From Monument To Masses

San Francisco-based post-rock trio From Monument to Masses brings together vocalist/percussionist/drummer Francis Choung, guitarist/vocalist/programmer Matthew Solberg, and bassist/keyboardist/programmer/vocalist Sergio Robledo-Maderazo. The group came together in late 2000 after Solberg first encountered Choung via an online bulletin board aimed at area musicians. The pair started collaborating and soon linked up with Robledo-Maderazo, who had overlapped with Choung at UCSB and shared a mutual acquaintance in Steve Aoki, founder of Dim Mak Records. Their music merges the flowing structures typical of post-rock with the raw force and ideological drive of classic hardcore and emo, all shaped by the members’ political and social commitments; as Asian-American artists, Choung and Robledo-Maderazo particularly influence the lyrical direction. Outside the band, Solberg works as a painter and performs in the jazz-metal outfit the Mass, Choung produces video and holds a BA in film studies, and Robledo-Maderazo pursues graphic design and multimedia projects. The self-titled debut appeared on Dim Mak in spring 2002, with the follow-up The Impossible Leap in One Hundred Simple Steps arriving the subsequent year.