Intervju: Man Ray Sky
Av og til kommer man over band som er vanvittig bra uten at man har blitt fortalt det fra før. Jeg selv vet jo aldri hva som er kult før Erick eller Andreas forteller meg det uansett, men av og til skjer det unntak da. Tror jeg. Som da jeg ved et lykketreff så Brighton-bandet Man Ray Sky som oppvarming for Kenneth Ishak på hans Englandsturné og min parallelle English Breakfastturné i vinter. Blant vannvittig mye gråstein fant man gull. Her er Man Ray Sky:
Who are Man Ray Sky, for those in Norway who doesn’t know you?
Man Ray Sky are J.S. Thornton, Andrew Aruldoss, Mark Nathan Benton and Gee Sowerby. We all play different instruments to varying degrees and all create ideas equally within the group. We came together in Brighton about a year ago as Mark’s backing band (Mark Benton and the Tide). Jay was in a band called Shinri which broke up and Mark asked him to join his group instead. After a while, the guys decided to re-arrange themselves as a democratic unit and they re-named themselves “Man Ray Sky” after an R.E.M. lyric. The name also hinted at Mark and Jay’s artschool background. We set about writng and recording a new set of songs and are now gigging as often as possible in the Brighton and London area as a way of introducing ourselves to the world.
I see. How is it working out, being in a small band from Brighton?
Both Good and bad… There are positive and negative elements to it but that can be true of many things. It’s good because being in Brighton there are lots of bands and musicians and there is a sense of being part of a creative community, especially when we think about where most of us were brought up. A lot of us came from areas where there was little or no music scene and to be a part of that now is a great feeling. There are lots of things happening in our city, lots of things to be a part of.
…and the negative side?
That it may be harder to be in a band these days than maybe it was about thirty years ago as there are now so many musical groups that it is harder to get noticed. It is easy to get lost in the huge music scene now, unless you have a gimmick or you conform to what the music press thinks is “cool”. This obviously means there is more choice for people to listen to but it can be quite daunting for a new band just starting their career. The internet can make it much easier for a musician to get their music heard but because of the huge choice it can make music very disposable now too. However, it is too easy to be negative about things like that. If you are making the music that you enjoy playing, it helps you to ignore all the bad stuff that comes with it. It can be great fun and we all are crazy about music so every chance that we get to do that makes it all worth while. Obviously being in a band can take up a lot of time, money and energy… but so does life!
Yeah! Life takes up too much time. It might be a dull question, but how would you describe your music?
Well, Man Ray Sky is in its initial stages at the moment. We don’t have a huge back catalogue to help explain what we sound like. We are still exploring new avenues and experimenting with sounds and ideas. We do have definite ideas about things that we like and things that we want to sound like though. We are trying to balance how we sound live with how we sound on record. A few of our songs that we originally recorded we have now decided to re-record because they have transformed into completely new ideas, just because of the way we play them live. We are starting simply by writing simple songs but trying to perform them in interesting ways. Our music is probably more “head” music than “feet” music… there are subtle textures and sounds that need to be listened to rather than danced to. There are new ideas that we have been working on recently though that are quite loud and rhythmic, so maybe it is better that people make up their own minds after hearing us!
…and what influences it, or you?
Musically, we all have different influences but we share many important ones. In fact, our differences can help to make ideas very interesting… if we all listened to the same things then eventually all of our songs would sound the same. We all influence and learn from each other and that has helped us all to become better musicians. There are obvious examples of bands we listen to like Radiohead, Tortoise, Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley but there are less obvious ones too. We are fascinated by the rhythms of funk and Afrobeat, the improvisational nature of jazz and also the themes and structures of classical music. We really want to incorporate the different ways of approaching music into what we do, without getting too pretentious or calculated about it. We love the idea of “sounds”; using the right sound to change the feel of a song instead of just relying on chord changes or just the most obvious sound of an instrument. It’s fun to make guitars sound less like a guitar sometimes or to use some strange ambient noise in a song to help change the feel of something.
What is your drive to be in a band?
To make music that everyone in the band enjoys is very important to us, probably more important than what everyone else thinks about our music. It’s really great when you create something together and the finished item is something that everyone involved really loves. Also, the improvised element of our gigs keeps it really interesting for us. We try to have a balance between rehearsed songs and melodies with improvised noise and sound sections. Making music that reflects us as people and the environment we live in without trying too hard to be “cool” or impress people is also important to us. It’s easy to over-think these things… we just like making music. The feeling of making other people happy with stuff that you’ve created together can be compelling enough to keep you in a band. Any highlights so far?
We haven’t been together as Man Ray Sky for a huge amount of time, but when we first got together playing Mark’s songs over a year ago it felt like a highlight for us. We had only just met recently and we had never played together before; we were not sure what we were doing and it was all very rough but it sounded great and people seemed to enjoy it. From the first moment we played together it felt really good and just seemed to work.
You said earlier in the interview that Shinri split up but, what really happened? It was such an excellent band.
Well… I think we probably all wanted different things in Shinri, musically. I think we ignored it for a long time but eventually small differences become very big differences, especially when you all stop communicating with each other. Man Ray Sky probably talk to each other more and have less ego problems… I’m not sure. The internal dynamics of a band are very important, even if you are creating great music together. Luckily I think we wrote some okay songs together so it wasn’t a waste of time in that respect. Everyone is now doing new projects and we’re probably better off for it.
Do you have any relation to norwegian music, aritsts?
To be honest, we have realised that in the UK we are quite starved of any European influences. We have our own music scene and, of course, whatever happens to be popular in the USA usually makes its way over to us but other than that we don’t often hear about what is going on in the outside world. This is strange because Norway is so close to the UK… just across the water! Maybe the two countries need to communicate with each other more. Norwegian metal is quite popular with some people here but I think it’s pretty obvious Man Ray Sky are not really influenced by that stuff. We are all big fans of Kenneth Ishak and also bands like the Lionheart Brothers who should all be more popular in the UK than they are. I think we definitely do have something in common with those types of artists. Maybe there is a band in Norway somewhere that sounds exactly like Man Ray Sky, hiding away in some small village like the small towns we all came from originally, wondering if there is a British band that sounds just like them! (Er noen av dere som leser dette det bandet, kontakt oss! TLH merk.)
So, the question we all wonder, or at least me: will there be an album?
Yes! We’re not sure how, where or when but there will definitely be an album, even if we just record it ourselves at home like we did our first recordings. We will continually write and record material all the time so there will definitely be something at some point soon. The trouble is that we have so many ideas and such little time that we find it hard to get everything recorded. We might go to a small hut in the middle of a forest with lots of songs and equipment and just concentrate on creating something good that we are all proud of. We all understand what sort of sound we are aiming for and we have experience in recording and creating music so as soon as we can find the time we will do it.
Any english bands you recommend us checking out?
There are few local bands from our city that we like. The Mojo Fins are a great band and very nice guys, Hush Collector and Mechanical Bride are both brilliant. Beatabet are a collective of young musicians, artists and sound designers from Brighton, London and Edinburgh who create amazing stuff that sounds like nothing else. Very cool stuff. Some other UK music we salute include; PJ Harvey, Portishead, Engineers, and Amusement Parks on Fire.
Hopes and dreams for the future?
We really want to play with as many interesting and like-minded bands as possible and have some fun experiences. All we want is opportunities to go and play for people who might like what we do or to get our recordings heard by audiences who might not get a chance to see us. I think we all also want to have just maybe one album or recording that we all can be proud of. Something that is a document of us at a certain point in time and that can stand up to all the other favourite records that we have in our collections. That would be really great for us. If nothing else comes of that then so be it; a lot of success is down to luck anyway. Also, to become a better musician and to progress creatively in the future is an exciting prospect. I like the idea of not knowing what we might sound like some time from now.
…or if you are coming to Norway any time soon?
Hopefully! We really want to.We need to sort out time, money and other stuff but playing or recording in Norway soon seems like a very good idea to us!
Anything you want to tell the Norwegian people while they wait?
Come and make friends with Man Ray Sky! Norway and the United Kingdom have many things in common and we should celebrate these similarities.
Ja, la oss ha en fest og feire hvor alle er invitert. Dere tar med drikke, så møter alle opp i Furore-lokalene på lørdag. Adressen spør du?
Sjekk ut:
www.myspace.com/manraysky
www.myspace.com/shinri
Tore Løchstøer Hauge