Dywane Thomas Jr., also known as MonoNeon (born August 6, 1990), is an American musician, bassist, and experimental musician. He is well-known for his YouTube appearance playing bass guitar, and for being the last person to work with Prince. Prince first noticed his unique talent on the bass in 2014. Prince and Mono performed at Paisley Park and recorded the song, “RUFFENUFF.” MonoNeon was also the last bassist Prince had hired before his death. MonoNeon is well-known for his speech-to-music multitracking videos, compositions, and speeches. Thomas also performed with Grammy-winning R&B artist NeYo on his fourth studio album. He hails from Memphis, Tennessee. Thomas was the son of a bass guitar player and was raised in a musical home. At the age of four, he began to play bass without any formal instruction (self-taught). He was 11-12 years old when he began playing bass guitar with Bar-Kays. He shared the stage with David Fiuczynski during his brief stay at Berklee College of Music. Thomas left Berklee College of Music in 2010 to go to Los Angeles with Alex Bailey (drummer), and Fiuczynski at The Musicians Institute. Thomas plays right-handed but he can also play left-handed on an upside-down right-handed bass guitar. This allows him to use heavy string bends on the upper strings. Thomas’ unique slapping technique/style is because he does everything upside down, but still uses his thumb to slap and fingers to pop. To create a warmer, muffled sound and more control over the notes’ length, he uses palm muting and fingers. In a free/improvisational setting, listeners may hear the use of Indian melodic inflections/embellishments in his playing, including the use of gamakas. Thomas’ playing style also includes the use of randomness, personal mistakes and a willingness to make mistakes. This helps transform the mistakes into something meaningful. Thomas’ playing style can be described as “funky and with unusual characteristics.” Marcus Miller among others has also praised Thomas’ unique playing style. His musical influences include blues, southern soul and funk. Miller spoke out about Thomas in a Bass Player magazine interview. He said that Thomas was one of many “young bad cats” that he had met. Thomas was a featured participant in the 2009 GospelChops Bass Sessions Vol.1 project, along with Hadrien Feraud and Damian Erskine. Janek Gwizdala. Anthony Nembhard and Robert “Bubby” Lewis. Thomas was a bass player on the Libra Scale album by Grammy Award winner Ne-Yo and the album Directions by Forest Won featuring Georgia Anne Muldrow in 2010. Thomas was featured in the article “Bass to the Future”, issue 52 of the UK Bass Guitar Magazine. Thomas was joined by Planet Microjam and David Fiuczynski in 2012. In 2012, Thomas released Down-to-Earth Art, his solo avant-garde album. NoTreble featured MonoNeon’s YouTube cover videos for Sonic The Hedgehog Green Hill Zone Theme as well as the theme song of the Martin Lawrence Show. Thomas released Southern Visionary, a album under MonoNeon in early 2013. This album features many microtonal musicians. Uncle Curtis Answered the Lobster Telephone was also his album. MonoNeon performed alongside Sheri Jones-Moffett, a 2010 Grammy nominee, during the Recording Academy Chapter Forty Anniversary Celebration at Levitt Shell. MonoNeon collaborated with Kriswontwo to create an EP called WEON. MonoNeon performed his first performance in July 2014 as the bassist of Screaming Headless Torsos during Jalisco Jazz Festival, Mexico. July 7, 2018, MonoNeon performed a show with Joe Russo, a musician, and Eric Krasno, billed as (nO*sO*nO*). Although the trio has performed together in other supergroup formations before, this was their first performance as a dedicated trio. Surprise guest keyboardist Peter Levin (Gregg Allman Band), performed several numbers for most of the set. (nO*sO*nO* relied heavily on improvisation and dug into jazz, funk, and psychedelic music catalogs. Over the course of the free-flowing jams, covers of Jimi Hendrix’s “Manic Depression”, Billy Cobham’s “Stratus”, and John Scofield’s ‘Hottentot” were performed. They captivated the audience by their incredible chemistry. You can watch the show on YouTube. Thomas’s experimental pieces are childlike in the way they present energy. His experimental pieces have been compared to John Cage, a 20th-century composer. His early 2011 recordings show that conceptual art is a part of his musical compositions. Thomas started to create a vague idea about bass and AM/FM radio radio improvisations. The improvisations/compositions are based on radio art. Some of the bass and radio improvisations/compositions can be heard on his album entitled, Introspection of PolyNeon. Thomas came up with the “Polyneon” idea through his own introspection. He stopped thinking about his goal of being or becoming a great musician. Thomas is known for his “readymade” bass, which he created from his love of Dadaism as well as other avant-garde art movements. The “readymade bass”, as it is known, has a simple sock covering the entire headstock. It also features the name “Polyneon”, which is printed on the bass’s body. Thomas’s distinctive visual style is characterized by the use of colorful tape and other common items on his basses. MonoNeon was featured on the January/February 2013 issue Dig! Magazine, a Winnipeg jazz magazine. MonoNeon’s art manifesto and microtonal works were featured on The Rest Is Noise website, Alex Ross, a music critic who writes regularly for The New Yorker. MonoNeon’s cover video of MonoNeon performing KNOWER’s arrangement/medley Lady Gaga songs was voted the Top 10 most viewed video on NoTreble (March 2014.). MonoNeon’s microtonal bass was built by Tim Cloonan, of CallowHill Guitars. It was named Bass of the Week on NoTreble. This bass can play quarter tones. MonoNeon started playing bass in 2015 with Prince and his protege Judith Hill. Paisley Park has hosted some of the live shows. Only four and a quarter days after the initial recording, Tidal released Ruff Enuff by MonoNeon on 11 January 2016. Prince is the producer and plays the keyboards on the instrumental track. Adrian Crutchfield recorded a vocal version of the track with Prince on keyboards and lead vocals. The track’s liner notes state that you may recognize the house band 4 Prince’s Paisley Park After Dark Jam Session as Mono Neon on bass, Kirk A Johnson on drums and Adrian Crutchfield playing sax and electric woodenwinds. They do much more than that. They’ve been working on basic trax for their debut album for the past week. The set will continue where Judith Hill’s BACK in TIME left off, with Prince producing and playing the guitar. These brothas are destroying the funk! They don’t normally let tracks out until they’re finished. But this track had two! It was ruining everyone’s good loox. You can’t resist the funk if you look at the key change in Mono’s solo bass at the 4 o’clock hour mark. Prince was not performing his solo piano shows. He was playing in a new band at Paisley Park, with MonoNeon his bassist. Wikipedia
