Musician, performer and writer from Conamara, Ireland. Together with Lugh O’Neill, he co-founded the C.A.N.V.A.S. collective – an events series and independent record label, established in 2018 with the idea of giving a common voice to an increasingly dispersed artistic community.

His creative practice encompasses experimental and popular forms of songwriting, both solo and in collaborations with other musicians. He has collaborated with artists such as Actress, Ashley Paul, Elvin Brandhi, James K, Maria Somerville, Michael Speers, Moin, Princ€ss and Shampain. Stylistically, Olan Monk explores the concept of “Autotune Punk” – “music of antagonism” that resists from within, bending the lanes of a machine that flattens out vocal performance to a given scale.

Previous releases include “Love/Dead” (2020) and “Auto Life” (2021) on C.A.N.V.A.S., “Dubplate 08” (2022) on AD 93, the single “Surf” on the compilation “The Road Less Travelled Vol. 2” (2024) and a guest appearance on the track “Guess It’s Wrecked” from Moin’s album “You Never End” (2024). He describes the album “Love/Dead” as a reflection on the transience of life and certainty of death, or a love letter to a dead city.

He has performed at festivals including Rewire in The Hague, Aiséirí in Galway, at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast, London’s cafe OTO, Barbican Hall and ICA, as well as at PAF Olomouc, EOS crossings in Frankfurt and at many venues in Ireland, England and continental Europe.

As the artist himself says: “My emulation of and interest in pop – and popular – music is not in irony. I love this music – yet I question the context and conditions through which it has come to exist and continues to change shape. Opening up the horizon of pop to a new kind of strangeness, where the familiarity of the pop song disappears into blissful distortions.”