Interview: Why m0n0 jay Became One of Our Favorite Discoveries

This season, few artists caught our attention quite like m0n0 jay. Mysterious and creative, the artist immediately sparked our curiosity with her sound. Naturally, we had to sit down and dive deeper into her world, through an honest conversation. Let’s discover m0n0 jay in 10 questions!

What kinds of places, textures, or everyday chaos were already acting like “invisible inspirations” in your life without you even realizing it?

Actually this shouldn’t be the first question in the set! I was always songwriting since I remember writing my first song at the age of 6, writing poetry and short stories, but only trained semi-professionally. I’ve lived a demanding, highly structured life: balancing motherhood, competitive powerlifting, and the corporate world. But this project isn’t about my resume. It’s about what happens when the structure breaks down and you have to build something raw from scratch.
The biggest inspiration was seeing my dad’s health deteriorate. He passed away two years ago at 79, and I wanted to create a piece of music that could be an uplifting workout in just around 3 minutes. I thought that if I could help others stay on their fitness track, maybe somehow it would honor his memory. That was the bright entrance to the Candy Gym. Then I developed the whole EP, where L.L.L. is just an entry point, and later on I explore deeper, darker themes, like burnout, SA, manic breakup, and finally hope through recovery and love.

You describe your sound with words like “glitter,” “sweat,” and “relentless bass.” If your project existed as a real physical space, what would people see the second they walked in?

It does exist, and the inspiration is my powerlifting club here in Täby, Stockholm. Come by on a Saturday and you will see a diverse, intensely focused crew pushing their absolute physical limits. It’s heavy iron, sweat, and visceral energy. But if you come by at 3:00 AM after the doors lock… that is where the ATH Remix lives. The neon goes dark, and it’s just pure, heavy 135+ BPM audio brutalism.

A lot of pop music sells transformation or perfection. Your work almost rejects that entirely. Was there a specific moment where you decided to step off the beaten track and create something different?

A very philosophical deep dive. There is a moment in some of our lives when you realize that relentless consumerism is detrimental to humanity and the planet, and that slowing down, understanding you need fewer things, but more connections, and deeper conversations: most of all, conversations based on truth, are what matter. I would link that moment to a profound conversation with a friend a few years ago. Someone who gave me permission to completely open up and drop the armor I was wearing as a single expat mum trying to survive in a new country. Rejecting perfection in my music is just a continuation of that truth. I am not selling a “glow-up.” I am selling survival.

There’s this tension in your music between candy-colored energy and darker emotional undercurrents. Do you see those two sides as opposites, or are they actually part of the same emotional state for you?

I am a 37-year-old tech professional, athlete, mother, and artist, and I’ve lived quite an interesting and challenging life so far. Over time I learned that life is not just black and white; all the colors and shades of complex emotions can coexist. Actually being able to hold parallel perspectives on the same events is what gives your life, and your art, depth and empathy. The glitter isn’t hiding the dark undercurrents, it’s the armor you wear to walk through them.

Your tracks feel intensely body-driven, almost like movement comes before lyrics sometimes. Do you write songs from emotions, from visuals, or literally from physical sensations in your body?

This track started as “Our Bodies X 2”, then came the lollipop hook and finally the dark techno remix. It was quite a ride, and it took me 2 years to get here! When it comes to songwriting, I usually always have some notes, ideas for phrases, or experiences to write about. I was not supposed to say it, but I do use Google Drive for all of my projects, and it removes all risk of a notebooks being lost! Sometimes I dream about music but it’s usually quite hard to note that down half asleep. Songs usually come almost finished, because I dreamt about them so many times. But the execution is entirely physical. When you are writing over a relentless industrial techno bassline, the physical sensation in your chest literally dictates the vocal delivery.
Industrial textures can sometimes feel cold, but your music still feels alive and human.

How do you balance chaos and vulnerability without losing either one?

Industrialism is a big continuum, and in L.L.L. I am just getting started. There is a lot of emphasis on real or near-real (sampled) sounds, like the famous giant 45cm lollipops that we crushed over a barbell, sounds of sliding metal, or actual physically exhausted breath. Industrialism in that sense for me means going against polished pop: leaving a bit of chaos, unpredictability and realness in the art. It’s worth listening to, because it happened and was witnessed by a microphone.

Your music feels unapologetic in a way that’s increasingly rare in pop. What’s something in yourself you stopped trying to “clean up” artistically?

All of the ideas for crazy, unhinged hooks. “Lift, lift, lick it” just came up when I was recording, and it fit so beautifully to this multi-meaning track that was just picked up for live sets by some Berlin DJs. If I don’t like it, I can always find somebody who could remix it again; stems are always at the ready. I stopped trying to sanitize the heavy, uncomfortable themes. I also stopped pretending I wasn’t the CEO. One important pop-driven thing I did learn was to just shamelessly promote my art wherever I am. As an independent Executive Producer, I learned how to be ruthless with my resources to protect the art.

A lot of artists talk about “stage presence,” but you talk more about presence itself. What’s the difference for you between performing and simply existing fully in a moment?

So I started writing in my bedroom, and then stepped into the studio to learn how to Executive Produce my own vision alongside incredible collaborators. Performing my music live is the next step, and it will be a joyful, heavy mix of DJ’ing and live vocals that I am just working on. Something so important I learned from powerlifting is that on the lifting platform or on the stage, in the end, it’s always yourself against yourself. Mental preparation, finding joy in being up there under pressure, is the key.

Imagine someone listens to m0n0 jay alone at 3AM after a terrible night out. What do you hope happens to them during those three minutes?

I really hope it’s not the terrible night out I am portraying in my next single, dropping in June…
But if they can open up to the audio brutalism and the specific production choices we made with ATH, I really hope that it will give them a much-needed dopamine boost, let them leave worries behind, and if anything, just scream “Energy flows up and low!”

What can we expect from you in the near future?

More music. Starting with Variant, an SA survivor club diss track dropping on June 21st (exactly two years to the day after it happened). Then some more remixes, maybe a live show or two, and the rest of the Secret Selfies EP coming by the end of the year. The upcoming tracks dive even deeper into the basement: exploring modern dating exhaustion, the visceral reality of mental burnout, and eventually resolving in a pure oxytocin lullaby. Follow me for the ride.

Press play:

https://www.instagram.com/m0n0_jay_music

https://www.youtube.com/@itsm0n0jay

@m0n0jay