Monyo Project
Early years (personal bio)
Monyo (Molnar Endre) was just 13 when he started to become interested in playing the guitar. Since then he released albums, got a record deal and won awards. After finishing the high-school in Odorheiu-Secuiesc (Transylvania), he found an interesting article about Kobanya Music Studio, a great music school in Budapest, which in 1998 he successfully joined. Toth Janos Rudolf was his first encounter who not only was his teacher, but became his mentor and great friend influencing him throughout his music journey. During the Kobanya years he perfected his guitar playing skills, wrote songs and invented new sounds. He founded the band Monyo Project, which gave the start to great musical achievements. In 2009 Monyo married Baba (Fazakas Ilona) who is not only his partner in life but the singer in Monyo Project, the influence behind new inventions and also member of the Kobanya Music Studio. Even though Monyo comes from a very small town with little opportunities in his path, he managed to break away from all of that by being himself and very authentic. “The sounds are not in a guitar. The guitar is like a pen that helps you write down all the madness in your head.”
Musical journey (album releases)
Influenced by Placebo, Muse, Led Zeppelin, Jack White and U2, Monyo started writing instrumental music with a unique sound to it that led to the first album titled “Freedom”. This was a groundbreaking performance, since it was the first instrumental album to be heard in Transylvania.
After hard work and experimental process, the band released their first vocal album titled “Szlogenek, Szlangek, Vakerok”, produced by Dextramedia in 2007.
Since Kobanya Music Studio holds a lot of great young artists eager to play together, in 2008 Monyo founded a jazz band that featured Fekete Istvan (professor at Kobanya), Barat Bela (Honved-drummer), and Horvath Zsolt (Deak Bill Blues Band-keyboard). The result of this common jamming became the first jazz MP album titled “Cold”.
Living and composing in Budapest was not only helping the creative process for Monyo Project, but got the attention of different organizations like Artisjus (association of music composers, authors, songwriters). This association supported the band on their next two albums called “Blues Balkan” and “Chill out Yoga”, released in 2009.
The next step in 2010 was the biggest for Monyo Project. They have released an album that founded a unique genre titled “Cold Rock”.
Dear to Monyo, the jazz collaboration with musical colleagues and professors from Kobanya Music Studio, blossomed into a new album called “Odd Shoes”.
Being influenced by sounds, musicians and live performances, Monyo decided that he will stick with the female vocal in his music, because it gave warmth and opened up a new world in his imagination and creativity. He called this collaboration with Baba “Minimal Cold”. This project led to the most successful album yet, titled “Sex and Drugs and Cold Rock”. The invention of the new genre and all the hard work payed off for Monyo. He got signed by Hungary’s biggest musical publisher and record label – Magneoton.
The band Monyo Project and Magneoton sealed the deal in 2012. They have released three singles produced by the record label: „UUU”, „Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll”, and „U2”. All of them can be heard in hungarian radios, especially in Petőfi Rádió. A videoclip was also released for the song „UUU”, thanks to Magneoton.
Songs from „Minimal Cold” and „Jazz MP” albums served as themes for many artistic movies and short films.
At the 10th Harmonia Cordis International Guitar Festival that took place in 2015 the band had a successful collaboration with the Targu-Mures philharmonic orchestra. Monyo and Baba got the chance to perform their songs live from different albums. These original songs got symphonically remade with the help of composer Werner Gabor who also was the conductor at this special event.