A Quick Chat With Manorism
Manorism, the Melbourne-based indie dream pop collective, have just released their latest single 'Sober’. Manorism's music is a blend of introspection and rich sonic landscapes influenced by early 2000s punk and 2010s indie rock new wave revival. 'Sober' captures the emotional journey of a relationship's end, offering a mix of heartbreak and hope, conveyed through shimmering guitars, ethereal synths, and the soothing vocals of frontman Shantanu. With a compelling fusion of melancholy and euphoria, Manorism's immersive sound is one to get around. We caught up with the band to find out more about the track and more.
Can you tell us what this track means to you and what you want people to take away from it?
The song was born in peak COVID. We were stuck unable to play live shows and naturally we bunkered down and started writing a whole lot. We came to reflect on the band's journey, and our own individual stories. Since we really only had ourselves for company, the song writing definitely took a more personal turn. Sober is about reflecting on an emotionally intense relationship that had plenty of ups and downs. The idea of returning to a “sober” state after finally stepping away from the relationship was what this song really explores.
Who are some of your influences and why?
Being a band with 5 members our influences are anywhere and everywhere, ranging from early 2000’s punk through to the 2010’s indie rock new wave revival. Around the time we were writing the new record we were listening to a lot of Real Estate, DIIV and Phoebe Bridgers. The War on Drugs is another massive inspiration for us, we constantly have their discography on repeat.
These bands/artists have a special way of combining simple instrumentation to create something so sonically complex and deep. We strive to do the same, using sounds which capture your imagination and really evoke emotional responses from the listeners.
What's the creative process for you, from writing through to recording?
The song writing process usually begins quite organically with Shazz (lead vocals and guitar) bringing the bones of a new song to rehearsal. The band's song writing starts from collaborative jams, usually just playing out chords together and naturally adding and changing parts until specific ideas, rhythms and melodies catch our ears.
Somewhere along the line we roped in Malcolm Besley (Northeast Party House) to help us with engineering, mixing and all-round production. We’re big fans of studio time so we take a lot of joy in the whole process.
What do you think makes a great song?
It really boils down to how well the song can capture an emotion or feeling. Whether super simple or crazy complicated, the best songs are ones you can emotionally connect to.
If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?
I think it has to be Adam Granduciel from The War on Drugs. Adam and The War on Drugs' approach to production and the layering of instruments is something we all take inspiration from. They did this really cool podcast called "The Super High Quality Podcast" where they broke down their production processes and we were all obsessed.
When not working on music, what other creative outlet/s do you have?
Honestly we like to dabble in bits of everything. We’re pretty into taking film photos (we use these a fair bit in our single/album art!). We have a couple of pretty avid climbers (rock climbing etc), which can get surprisingly creative… One of the guys started a gin brand, and that’s pretty damn cool.
Who are some local bands we should check out?
Because of our grassroots, we’re really getting around other Naarm based bands with south Asian representation. We’re super into Jothi who just bring the indie groove in the best way, “Goliath” is a really great song. Big ups to Githmi as well, that laid back indie rock just never fails to hit – check out “Unwilling to change”.
GUTHRIE is another artist that we can’t get enough of, their Incubator EP has been getting some major play time from us ever since it was released.
Winter or summer and why?
Summer – We’re all pretty into the outdoors. Nothing really beats some sun plus a festival!
What else do you have planned for 2023?
After the new single "Sober", we'll be working with our producer Malcolm to polish off the remaining songs (and maybe a music video or two) for some big releases in 2024!
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