Coming Out of His Shell, Becoming a Frontman, Playing with Prince and George Clinton -- Music, Fashion, Family, and the Most Original Voice on Bass
MonoNeon is unlike anyone else in music. His bass playing is immediately identifiable -- a sound that sits at the intersection of funk, avant-garde, and something that does not have a name yet -- and his visual presentation is as distinctive as his sound. He played with Prince. He has worked with George Clinton and Mavis Staples. He is a frontman and an artist and a fashion statement all at once, and he has arrived at all of it by following a vision so specific and so personal that it could only have come from exactly one person.
In this conversation with Elmo, MonoNeon talks about what it took to come out of his shell -- the personal journey from the private, intense musician he was to the frontman he is becoming, and what that transition has required of him personally and creatively. He talks about his time with Prince, what George Clinton has meant to him, and what music, fashion, and family all mean to someone who has made originality itself into a practice. This is one of the most singular conversations on the show.
"I never wanted to sound like anyone else. Not because I thought I was better -- just because I needed to find the thing that was only mine."
The personal journey behind the public persona: how MonoNeon went from the intensely private, internally focused musician he describes himself as having been to the frontman and performer he is becoming, and what that transition has actually required of him -- the fears he had to face, the version of himself he had to leave behind, and what he found on the other side.
His account of being in Prince's world: how it happened, what it was like to play alongside one of the greatest musicians who ever lived, what Prince was like to work with, and what the experience changed about how MonoNeon hears music, thinks about originality, and understands what it means to be an artist rather than just a musician.
What working with George Clinton has meant: the specific musical and personal lessons from being in the orbit of one of the founding figures of funk, what Clinton has taught him about bandleading and about the relationship between music and freedom, and how those lessons have informed the sound and spirit of MonoNeon's own work.
The intersection of his music and his visual presentation: why he believes the two are inseparable, what fashion means to him as a form of expression, and how he has developed a visual identity as distinctive as his sound. His philosophy on what it means to present yourself as an artist in a world where image and sound arrive simultaneously.
The personal foundation beneath the public originality: how family has shaped MonoNeon's values, his music, and his sense of who he is. The specific people and relationships that have grounded him through a career that has taken him from deeply private to globally visible, and what he believes family gives an artist that no amount of critical recognition can replace.
His philosophy on being original: not as a goal you achieve but as a practice you maintain -- the specific things he does to stay connected to what is genuinely his own rather than drifting toward what is expected or rewarded. What he has learned about the relationship between identity and influence, and why he believes protecting your singular voice is the most important work an artist can do.
MonoNeon on Prince: his most specific and personal account of what it was like to be in Prince's orbit -- the music, the silence, the expectation of excellence, and the specific thing Prince said or did that changed how MonoNeon understood what it means to be an artist. One of the most vivid portraits of Prince from someone who was actually there.
The coming-out-of-his-shell story: the real account of what it took -- not the Instagram version, but the genuine personal reckoning with what it means to be seen when you have spent your whole life being comfortable in your own interior world. MonoNeon on vulnerability and what it costs and what it gives back.
His bass philosophy: what MonoNeon is actually doing when he plays and why -- the specific musical ideas, the relationship between the instrument and the music he hears in his head, and what he is always chasing on the bass that has led him somewhere nobody else has gone.
On being original in a world that rewards familiarity: MonoNeon's direct and honest take on what it actually costs to be as singular as he is -- the industry pressure, the moments of doubt, and what has kept him from making the adjustments that would have made him more commercially palatable and less himself.
The fashion conversation: not a conversation about clothes but about what it means to use everything available to say who you are -- why MonoNeon believes that how you look is as much a part of your artistic voice as how you play, and how he has developed the two in parallel as expressions of the same vision.
MonoNeon in full: one of the most original artists to appear on Go With Elmo -- generous, strange, funny, deep, and entirely himself. A conversation that reminds you of what it looks like when someone commits completely to being exactly who they are.