Monique Angele
Monique Angele. Photo: Shawn Burgess
Every year at around this time the Christmas music begins to roll out. Obviously, the most famous of these songs is Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas. But, Canadian-Australian singer-songwriter Monique Angele is looking to stake her claim this year with a Christmas song of her own.
After years of pleading from her mother, Monique Angele has finally relented & written a Christmas song entitled, Sing Together On Christmas. Created during one of the many lockdowns experienced in Australia Sing Together On Christmas encapsulates the festive spirit. The song conveys this through a sense of hope & joy for spending time with family & friends. Speaking about the inspiration & significance of the song Monique told Pario, "In a way, I think the lyrics of this song allow it to be played at any time of year but especially at Christmas because that's a time when people are a bit nicer to each other."
Given that the song was one Monique's mum had been encouraging for some time she was the first person Monique needed to impress. Thankfully the song passed the Mum test according to Monique.
"She loved it. She's a big Christmas fan, she loves anything Christmas, so she was very happy."
Expanding Musical Horizons
Sing Together On Christmas sees Monique continue down a musical path that she has been exploring more & more in recent times. When Monique first discovered her passion for music, as a young child, she was heavily influenced by classical music. As Monique explained this influence first came when she began taking piano lessons.
"As a kid, I was introduced to piano lessons. In Canada, they start by teaching you classical songs from people like Beethoven or Mozart. So over the years I really learnt to appreciate how complex that music it is. How awesome it can be & how difficult it can be too."
As she came to grow older Monique began to discover new musicians & new genres. First came The Beatles, then Queen, Billy Joel & Elton John. However, the most surprising influence came when Monique discovered rock & heavy metal.
"I would say every genre has influenced me in some way. Whether it be hip-hop or rock," explained Monique enthusiastically. "I'm really into the rock & heavy metal scene. I love Tool & Coheed & Cambria. In my opinion, those metal bands have a bit of classical influence because they tend to be very virtuosic & complicated."
Fusing Classical, Pop & Heavy Metal
While Monique says she doesn't intentionally set out to fuse her favourite music genres it is inevitably in a subconscious way.
"It naturally comes out. I would say my earlier music like my debut EP is the most classical sound out of all my releases," Monique told Pario. "I'm leaning more towards the pop vibe now."
For this process to occur naturally Monique said with a wry giggle that she doesn't "really think about what people want to hear." Instead, she simply writes what she is feeling & then hopes that people like it.
"The more that I'm experimenting with songwriting the more different my music is sounding."
As Monique continues to experiment she is very optimistic about the future.
"I'm going to have some new music, primarily singles, in the next while. I'm always evolving in my songwriting, so these upcoming songs are a bit more on the catchy side. I'm pretty excited for these ones!"
Follow Monique Angele's Creative Journey at: www.MoniqueAngele.com
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