is at all times cyclical, and issues come and go, so individuals are at all times altering. For me, I am an individual who loves routine and issues being the identical, and it is a music encouraging folks to not worry change in no matter relationship you are in, and to know that you simply’re altering too, it is vital. You modify collectively, and hopefully you come and study completely different elements of one another every time as you go. It is one thing you may construct a superb construction with collectively, it does not imply it’s a must to go separate methods. The music is simply actually about accepting change, not fearing it.

All of your album artwork appears very cohesive, how do you create it?

Mon Rovîa: Shoutout Mickey Brown, he is the one! I’ve identified him since we have been younger, he works on our group, he is the inventive director, he does the merch and the album designs, he is only a nice determine. We simply let him go, we’ll be like, “Hey, this is the music, sink into it,” he’ll hearken to the music and no matter he comes up with is what the album artwork is. We do not give him any type of suggestions on it, we’re identical to, “We belief you bro.” He is accomplished an incredible job every time, he is a visionary.

Do you could have a favourite piece of album artwork, or is it like selecting a favourite youngster?

Mon Rovîa: It type of is like selecting a favourite youngster. I’d say “Metropolis on a Hill” proper now might be my favourite cowl artwork that we have had. However the subsequent one developing from the subsequent act is trying to be fairly particular, in order that’ll most likely change.

City on a Hill
Metropolis on a Hill

Your on-line presence and your music painting a really peaceable outlook on the world, which could be a robust factor to domesticate in such an amazing time. How do you handle to carry onto this?

Mon Rovîa: I positively do have a really optimistic outlook. There’s at all times hope, regardless of if it is a sliver, however I feel there’s a variety of wrestling with the issues we see on the earth and how you’re feeling that you simply’re not succesful to do something about it typically. All of us wrestle with that, and it is arduous to take a seat in it and be part of the world in that means, however there’s at all times hope, so I attempt to preserve that outlook within the songs in addition to on-line.

If there’s one factor you need your listeners to remove out of your work, what would that be?

Mon Rovîa: You by no means know what the subsequent day brings and it is vital to make it there, as a result of all the pieces that you simply attempt for may very well be proper round that subsequent nook, and in the event you do not make it there, you might by no means truly obtain it. That is my encouragement to my folks, those who’re struggling with completely different anxieties, depressions, and loss. You simply by no means know what the subsequent day is, and so each step issues, and I hope that you simply preserve making it, you retain taking these steps.

In the event you may collaborate on a music with any artist, who would you select?

Mon Rovîa: That is robust as a result of I am at the moment getting wowed by Regina Spektor on this journey we’re on, however I’d most likely say proper now Adrianne Lenker.

And at last, movies of you making and ingesting tea function in a few of your TikToks, so what’s your favourite type of tea?

Mon Rovîa: It is the Immune Zoom, the echinacea. I like that a lot, it is so good, it is my favourite. Any type of throat coat tea, actually, I am going to drink it.


You could find extra from Mon Rovîa on Instagram and YouTube, on TikTok and X, or on his web site.

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