Mandeverest
By wavelength ~ Posted Monday, December 3rd 2007Purveryors of: A laundry detergent sponsorship scandal
Mandeverest creates dark rock melodies that are sometimes dreamy and sometimes screamy. According to lead singer Mandy Mintz, Mandeverest's music could serve as the soundtrack to a documentary about eels. She lifted the veil of mystery surrounding this trio in an e-terview with Mika Posen.
Please introduce the instruments in your band, as well as the people who play them.
We are...
Mandy Mintz - Guitar and Vocals
Al Bradbury - Guitar and Vocals
Kevin Anderson - Drumming
Myspace's web of friends tells me that members of your band have appeared in various other projects together. Please give us a brief social history of this collective and tell us how Mandeverest came to be.
I played in The Beethoven Frieze since '98. Kevin Anderson joined about six years later and I met Al via Kevin. Kevin and Al never actually played in a functional band together, but ran a small studio on Queen West called Electric Monk Labs which inevitably became the name for Al's solo material. The Creamers is a continuation of Kevin's brother's band that has been around since the early nineties.
Is there a reason behind the snowy mountain theme that appears to run through your band and your music – i.e. the name itself, Mandeverest, as well as a song called “Glacier”?
Snow makes me think of Tide (circa 1977). I also like it on my morning oat cakes. It's also a great substitute for icing sugar if you add just the right amount of flour. Mountains rock my world, because from my experience when I get to the top there's no one else there and isolation is good for what ails you sometimes. Mountain goats are better to hang out with than most people I know. The irony is that I'm the last person to compare my ego to a mountain. Boy, you sure ask some tough questions, I feel as though my insides are being hung out on a clothesline for everyone to see. I am obsessed with laundering things.
Speaking of mountains, if you were stranded on a mountain top with only two CD's, what two albums would they be?
Maxell (Japan) makes a novelty presentation CD that is 60" in diameter (they are used at trade shows and corporate parties) which could quite possibly serve as wings and allow me to fly. So I will choose a pair of Maxell CD-4060's. I have a sneaking suspicion that at the top of my mountain I would be stuck with no CD player but somehow the wings would work alright.
We would like to conclude this e-interview by posing [our own questions]: what colour are your drapes?
I don't have drapes I have blinds. Boring old blinds.
Where do you think we might be tomorrow?
Closer to the end Christmas.
Why this Mountain, Why this Sky, This Long road, This Ugly Train?
The sky is really just a long road for birds. The train only looks ugly in the shadow of the mountain.
Who is It? (The greatest knock-knock joke EVER.)
It is Itilla. "It" is just her nickname.
How could this be?
Ask her parents.
Thank you for your time and thanks to Maxell and Tide for sponsoring this interview.
By Mika Posen