The Beautiful Monument Talk Tackling Self-Doubt On New Single

Aussie queens of emo rock The Beautiful Monument are continuing their resurgence with the release of their fierce-yet-haunting new single, ‘Duerme’. Translating to “sleep” in Spanish, ‘Duerme’ narrates vocalist Lizi McIntosh’s personal journey with self-doubt and uncertainty within music and writing.

Music Feeds sat down with Lizi to delve a little deeper into their new track, uncover some honest truths about releasing music in 2024, and find out more about what the future holds in store for The Beautiful Monument. Read our exclusive chat and get the full lowdown down below,

The Beautiful Monument – ‘Duerme’

Music Feeds: Hey legend! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us. Firstly, congrats on the release of your latest single ‘Duerme’, who did you work with on this track and what was the creation process like?

Lizi McIntosh: Thank you so much! We went with Callan Orr (Avalanche Studios) for this one and it was such a fun experience working with someone we’d never worked with before. A little stressful for me personally because I have a lot of self doubt and tend to struggle with crazy anxiety when it comes to the whole writing and recording process, but we all gelled really well and had a great time.

MF: You mention that the song is about self-doubt and anxiety when it comes to creating and the music industry altogether. What fuels the feelings behind this?

LM: Hahaha, yep! It honestly all stems from my first encounter with very warranted constructive criticism (which at that time in my life, I’d never encountered). For the longest time I was told everything I brought to the table was amazing and perfect just the way it is; so when I was faced with the reality that, that’s just not how it works and things need to be tweaked- it was a big hit to the ego at the time haha. Obviously I now know a hell of a lot more about this whole process but it really stuck with me, especially when later down the track people who were supposed to be on my team started second-guessing and questioning the things I was creating without outside help. So I’m now perpetually riddled with the fear that nothing I write or come up with is ever good enough.

MF: Do you feel you’ve found a way to combat the difficult mindset when writing and releasing?

LM: Amy, Alex and Adam are truly the most amazing hype-people. Their positivity and excitement for any ideas I may have on newer things we’ve been working on has honestly helped me so much – even though my self doubt is always at the forefront of my mind.

MF: The title ‘Duerme’ translates from Spanish to “sleep”. You are of Spanish heritage, do you practice Spanish traditions at home? And what was the motivation behind pulling from that connection for this track in particular?

LM: There’s little things that I still do now that I’m married and out of home that I learnt from my parents – like making churros any time there’s a special event like a birthday or Christmas etc. I even say certain words or phrases to [TBM bassist and Lizi’s wife] Amy that she now understands. I’ve always wanted to somehow share the fact that I can speak another language fluently into our music and the groove of this track just fit in so perfectly, so I took that as my opportunity to roll with it.

MF: In recent years, the formats, strategies and platforms surrounding releasing music has changed quite dramatically. Do you feel there is more pressure today and does this play a part in the anxieties of releasing music?

LM: Absolutely! Social media and streaming platforms are definitely a blessing and a curse. The fact that so much time, effort, money and emotion goes into creating music for people to hear and enjoy to then get paid not even a cent per stream from these platforms is actually pretty disgusting. Not that it’s about the money, but the whole process in itself is a giant financial stress for smaller artists for sure, which is probably one of the scariest things in terms of release anxiety since you have to fork out so much money now for people to MAYBE see that you have something out. But the perks of these apps existing is that anyone in the world does have a chance of discovering you and potentially being your next biggest fan, or finding a song that just totally understands them and relates to their experiences.

MF: You’ve played some pretty impressive shows across the last few years, including main supporting Evanescence last August across the nation as well as playing festivals like Download, UNIFY, Good Things, CVLTFEST and more. You also just wrapped a tour with RedHook – how were the shows? And how do you feel there’s a contrast between releasing and performing music?

LM: The shows were really great despite all of the hire cars we were cursed with haha. We just couldn’t catch a damn break!! If it wasn’t a kangaroo it was some jerk who apparently can’t see a parked car. I’m definitely more focused and in the zone when it comes to release time and everything is way more stressful comparatively. Being on stage is so liberating; when you’re up there doing your thing it feels like nothing else matters and for 30-40 minutes you just get to be unapologetically you and live in that moment. Too bad it feels like you’re only up there for ten seconds and then it’s all over haha. Releases to me feel like a stressful day job but the content you’re working with is just cooler

MF: Is there a song in your live show that no matter what always brings a big reaction when played live? Do you have a personal favourite?

LM: It’s probably ‘Misery’ to be honest. I haven’t seen people get so emotional or excited like that over one of our songs since ‘Give Up’ and I’m here for it! In terms of my personal favourite to perform – I’d have to say it’s probably ‘Invisible’.

MF: Having shared a string of singles over the last 12 months from, can fans expect to see an extended release in the near future?

LM: We’re heading back into the studio in October to work on another record! The process already started a few months ago so we’re extremely excited to be working on some new music which we’re already obsessed with and it’s not even finished yet

MF: What artists or sounds have been influencing the direction of The Beautiful Monument moving forward? What can we expect from the music that’s yet to be heard?

LM: So far it’s been a huge mix of influences for this next record because we all listen to very different genres of music. We’ve been very carefully trying to curate a new feel and style for TBM moving forward while still having some elements of our style that our listeners already enjoy hearing from us – fingers crossed everything runs smoothly and you don’t have to wait as long as these singles to hear it!