Spotlight On... Martha May & The Mondays

Martha May & The Mondays released their debut single in 2023, going onto release SPIT! in the summer of 2024. A ferociously independent four-track EP, SPIT! showcased their effortless ability to balance light and dark in their own unique indie-punk way. On its title track, Martha May McKay flits between speak-singing on verses to full throttle screaming in the chorus, while on the more laid-back earworm Tennis, McKay gently invites you to 'go fuck yourself'.

This playful nature very much continues on the band's latest EP, Zeroes & Villains, further showcasing McKay’s knack for writing gritty numbers, undefinable by genre tags. Following its release last week and ahead of their album launch show at Nice N Sleazy in Glasgow this weekend, we catch up with McKay to find out more.

Martha May & The Mondays started out as a solo project, which was more rooted in folk – how did you all meet and can you detail how things evolved into the band you are now?
Kirsty (violinist) and I met doing a National Theatre play when we were 14/15, then randomly bumped into each other in a pub in 2022. I drunkenly asked her to start a band with me. I was already doing folk stuff on my own, so she slotted in perfectly. We met Davie (also in a pub – trend forming) and found out he played bass, which felt a bit like fate. Charlie and Anna joined us last year when we realised we needed the noise – drums and guitar filled in the blanks. It’s been a long, winding journey since the start, but now it finally feels like the full picture. We’re locked in. And loud.

There’s not much of a folky sound remaining in the band, although violin occasionally creeping in certainly nods to that. What are some of the band’s musical inspirations/roots and how do you combine them into what is now very much the Martha May & The Mondays sound?
The violin in Hollywood Part 2 definitely nods to the folk roots, but now it just makes the punk stuff sound weirder – in a good way. Honestly, we might be the only band mixing punk and violin like this. We always say we’re a punk band by nature and a rock band by accident. For us, punk isn’t about thrashing guitars – it’s about pushing back. We care more about challenging authority than fitting a genre.

Our influences are a bit of a beautiful mess: Amyl & The Sniffers, Joy Division, Viagra Boys, Iggy Pop, Wolf Alice… but also poets, movements and activists – Greta Thunberg, Zarah Sultana, feminism, pro-immigration, civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights. We don’t overthink it. We chuck it all in like a scrapheap fire and whatever survives becomes the sound. Also, shoutout to grassroots venues – we’re obsessed with them. We owe them everything, and we’re serious about making music more accessible for bands without trust funds.

What have been some of your highlights so far as a band?
Playing with my best pals. Travelling across the UK. Watching strangers scream lyrics back at us. That, and the time someone nearly fell off the stage mid-stage dive and didn’t miss a beat.

You’ve just released Zeroes & Villains, which you say “is not here to make you feel comfortable”, describing it as “a bratty love letter to the gutter.” How long has this EP been in the works and what are some of the themes found across its four tracks that you feel capture these feelings of discomfort and brattiness?
These songs started in my folk era – sad, slow, and sitting on my bedroom floor. We dragged them out, stitched them up and gave them a whole new monster life as a band. The themes are heavy: mental illness, fame obsession, betrayal, self-destruction, toxic glamour. But there’s still a wink behind the chaos. It’s bratty because we’re bored of being polite. It’s uncomfortable because so is being alive in 2025.

I want to talk about opening the EP with a burp – it definitely caught my attention from the off and made me laugh, but it felt almost polite in comparison to the darker undertone of Black Dog, the song it prefaces. Does the burp have any relevance to the song, was it on purpose, or did it happen off the cuff when you were in the studio?
It’s real. Not planned. Bruce, our producer, kept it in because it made him laugh – and it weirdly sets the tone. There’s something kind of beautiful about opening a track on depression with a bodily function: it’s gross, it’s human, it doesn’t care. Then the track sucker punches you.

There’s a raw, live energy captured across the EP that I love, and I’m keen to know more about the Martha May & The Mondays live show. What can people expect at the EP launch this weekend?
Expect to sweat. Expect to maybe cry. Expect to be told off lovingly. There’s no cool-girl detachment – we are in it with the crowd. We’ll be playing the EP in full, some older tracks reworked, and probably a cursed cover no one asked for. It’s sweaty, slightly unhinged communion. Therapy with distortion pedals.

And what does the rest of the year have in store for Martha May & The Mondays?
We are not slowing down – ever. More UK gigs, including Tenement Trail in October. Some will be tiny, some will be wild. And we’ve got our biggest project yet bubbling away – maybe an album, maybe something stranger. We’re writing stuff that sounds like Lady Gaga and Hole in a haunted club bathroom. We’re here to make the wrong people uncomfortable and the right people feel seen.

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Zeroes & Villains is out now via Hot Surf Records
Martha May & The Mondays play Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow, 8 Aug; Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 20 Aug; Tenement Trail, Glasgow, 11 Oct

Follow Martha May & The Mondays on Instagram @andthemondays