JM: What's in a name? What is the origin / evolution of the Mangabros. title?

 

CM: Born out of 80s angular post-punk outfit, Boolean Matrix… always wanted to be called (something, anything) brothers. My love of graphic novels, Japanese anime sealed the deal: Mangabros. I was singular but cursed with the plural. Solo but legion. Augmented by REAL musicians, jazz players. I couldn’t read music but wrote my own tunes before I knew a single chord. I am a soundscaper. I know a decent tune, by ear alone.

 

Tell us a bit about yourself? For those that may be unfamiliar - who and 'what' is Mangabros.? 

 

It’s Craig (Adams) and whoever I choose to work with, or the dice chooses. Indeterminism plays a big part, random generators, Oblique Strategies. I am a singer/songwriter who plays guitar, but I program primarily.

 

How has the 'sound' of Mangabros. evolved over time? Has there always been a distinct focus and direction you've steered the sound towards, or do you approach each project / release differently and adjust freely, any seeming overarching aesthetic and direction inherent in your subconscious? In other words, you just make sounds and it comes out sounding like you? 

 

I love all good music, so I may be a musical magpie, stealing bits of all the stuff that moves me: electronica, kraut, dance, dubstep, trip hop, american songbook, prog, psyche, modern jazz. I continue to evolve.

 

Tell us about some of the themes represented in your music, and the latest album in particular (Deepfleshred - Venus Edition)? And what to expect with the forthcoming 'Mars edition'? You've previously mentioned heavy influence from literature, this being presented in song titles. Can you elaborate on that? 

 

I have a deep sense of narrative (“Altmanesque” it’s been described as, or “Magic Realism”), lyrics being in extreme focus. I’m an avid reader and books are as big an influence as anything (Burroughs/Ballard/Joyce/Plath/Fowles). My stories weave and weft, characters often bleeding from one song to others.

 

There are tales of unborn dreamers spinning yarns of mythic futures and pseudo-pasts from the womb, A-bomb victims (the ‘z’/Nada cycle) and homophobic psycho truckdrivers

 

Your voice is one strong characteristic and signpost in describing Mangbros. Yet on 'Deepfleshred' (Venus edition) your voice is completely absent, replaced with a great variety of female voices. Prior to hearing the forthcoming 'Mars edition' obvious presumptions can be made as to the aesthetic differences and contrasts to expect, but can you explain what separates these two major pieces, and the concept behind each? Specifically the choice in vocalists, and perhaps what people can expect on the next edition? 

 

I croon (and admire, as vocalists Hammill/Waits/Beefheart/Bjork/Brel). I have been described as "The Hendrix of the Voice”. Damp living conditions (breathing in black mould) have created this gruff baritone ;) But I love the sense of the ‘otherness’, other perspectives, other voices, other textures to my own (hence VENUS).

 

MARS returns to darker masculine themes, untouchable themes for many of the ladies involved (and we did try). My voice shapes and shadows such themes as infanticide, castration and the last days of testosterone. Gulp.

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You're extremely prolific. What drives the creative nature of you and your work? What pushes you to create and also involve so many other folks in the collaborative process? 

 

Not so much prolific but having a huge past (I’m 56) and big back catalogue (many songs date back to the mid-80s). Collaboration empowers me and makes me very happy. It dissolves the ego.

 

You've been working on the 'Deepfleshred' pair of albums for awhile. What's next for Mangabros.? 

 

Industrial chiptunes under the project name ‘Nasty Chip’. Chirpy, twee, bonkers but with disturbing industrial undertones. Circuit-bending for mario-types. Boys just want to have fun.

Also, the reissue of a keystone project of the Mangas: The 'PORNO KARAOKE' project (Tall Tales from the Skin Trade). A group of songs of love, loss and longing. Probably our biggest moment... to be released later on BBR (Black Box Recordings), the complete cycle, with all the remixes and cover versions, as 'MONDO PORNO'.

 

Is this your only musical project? If multiple, how do they differ?

 

FUNT is Beefheart on acid fistfucking Funkadelik.

ZILCHGANGEN is vocal exploration without words or language, just soft tissue musings and sound sculpture.

WURMFOLKEN is psychespookfolk.

SCHTUMMM is solo broken dancefloor

MODWUMP is modular madness with glitchbeats

 

What instruments and/or software do you use in your creative process?

 

Ableton, mostly VSTs… Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators, Korg Volcas, Microbrute (RED!!!), Strat, Yamaha FS1R, Korg Wavedrum, Theremini.

 

How do you approach a new idea/song/piece? What comes first?

 

If it’s melodic, tune comes first. Noisy stuff is words first.

 

How do you perform live with Mangabros. and how does that differ from your writing and recording process? Do things need to be reinterpreted for live performance, or are they written with that in mind so replicated easily enough? Tell us about your approach, and also what you gain from live performance and love about it.

 

I break down songs into stems then twist them into odd shapes live, then sing live and augment the whole sonic soup with my vocals and live junk percussion, guitarscapes, theremin and lots of vaudevillian nonsense.

On stage is the only place I truly feel alive.

 

Unleash your inner geek: What do you love outside of music that has a large impact directly on your music, or helps inform your ideas and approach? Art, film, history, literature, science? Is there specific gear you simply love to use?

 

Oh MOVIES, I’m an absolute cinephile (Almark called me the ‘David Lynch of electronic music’), poetry, literature (see above), Escher, Bosch, Brugel, Dali, Iain Banks, Jasper Fforde...