The Sound Republic - WMC - 2006

Biography of The Sound Republic

From raving in the mid-nineties to DJing at sweat-soaked college parties full of cornhuskers out of their minds on every drug imaginable in downstate Illinois in the late nineties, to busting ass in the studio in the present day, it’s always been a precarious mixture of fun and hard work for The Sound Republic (the partnership of John Mork and Frankie J. Monacella)…. actually it’s probably mostly been fun. But those early years are a bit hazy and you can ask anyone: staying up for more than 24 hours straight is hard. Coming from a diverse background of musical influences, both John and Frankie have had their hands in lots of different musical honeypots throughout the years. Frankie has enjoyed a long and hearty love affair with the breakbeat, and spent much of his previous years pushing drum n bass in Chicago and out of speakers across the Midwest. This was followed by a short stint as being one of the original jocks in the U.S. to pick up on the UK Garage/2-step sound along with partner in crime DJ Casper. Both eventually tired of the UKG sound and found their ways back to drum n bass. All the while Mr. Mork was busy collecting and playing house music with nearly obsessive compulsive tendencies, playing events all over the Midwest and generally concerning himself with all things that go bump. John developed a reputation for deep and pumping sets under the moniker J. Atmosphere and spent a lot of time explaining to people that Slug (from the hip hop group Atmosphere) would not be appearing at the party that night. Both play guitar, and while John is content to leave his punk rock years in the past, Frankie is still banging out the rock and roll in his free time and plays and records in a band called Out for Hours when not spending time fiddling with knobs and making things go bleep and bap (and releasing solo tracks on Karl Almaria's Bunchlox imprint). Right. Longtime friends and collaborators, John and Frankie had worked together on a few projects in the past, but things really started marinating for the Sound Republic project in the spring of 2004 with John and Frankie (and the rest of the SR crew) starting up a weekly Thursday night called Swallow at the surreal dessert bar Sugar in Chicago’s Loop. It was at this point that Frankie realized that he rather enjoys playing house music and that John realized Frankie was sorry for vomiting on his couch and that it would be OK to let him back in to his apartment. Now clocking long hours in the studio, the Sound Republic is churning out a brand of house music that can only be described as deep, funky, and sure to make the booties jack.