Gay Paris' Frontman Is Tired Of His Larger-Than-Life Stage Persona

Luke 'Wailin H' Monks is one of those bona fide showmen — a strutting, writhing, fist-punching, fall-down-and-scream-from-the-floor performer whose stage banter is filled with devious charm and humour. It's a damn surprising contrast to the carefully spoken philosopher he is revealed to be. 

"I feel that's something I'm trying to come to terms with on this record because I've always made these jokes, I'm jokey," he admits quite seriously of his Wailin H persona. "On [second record] The Last Good Party, the lyrics were intense on that for me as well, but I'd never act it out, I'd never talk about it — I'd just pretend that everything's cool, and that's fine. It's my job... I feel like I have a responsibility to party on stage. I'm very, very tired of pretending that I'm something I'm not, which is the over-the-top party monster. I'm actually feeling frayed around the edges, thin and stretched out, and I feel like on this record I'm allowed to wear that cloak to a degree."

"I'm actually feeling frayed around the edges, thin and stretched out."

Monks talks at length about the quite literal line of questioning behind his favourite album track If Beasts Pray, diverging briefly to note how much time he spends thinking about God, or rather the lack thereof. His lyrics contain deep philosophical ponderings that are likely lost on the average live punter. The two versions of his self were bound to clash at some point, and the moment of reckoning came during a national tour supporting post-rock pals sleepmakeswaves.  

"I hadn't met [sleepmakeswaves bassist] Alex [Wilson] before, and it turned out he's an ethics major. And just talking to the guy about philosophy just moments before going on stage, at the end of the night it clicked for me — I don't have to be anything other than [what] I am, and it's actually quite freeing. When we started Gay Paris I wanted to get away from being a nervous intellectual possibly, if that's what I am, and I had to invent the WH persona, and it took a few shows to get there because it's so far from where I am. And now I want to walk away from that, and just be Luke. A lot of WH has rubbed off on me over the years, but there's more to life than masks I guess.     

"I feel like this record possibly changes how I behave as a performer, and hopefully also makes me a better a person; whether that's possible, we'll see," says Monks ahead of the extensive national tour that takes Gay Paris through to December. "But certainly with the few nights that we've played these songs live, I've realised that I can't just be the sex-joke guy anymore because there's a responsibility to the lyrics, to the tales that I've made. I'm still going to dance like a madman though," he laughs, careful to highlight that despite his recent realisations, the band will still turn up with an "explosive" rock'n'roll show. "I guarantee that as long as my knees don't give out, I will keep doing that." 

Part of the singer's frayed feelings come from the arduous recording process that saw them complete sessions in the States only to re-record significant sections of Ladies And Gentlemen, May We Present To You: The Dark Arts, sometimes several times over.

"We wouldn't be about to go on tour if we had the record that we first recorded because it sounds like crap. I don't want to be unhappy showing a product that I hate for two years, I don't want to work in fucking telesales," Monks spits. "We changed personnel — not in the band but producer, engineer, mixer stuff — a couple of times. We went to the US to record it, came back, dropped everything but the drums and started again because we thought it sounded terrible... It was just some really, really unprofessional environments we were in. And we spent a lot of money, more than we had, more than we wanted to — more than we could beg out of crowd funding. But it's done now, and we've got a record that we're supremely happy with... We're finally going back to the wild and I need to be there because rehearsals are a drag and recording this album was particularly draining, so I just want to put it on the road and get it dirty!"