Michael Monroe

Surprises. They’re rare and wonderful, like when music decides to just show up and strut and rock and roll and stomp with honest swagger, swing and raw energy, all over you.

You’ll put Michael Monroe’s 13^th solo album Outerstellar on your stereo and honestly, and not even the above ‘spoiler’, could ruin the impact of the Finnish maestro’s latest work.

It’s an experience as much as a collection of great songs, a sweet smelling, leathery, glitter-shimmered, sweat-soaked raunch and punch wrapped in one of the great voices in rock ‘n’ roll. The harmonies and vibes roll effortlessly in silk scarves, lounging in leather pants with liquor and a smile on a beat-up sofa in those small AM hours. And the sheer attitude, which screams carefree (not careless!) confidence (not arrogance!), a cocksure sense of self-bathed in the sheer joy of playing real rock ‘n’ roll the right way.

“I am who I am and I'm not going to edit myself for your benefit,” Michael says unequivocally for anyone who might doubt that fact. “The title was Sami's idea, it’s a slang word for something that’s moving really fast and Sami said, ‘Well, that sounds like you right?’ Yeah, that's me!”

Outerstellar didn’t just get baked neatly in a studio over a small period of time, because you don’t make music like Michael Monroe does using a formula. That creative mind and energy just isn’t linear, OK? The work arrives as when it does, and it’s clear when talking to Michael (and listening to the end result), why this album has taken several years before reaching full fruition at Chartmakers Studio in Espoo, just outside Helsinki.

“It's a natural progression from where we were last time, but yeah, this record has also taken forever,” Michael smiles with an unapologetic shrug. “All the songs have their own little stories in terms of how they came to be. ‘Pushin’ Me Back’ is from the One Man Gang sessions back in maybe 2018/19, and then there's a few songs –‘Road to Ruin’, ‘Shinola’ and ‘Precious’ – that were actually demos we recorded in 2020 or ‘21. ‘Rocking Horse’ and ‘One More Sunrise’ were recorded in 2023 at this house a little outside Helsinki, which was the first time we’d all been able to get together and start songs from scratch and we had a great time just doing it. And then after we came back from Japan in February ‘24, we recorded ‘Black Cadillac’, ‘When the Apocalypse Comes’, ‘Newtro Bombs’, ‘Disconnected’, and ‘Glitter & Dust’. There was a period of time where I was thinking, ‘Fuck, don't mention the album, it's never coming together.’ But of course, deep down I knew in the end it was going to be great. And then there was a moment when I was like, ‘this is it, now it's there!”

Outerstellar is essentially an aural insight into the Monroe mind, one which, while exceptionally driven, professional and centered, absolutely demands that latitude be given to creativity’s unpredictable journey over anything else. Take ‘One More Sunrise’, which at 7 minutes and 41 seconds is both comfortably the longest song on the album and the conclusion of Outerstellar.

“It evolved as we were working because we let it,” he says. “Why does a song have to be three minutes? Why not just go with where it takes you initially and see what happens? Before this one, we’d been listening to Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Jungleland’, which has a lot of parts of course, so we just let ourselves go and went with what was happening. We didn’t spend ages analyzing parts and pieces, and we arrived at what is one of my favourite songs on the album.”

New York City DNA is an important part of Michael Monroe’s cellular make up, and ‘Black Cadillac’ observes and pays tribute to NYC and one of its punk legends. “At one point, Johnny Thunders was living in the back of a black Cadillac,” Michael explains.

“He had two shows at the Irving Plaza. The first night was great; on the second night, nobody knew where he was and then the club owner said: ‘Check out that parking space, there's a black Cadillac there. Go check it out’. When they knocked on the window to see if Johnny was in there, a girl’s face would appear and say: ‘Let me see if he’s in’. They told him he had a gig, so off he went and did the gig. He was living in the back of a Cadillac. Ironically, a hearse is also a Cadillac.”

‘Rocking Horse’, a defiant blast against critics and judges, comes with one of the craziest Michael Monroe videos you’ve ever seen.

“I'm not wearing any makeup!” he laughs, “and my mother said, ‘Oh, you look a bit like your father and one of your older brothers!’ The initial idea was to just have us at the end of the video looking as we look throughout, but I thought, ‘Oh, forget it, let's just mess things up a little.’ We've done so many videos of us looking like we do. So why not mess with people's heads a little bit and have some fun and shake things up, take on the punk rock ethos of shaking up the establishment and also telling some truths, having some fun with the ‘conformist world’ thing and maybe throwing some facts in your face. Credit to Leigh Brooks, the director, it was his idea originally and we took it to ‘that’ place because that’s the attitude I’ve always had.”

‘Disconnected’ speaks of something that Michael feels passionately about: that live music is a rare and vital space for people to find each other in the moment.

“Technology was supposed to bring people closer together, when, in fact, people are more disconnected than ever. They're looking at their phones and their computers and downloading stuff. And, you know, the Internet can't take away the experience of being at a live show. You're on stage, and you communicate with the audience who are there in that moment. That's where the magic really happens, and absolutely no program or device or computer can reproduce that.”

‘Precious’ has the chop and shuffle of alternative punk with a glorious gang-chorus, however it is Monroe’s blistering, feral harmonica solo (yes, you read that correctly because that’s exactly what it fucking is) that steals the song, with a spectacular bass part for company.

“I like breaking the mold, as you know I’m not into any formula, so that’s one of my favorite parts when it goes into that solo,” he grins. “It was two songs originally, but as it seemed to happen a lot making this album, we just thought, ‘oh fuck it’, combined them both and let it unfold.”

Outerstellar will see a whole burst of life onstage when Michael Monroe and the band bring it to stages internationally over the next year, because, put simply, Michael Monroe is one of the best frontmen/singers/entertainers/performers you’ll ever see, someone for whom the stage is literally his living space and the place he really calls home.

“I think of doing shows as one of the best feelings, one of the greatest highs in life,” he smiles. “I always feel like every gig could be your last and also as if it’s your first, so you give everything and you go into it full force, like it’s us against the world and nothing can stop you. You become superhuman when you're on stage, you’re always just trying for greatness, for better, to try and do it better than ever. And I never get complacent. I never sit down and go, ‘OK, I'm good enough, I don't have to try anymore’. No fucking way! I always try my best. I always try my hardest. And for me, feeling good about what I've done comes from knowing I've given everything.”

This man -this timeless timelord of rock ‘n’ roll excellence- who is the real deal in the sense that when he goes to bed at night, he’s the same Michael Monroe that you see in the morning, afternoon, evening and forever, continues to bring ultimate positive energy to everything he does, and Outerstellar stands as the latest proud testimony to that.

“I don’t like to stay in a negative space long enough for it to ever affect my overall positivity and appetite for life,” Michael Monroe smiles. “You don't want to dwell on anything negative for too long because then it's eating away at you. So, I use it as fuel. Of course, you get pissed off, but I take any anger or frustration I might have and try and channel it into positive things, because I think that what you focus on tends to multiply.”

Which should explain to you why Outerstellar is the enormously uplifting, energetic and wholly entertaining escape and kick-up the ass your 2026 needs!