We planned to interview guitarist/bassist Johnny Baird, but when we asked him about Mangelwurzel’s songs, he said “I’ll put you on to someone else,” and handed us over to Jaala. So how would she describe their sound?
“Like a gloved hand running down a tuckshop lady’s sweaty back,” she says. “We’re just a pack of idiots creating a protest against all the other bands. Other bands play cool music, they’re cool dudes who look very cool – we just don’t belong to that level of cool. We’re about doing your own cool thing. You find yourself being cool. We’re very tongue-in-cheek.”
Through not aspiring to be cool, Mangelwurzel have redefined it on their own terms. “We’re the odd child,” Jaala says. “The outsider child, the kid in the middle row in the classroom with a penchant for mischief. Not the front row kids or the back row kids – the middle row kids are incognito but they do the worst damage.”
Mangelwurzel, who Jaala says are “fiercely independent”, are on the cusp of their debut album Gary. Gary? “It’s a name that’s out of fashion at the moment,” Jaala says. “And it’s kind of about a story my friend told me: she was 18 and got a wolf tattooed on her arm and her dad saw it and said, ‘Oh my God, look at that,’ and her mum said ‘She’s a wild woman, Gary.’”
If that were said in a film, it would be quoted all over the country. “Maybe by giving voice to those little moments you give them extra meaning,” Jaala says. “Life is full of these little experiences and unless you really know someone, you don’t get to know these stories.”
Last year the band played the Falls Festival in Byron, Lorne and Marion Bay, and they have supported such bands as Pond, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, The Courtneys from Canada and Tonstartssbandht (USA). They’ve clearly got something special to offer the St Kilda Festival audience. “It’s special relative to us. A lot of groove. Songs from Gary. It’s haphazard fun. We’re into making people feel good at concerts.”
Outside of the band the members have some curious hobbies, such as attending support group meetings for victims of alien abductions. “Except Johnny. He has his Tina Turner memorabilia. Everyone’s into different stuff. Our horn section’s heavily into Balkan stuff.”
With such different influences, their songs are naturally diverse. However, Jaala says they’re written together and arise out the band’s shared experiences and anti-fashion aesthetic. ”We sort of share responsibility, we share stories, we make the songs together; it’s very democratic. We have a collective vibe. Sometimes the songs just write themselves. Mostly it’s a lot of hard work and patience, trying things out, challenging the groove. When you think a song’s going to go one way, when you think you know what’s coming next, we purposely try the opposite, make it surprising.”
The band have no illusions about the music industry or their place in it. “We just try to live week to week. I don’t think we have any delusional ambitions. None of us have long-term plans other than not to become stagnant, and not fall into some neurotic mind-cave of loneliness. Not go into a coffin cave. Focus on what’s at hand – it makes life easier.”
BY LIZA DEZFOULI
