Joe Monto is the lead vocalist and guitarist of Seattle's Christian band, "New Influence."
New Influence has been touring the country over the last 2 1/2 years building a large fan-base with their music. New Influence recently released their 2nd CD titled, "New Hope For a Sunny Day"- a compilation of great, melodic Christian rock songs in the vein of Switchfoot and Coldplay. Joe's vocals have been compared to Chris Cornell of Audioslave, Scott Stapp of Creed and Mac Powell of Third Day. New Influence is actually a family band, comprised of Joe, his wife Lisa on bass guitar and their 16 year old son Tony Monto on drums. Joe is also the songwriter behind the music on both their CD's while also giving credit to his co-writng friend and awesome Seattle producer, Brandon Bee.
Press Info
New Influence recently recorded 2 songs on "Worship Generation Volume 3" which will be released November 1st. Worship Generation is a very large ministry out of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa led by Pastor Joey Buran with over 1000 teens and college students attending on Monday Nights. This will be a nationally distributed CD with other artists such as Grand Prize, Phil Wickham & more. For more info on the CD, check out www.worshipgeneration.com
NI has been musical guests of Worship Generation since the beginning of 2004 and will be touring with them this Winter.
NI has played at many churches since thier 2003 & 2004 national tours and is planning to launch an extensive 2005 Tour. NI has played at over 100 Calvary Chapels nationally.
NI's new CD is getting radio play on Calvary Satellite Newtowrk (a global station), and a few other CSN stations in Oregon and Washington and has distribution through Calvary Distribution in Santa Ana, CA.
Similar Artists
Switchfoot. Jeremy Camp, Soundgarden, Third Day, Creed, AudioSlave
Influences
Jeremy Camp, Brett Williams (A worship leader in Seattle), The Kry, Pastor Greg Laurie, Pastor Joey Buran and Worship Generation.
Bio
Joe Monto, lead singer and guitarist of the band New Influence, developed a love for music when he was a young boy, after his father died of a heart attack when he was ten years old. Music gave him something in life to live for, and a way to connect with people and to share his past pain and future hopes. He had no answers for why his father died of a massive heart attack when he was so young, or how to fill the voids that quickly developed in his life for stability and hope. In his teenage and young adult years, he turned to drinking, and alcohol, and relationships, and even body building to boost his self-esteem-- leaving him more broken and unsatisfied.
It wasn’t until he met the Lord in 1987, that he really had a reason to get his music out there—to impact the world for Jesus! Finally Joe’s songwriting and music took shape as he crafted his music into something genuine, with his dreams beginning to become reality—to take his music on the road. But again, 2 children later, tragedy would strike. This time, his wife was seriously ill, diagnosed with inoperable colon cancer, and would pass away 2 months later, at the age of 34. Death had struck again.
But this time, he had the Lord. He clung to Jesus and relied on His strength. 1 year later, Joe met and married his new wife—Lisa, who plays bass in the band. And the Lord has given him an awesome, nationally touring music ministry that brings his family closer together while impacting people for the Lord.