The Monday Smile: Grunge's Unexpected London Resurrection

The New Grunge: The Monday Smile - we interview the guys and chat about what inspires them, where they're at and where they'd like to go..

That's how The Monday Smile describe themselves, it's typical of them and their music and we think one of the most honest mission statements you'll hear from any band this decade. No suits or brand consultants crafted that line. No A&R executive workshopped it in a tube lit air conditioned conference room. Just raw truth from one of our favorite bands and London's most visceral new grunge outfit.

The Monday Smile traffic in the currency of forgotten generations and lives frustrated by an unbalanced system. Their sound carries the weight of betrayal—not personal betrayal, but cultural abandonment and the repression of a generation going backwards economically, while being wooed and smothered by the cold blinking lights of deadening devices designed to keep you looking down. The kind that happens when entire cohorts slip through economic cracks while politicians argue about metrics and populists promise sunlit uplands, while you wade through the mud. LJ (Luke) commands guitar and vocals with the desperate rasping clarity of someone who understands that music isn't entertainment—it's survival and an outlet for the frustrated soul. Wooky pounds drums like they owe him money. Joy on his face as he does so like a kid playing whack a mole on sherbert. Russ, the bass man anchors the band with sub frequency riffs and and screams backing vocals with the steady fury of someone who's watched enough promises break.

The band's rapid fan accumulation across the UK points to something essential: people are starving for authenticity in an age of manufactured rebellion and beige musak. The Monday Smile doesn't conform or care about the masses, metrics or numbers. They can't afford to. Their music is live and direct because anything else would be lies.London has produced countless bands that cosplay rebellion while cashing major label checks. The Monday Smile represents something different—grunge as grueling economic reality rather than a bland fashion statement. Their sound emerges from actual desperation and frustration, not nostalgic posturing.

Their grunge doesn't mimic or copy. It's not Nirvana or Soundgarden; it channels the same societal and financial pressures that created those bands in the first place. Different decade, same systemic failures, same empty promises, same need to scream through amplifiers.Their approach eschews modern music industry conventions entirely. No fancy streaming strategy. No social media optimization. No playlist pitching in site.

Just three people creating music that matters to them and them alone. Trusting, hoping, that others will recognize themselves in the noise.The result is unapologetic, heavy and fresh new grunge that sounds both timeless and urgent. Music that acknowledges its debts to the past while addressing present-day frustrations and disasters. Songs that function as both tribute to the old and battle cry to the new disenfranchised generation.

Phase B Records gets it. We're not trying to sand off The Monday Smile's edges or make them palatable for mass consumption. Our label understands that the band's power and spirit comes from their refusal to compromise, their determination to stay raw.

Currently touring across the UK, The Monday Smile are building their reputation the honest way, the hard way—one converted audience member at a time. No shortcuts. No inside industry connections. No silver spoons here. Just the ancient fireside alchemy of live performance.

Transforming strangers into believers. You definitely don't want to miss these guys live. Not because they're entertaining, but because they're necessary. Find all the dates on Bands In Town here.

Three souls leaving everything on stage because pretending would be suicide. Absolute soul food.

We caught up with The Monday Smile after their absolute blast of a show at The Castle, London to find out more about them..

Luke - "Grunge is something you can’t kill, you can’t kill an idea. Grunge is punks slower, rejected brother. It represents a feeling, a sense of not fitting into a world built around status, commercialism and greed. It’s owned by nobody and nothing. It resonates with every human being that never felt like they fit in. It’s free. They say Grunge is dead but you can’t kill something that was born out of a society who doesn’t care about you or me. We live in a time where we need grunge more than ever. And to be honest, our band needs it."

Luke - "This band is therapy to us. It’s our cathartic love affair. The masses are as uninterested in us as we are them. We wanna speak to the outcasts. The kids in school who don’t get picked. The trodden on. The rejects. The masses have given us reality TV and paint by numbers performing monkeys. We have no interest in what they think just as they don’t care about us."

Luke - "It’s not that thought out to be honest. We only care about being authentic. It feels strange to us, this whole pandering to social media. It feels uncomfortable like a badly fitting sweater. I’m not saying we don’t put it out there we just only concern ourselves with what we create and perform."

Luke - "The whole thing is just about leaving it out there. Just letting go of whatever is plaguing us all. As a band we are one organism. I’m not LJ when I’m with Wookie and Russ and we are playing. We are one thing and we aren’t making the music it’s whatever we are channeling. And for us we just get to participate in that experience which is both cathartic and humbling. Hopefully the audience is also a participant in that experience."

Russ - "When we get together to practice, write or gig… there’s a thing, an energy, that feels more than just the sum of our parts. I try to let go and not think too much and let this other thing direct what I do. I hope the audience can get a feel for that too when we play live. I’d like to travel the world and find the people that are receptive to that energy too and hopefully be a conduit for the energy, to build a community of people that get it. That’s why playing live is so key for me. I’m not interested in throw away, social media hyped, one dimensional music. I want our audience to be the ones who receive the universes energy from us. I’d rather reach one person like that than 10,000 on a superficial level. I love creating music with these guys and will continue until I can no longer play a bass."

Luke - "I don’t think we live in a world of comfort anymore. The gap between the middle, working class and the rich is widening by the day. In the riches favour. Most of us are living on a knife edge. Barely getting by. Something is boiling up under the surface. Music always reflects the world around it. We aren’t reinventing the wheel. I think we are just driving till the wheels fall off."

The Monday Smile represents and hammers home something building in the underground again. The return of music as a service essential to life rather than luxury commodity or throwaway background nonsense. A voice. They're not here to soundtrack your commute or keep you jogging. They're here to remind you that you're still alive, still capable of feeling something real in a world full of blinking screens and distractions designed to numb you into compliance. Rock the f**k on The Monday Smile.

You can find out more about them, grab yourself some awesome merch and find all their links right here on Phase B Records.

Don't miss out on this movement. Catch them live for the ultimate experience. Head over to Bands In Town a find them at a venue near you!