Premiere: “How To Sleep With Your Eyes Open”, Monograms’ Quarantine Diary

Written by Ian Jacobs

Ian during a livestream.

Ian Jacobs, known musically as Monograms, has spent the last two months of quarantine writing their third album, Only A Ceiling Can Stay Inside Forever. Along with Ali Yildiz on drums, Michelle Feliciano on synth and Devan Davies-Wood on bass, the group has been creating a piece of music to commemorate this point in time. Jacobs remarks, "the title of the album was a phrase I kept thinking about... What's the adjustment? When is it ok to go out again? It all still seems so unreal, kind of a 'how did we all get here?' moment.” Today the Brooklyn based artist is releasing the first single, “How To Sleep With Your Eyes Open” off the upcoming LP via Papercup Music. Below, Ian writes his thoughts on the strange times and consequences that inspired the latest album along with the premiere of the single.

Strangest of times. Strange for everyone. Life changing, yes. Life ruining, no. Life affirming, maybe. Definitely a strange time for musicians. No one knows how or when things will reopen or if they'll be back to normal any time anywhere soon. Our whole lives and reasons for what we do and how we do, is based on human interaction, even if it's from a distance. Playing, touring, meeting, exchanging ideas and like-minded people meeting like-minded people is quite literally what fuels the industry. Connections. We are so super lucky we have the Internet. It's supplementing a lot of it, but it's not the same. Everything kinda feels like that old bar closing joke, "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." Only the world is saying, "You don't have to go home... but you kinda definitely do." 

When I do go out, I find myself just shaking my head and pinching myself. You can't see anyone's face. Society seems a little more disjointed than usual which is off-putting. Everyone's quality of life and sense of normalcy got turned upside down. The party is over, the bar is closed, at least for a while. It’s also strange to see how much we've all adjusted to it, myself included. Staying in every night, Zooming with friends, watching TV. I also had a birthday during quarantine, that was next level weird.

On the other hand, it's been kind of nice to have all of this down time. Things move so crazy fast. To quote Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while..." So, I’ve been going through old photos and reconnecting with old friends that I know are also home. It's been kind of nice to see the world stop for a while, and to have some time to kick back a little. Issues still loom large, but it's a cool time to sort of take a breath, loosen the valve and cocoon a little, creatively or with family or just slow the fuck down for a while. Until... the boredom sets in.

I think that’s why I started making this album, I wanted to feel like I was using this time for something positive and have something to kind of mark the time. I think it's important to find a way to turn the situation and the time around on itself. This thing tried to stop a lot of people from doing what they normally do, so it's a fun feeling to say "no thanks, i'm gonna keep doing it."

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