Michael Monroe reinventing the old cliche of “live fast, die young” with “I Live Too Fast To Die Young”
Michael Monroe reinventing the old cliche of “live fast, die young” with “I Live Too Fast To Die Young”
Michael Monroe was recently interviewed by Andrew Daly for Vinyl Writer Music. Monroe was promoting his new studio album I Live Too Fast To Die Young, which was released via Silver Lining Music on June 10, 2022.
In terms of whether “I Live Too Fast To Die Young” holds a special meaning to him taking into account his history and experiences, Monroe stated: “Of course. With that track, I am reinventing the old cliche of “live fast, die young.” Look, people need to know – young artists need to know – there’s nothing cool about dying young. It’s too common to die young, and it doesn’t 
even help sell records anymore. I felt that the idea of “I Live Too Fast to Die Young” was perfect for me as I just turned sixty. I can’t die young anymore, you know? I’m already sixty, so that can’t happen. People ask me, “Michael, what were the highlights of your career?” I don’t like that question, and I can’t answer it like you might think I would, because this is my highlight. I keep trying to make better records and do everything better every time I do it. Every song, every record, every gig, with all of those, I try to do better than the previous one. There is no highlight because I am always trying to improve.”
On whether he would call his new album autobiographical, Monroe indicated: “Yeah, you could say that. In many ways, yeah, it is. I mean, there are songs that are about different situations and stuff, but it’s very much about me. It’s not exactly the story of my life, but I don’t sing lyrics that I can’t relate to, you know? Everything that I sing about is always something that I can relate to. So, in that sense, yes, I would agree with that. The title track is definitely my autobiography. I mean, “I Live Too Fast to Die You,” I’d have to say that’s my middle name. [Laughs]. With this album, it was a turning point in the sense that we went into a new studio, and it was all new. I really didn’t plan it out to be exactly as it came together. It was really something that came together as we were in a studio.
Going in last summer, we had thirty-four songs to choose from, and I had to narrow it down to the eleven we hear on the album so it wasn’t too long. I wanted this to be the type of record that you listen to it, and you immediately want to hear it again, and listen to it over and over. So, it sort of came together in a studio in Helsinki, with a new engineer who we hadn’t tried before. That was a conscious risk, and it really paid off because like I said, we renewed the band’s sound in the best possible way on this one. Song-wise, production-wise, and arrangement-wise, there’s a lot of air and it’s more pleasant to listen to as opposed to the previous albums, I think. It’s not cranked to ten all the time, you know? It’s got a lot of variety, a lot of air, and a lot of dynamics.
So, I’m happy about how it came together as we were in the studio. We made some demos beginning of August last year and got it down to nineteen songs, and then we went into the studio in November. It was then that we got it down to about fifteen or sixteen songs. And then, as we were recording, I chose the final eleven, which kind of fell into place pretty nicely. So, like I said, I didn’t plan the whole thing from the beginning, I just took it as it came, and it came together pretty easily in the end. It was pretty clear to me what songs were the strongest ones, and gave the album the most variety. There are a lot of different types of songs from what we’ve done before with this band.”
You can read the rest of the interview with Michael Monroe at Vinyl Writer Music‘s website.
Michael Monroe‘s “I Live Too Fast To Die Young” single: