Q: What is the
Current Line-up of your band?
A: Mandrake Mechanism
is now made up of Chris Anander on Bass, Mike Macbeth on Drums, Anthony Volpe
on Guitar, and Myself on Guitar and Vox. Our original guitarist left for a life
of penny stock trading (We’ve been trying to gain the crowd sympathy though.
With rumors of his death by various freak accidents)
Q: How would you
describe Mandrake Mechanism?
A: Mandrake Mechanism
is really different than any other project I’ve played in before we all come
from different musical worlds and together make something that I don’t think
has been described yet. It’s one of those ask 100 people and you get 100
different answers type to scenario’s. I like to call it ambitious noise super
hype funk party music. Nobody has adopted that moniker yet.
Q: We’ve heard some
tales about your love of performance art?
A: The way I see it
you go to a show to see a show. I like my musicians a little crazy and on edge.
I’ve gotten flack from a bunch of music insiders from playing in my underwear
or woman’s clothes on certain occasions. When you start limiting what can
happen on stage you aren’t an artist anymore. I’ve just learned to not tell the
band what I’m planning because they will try and talk me out of it. Still
working on convincing them that these crazy ideas I have are really important
to our live show. I’ve had to take down my strobe light wall before due to the
fear of causing a crowd wide epilepsy attack. Which would be more than I could
wish for.
Q: Your songs seem to
range from political to romantically inclined to outright nonsense. How do you
tie it all together?
A: Most of our songs
we’re written and my lyrics hadn’t been added in yet. I would just freestyle lyrics
derived from how the song made me feel. I am really seriously into politics but
find that people just try and convince you of joining one side or the other
without stating facts and letting people decided. Same with relationships. The
hardest thing to really ever understand is how another person thinks. As for
nonsense songs they usually mean something but I code it for myself so nobody
understands what I’m actually talking about. It’s sort of like a self-help
therapy session in front of a bunch of strangers a every time we play. It’s
refreshing being looked at funny.
Q: Why did you
interview yourself?
A: Why wouldn’t I.
I’ll never ask a bad question.
