The Montauk Project Releases New Music; Builds On Lifelong Roots On The South Fork

The Montauk Project is the name of a conspiracy theory, described in a book series by Preston B. Nichols and Peter Moon, that holds that the U.S. government conducted a series of secret experiments in psychological warfare and time travel at Camp Hero State Park, involving hallucinogenic drugs and other strange goings-on. A central piece of Montauk lore, it was one inspiration for the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” More relevantly, The Montauk Project is also the name of a five-piece rock band hailing from the East End that took on the name as a sort of bit.

When, during their high school years, Mark Schiavoni and former bandmate Matty Liot wanted to go jam with their friend Jasper Conroy, they’d drive from Sag Harbor to Montauk where Jasper lived and rehearse together.

“We were like, ‘Oh, we’re going to do The Montauk Project’, because it was just the project that was happening in Montauk,” Schiavoni, who sings vocals and plays guitar, said in a recent interview. “We all knew about the book and the urban legend.”

“It was like a really cool jumping off point,” Conroy, who plays drums, piped in. “One of our first songs was called ‘Mind Control,’ another one was called ‘The Rainbow Song.’”

“They were like allusions to the lore from the book,” Schiavoni added.

The musical friendship of Schiavoni and Conroy began even earlier, in a St. Andrew Church band at age 13 where the two played as part of Dennis Boyle’s youth group. Separately, the two had already been interested in music, and after that experience they realized they wanted to play their own music together. So, in high school, they formed a band, practicing late at night at Jasper’s dad’s house in Montauk.

“In February, driving out to Montauk at like 10 o’clock at night and playing until like 5 in the morning, you were pretty out there, isolated,” Conroy remembered. “There was nothing. You could play as loud as you want.”

In the warmer months, when it got hot, they’d open up the French doors at 1 a.m. but wouldn’t get complaints about their guitar-centered rock reverberating out. Young bands today might not catch that same break.

There was a hiatus when Schiavoni and Conroy left the area after high school, but upon their returns home they reformed The Montauk Project and have been making music ever since.

Other bandmates have come and gone, but in its current iteration the band also features Josh Leclerc, the longest-running other member, on guitar, Leander Drake on the bass, and, more recently, making the group a five-piece, Mike DiDonna on keyboard.

Their music is rock, through and through, but contains a diverse range of genres. From their more classic rock self-titled EP to their 2014 full-length album “Belly of the Beast,” which borrowed from 1990s grunge, to their recent singles, which go from metal to bluesy influences, to the mix of music they themselves listen to, The Montauk Project doesn’t stay in just one place.

“I feel like you almost have to do that these days, because people almost have a musical ADD because of streaming,” Schiavoni said. “You can just pick next, next, next, next. ... That’s why we decided to release three different singles. There’s so much content getting released everywhere every day that it’s washed out.”

This January, they recorded three new songs in Brooklyn at Mission Sound studio with Oliver Strauss, a well-known producer and father to pop star King Princess. Two of these singles — “Bombshell” and “Highball” — have already been released, and one more is coming down the pike. Schiavoni and Conroy are planning on remastering and rereleasing the two they just came out with as well as recording some new stuff, with the goal of a new EP.

“You can kind of feel it in the studio, that a lot of good stuff has happened here, if that makes sense,” Schiavoni said of the recording process. “It’s kind of like playing on a stage where you can just tell that there have been some awesome shows there.”

Schiavoni and Conroy have a decade-plus of duo writing under their belts, but sometimes songs come from improvisation at rehearsals (now in Schiavoni’s basement, in Sag Harbor) or other bandmates. The addition of DiDonna on keys has changed up their sound and process a bit, giving them new energy.

After the pandemic, the group is getting back to live shows, which they’ve now been playing for around 10 years.

“Our first show was at our buddy, Patrick’s, his grandma’s house,” Schiavoni said. “We had like a kegger outside, played on the deck. His grandma came out and played the drums for a minute.”

“We started doing Talkhouse right off the bat, did a whole bunch of things at the Talkhouse,” Conroy added. “Then we went to the city, and probably played most of the venues on the Lower East Side in Manhattan that you could put a rock and roll band in.”

They’ve played SXSW, CMJ, CBGB’s and played with or opened for a host of influential musicians from Robby Krieger, the guitarist for The Doors, to The Growlers, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

On August 10, at 8 p.m., the band will return to the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett for an 8 p.m. show.

Over the time they’ve been playing live shows on the East End, regulations have changed, which the bandmates say have hurt local musicians.

“It’s very unfortunate that the township of East Hampton has gotten so strict about playing live music,” Schiavoni said. “… [There are] DJs till 4 a.m. and the bass is resonating everywhere, but you can’t have live music after 7 or 8 p.m. on a deck where there’s no houses. It’s a little absurd.”

“We are also, hands down, the loudest band on the East End,” Conroy chimed in. “Not in volume, but just in energy that comes off the stage.”

This is one more thing that sets The Montauk Project apart — there aren’t really any other hard rock bands around. Another difference is the length of the sets given to musicians out here, which means that the band often has to fill 90 minutes or two hours of set time, an aberration from places in the city or festivals elsewhere. That means a lot of original content.

“One thing that I think makes us different from all the other local bands with maybe the exception of Student Body is we’ve been writing original music since day one,” Conroy said. “We are very light on the covers. Whereas like most bands out here are cover bands that throw in a few originals here and there because quite frankly, most people want to hear covers out here. We stuck to our guns and kept original for the most part.”

That desire to play their own music may have cost them a few sets over the years, but has opened up opportunities to branch out, outside of the area.

For Schiavoni and Conroy, The Montauk Project is a second family — Jasper referred to Mark as his second wife, and they’ve been friends for over half their lives.

“We’re both starting to gray a little bit,” Conroy said, and then started pointing out different sections of Schiavoni’s mane. “This hair’s from when we played with Growlers, this one’s when we played with King Gizzard, this was when we played with Marshall Tucker.”

“If you test what’s in this strand, you could see what was going on,” Schiavoni added jokingly.

As we were talking outside in Sag Harbor, a longtime fan came up and put it simply.

“They can lay it down,” he said.

For more, check out @themontaukproject on Instagram and themontaukprojectmusic.com. Their music is on Spotify, Apple Music, and Soundcloud.