“The lovechild of Fiona Apple and Tom Waits”
- Mogg Blog
“Mone’s songs are like daring, divergent art-pieces”
- American Pancake
“Moody, gritty and dark with a rare sense of charm”
- Indie Top 39
Short bio
Sweet and vicious honesty. Mone provokes and soothes in the same breath. She's been called the lovechild of Fiona Apple and Tom Waits for her raw, emotional songs and unique vocal sound. Rooted in folk music but influenced by many artists, from Nina Simone and Leonard Cohen to The Dresden Dolls and Kate Bush, Mone fuses more traditional genres with the firm confidence of avant-garde music.
The Berlin-based multidisciplinary artists released her debut album ‘Crocodile Kisses’and the accompanying artbook, filled with photos, sketches and texts in 2021.
Long Bio
Gut-wrenching and mesmerising performances drenched in authenticity, Mone provokes and soothes in the same breath both on stage and on record. She's been called the lovechild of Fiona Apple and Tom Waits for her raw, emotional songs and unique vocal sound. Rooted in folk music but influenced by many artists, from Nina Simone and Leonard Cohen to The Dresden Dolls and Kate Bush, Mone fuses more traditional genres with the firm confidence of avant-garde music. Mone’s subjects – muses, lost loves, power struggles, morality and sex – convalesce in a deeply primal self-expression. There’s a staggering honesty, range and command in her live performances, one that induces a spellbound state, locking eyes with her audience and carrying them along in a flare of cutting but darkly tantalising melody. Mone’s repertoire is driven on an often damning examination of the self that dances between the sweetness, innocence and the vicious torment of our inner beings: an anthology on love and longing, both at odds and wholly together in the same step, in a dance, and at war. Mone arrived permanently on the Dark Folk scene in Berlin in 2019 after returning to the Netherlands to complete Art School, and swiftly become part of The Famous Gold Watch Records Collective, founded by Universal producer-composer Cameron James Laing. Mone recorded her debut album, ‘Crocodile Kisses’ at the label’s eponymous studio, a beautifully restored 1930s speakeasy/Victorian Britain-inspired complex set in the basement of a former Stasi spy station and munitions factory: the hub of Berlin’s underground scene. Crocodile Kisses was Released in 2021.
Music
Live videos
Music videos
Press
On 'Terrible Broadway Play'
"‘Terrible Broadway Play’ is a dark-folk song that left me with a feeling I haven’t felt since listening to ‘Exit Music (For a Film)’ by Radiohead for the first time. A sense of seriousness, sorrow, tragedy and beauty all mixed together to create a complex and unsettling vibe that is not quick to leave your body."
"Mone’s beautifully unpredictable vocals float effortlessly when they want to, only to occasionally jump when you least expect it. Like the actress on stage, interrupting her monologue to scream at the roof. Listening to the song over and over again, you see structure in the madness. However, listening for the first time is a chaotic experience, in the best way possible."
On 'Big Brown Bear'
""Big Brown Bear" musically and poetically has a lot to offer to those of us starving for art that takes us to places that other popular or unpopular art doesn't take us. Mone's vocal aesthetic with unsteady melodies and almost otherworldly brittle sounds is at once beautifully and perfectly odd."
"Mone's (...) three wildly different songs feel like daring, divergent art pieces. I am feeling an amalgam of folk and baroque pop with post punk underpinnings (...) and I thought of Fiona Apple, P.J. Harvey, Dresden Dolls, and Bjork all at once."
"‘Big Brown Bear’ is a song about the complicated relationship to one’s own body, and the desire to shed the layers of human reflection, which was a concept born from the #metoo movement and experiences with sexual harassment. And we believe that the bittersweet grandeur of this tune emphasises this topic masterfully."
"Dutch frontwoman takes her cues from Weyes Blood on this smooth and ethereal alt-pop gem"
On 'Rat'
“[T]he new single feels like the lovechild of Fiona Apple and Tom Waits. (...) Remember the name Mone, she’ll quickly become the new face of avant-garde. (...) Set to release her debut album later this year, this is an artist if you’re interested in music without boundaries.”
“From the very first second, 'Rat' stirs something dark and guttural from the dust of alleyways. It's urgent, with primordial energy and introspection, driven by a snowballing piano. ”
- Raw Meat
“Moody, gritty and dark in its tone, ‘Rat’ brings us these qualities with a rare sense of charm. ”
“Mone delivered a jaw-dropping performance with her latest single titled ‘Rat’, produced by Cameron James Laing and Gidon Carmel. The new single is the second single off the upcoming album and highlights everything we’ve come to love about Mone. If you’re looking for something unique and interesting, Mone never disappoints. ”
“[A] portal into the madness of Mone"
On 'Crocodile Kisses'
“Crocodile Kisses’ is a dark and sensual ballad, the kind of song that is equally beautiful and brutal when professed with the degree of honesty she does.”
From the Strait interview
"Eine talentierte junge Singer/Songwriterin, auf deren Debüt man gespannt sein darf."