Interview: All Mankind
If you like The Killers, Muse and Coldplay, you’ll most definitely like ‘Break the Spell” and All Mankind.
Having already played 300 shows across the UK, USA and Australia and worked with ARIA-winning producer David Nicholas (Elton John, Sting), and Peter Mayes (PNAU, Empire of the Sun), Brandon Friesen while also gaining fans such as Mike Walsh, Music Director at the famed Xfm (UK) the band are ready to release the debut album in 2011.
The album is recorded and mixed with Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, Razorlight, The Kooks and Mercury Prize-nominated act Foals) at The Motor Museum studios in Liverpool, England. And the first single out is ‘Break the Spell’.
For those who are not yet familiar with All Mankind; can you please give a little background?
We are all friends from the same area of Sydney. The band got together about 3 years ago. We’ve played lots of shows around Australia, the US & UK, and recently recorded our first album.
How long have you been involved with writing & performing music?
The band has been playing together for 3 years, however we’ve all worked together in smaller bands in the past, and in other different ways. I think we all started playing our instruments in high school, and that’s where I started song writing.
Describe your music in five words (or less):
Big. Melodic. Hopeful.
What is your creative process when writing songs as a band? Does everyone have their own specific role?
We have a few ways that it works. Sometimes I will bring in a song that is 80% complete, and we will work on it together. Other times, we’ll just start jamming on a chord progression or riff someone has come up with & see where it ends up. Sometimes you know in the first 5 minutes that the idea is good, and other times it takes weeks of work to get something that feels right.
Who or what inspires you?
I’m interested in the extremes of life. It’s in the extremes of joy, hope, suffering, sadness, and love that you see humans at their best and worst, and that’s the sort of stuff I think about & like to write about.
”Break the Spell” is the first single from your debut album; what can you tell us about it and the upcoming album?
Break the spell was recorded in Liverpool UK with the producer of our upcoming album Mike Crossey. The album is going to be released in 2011. We hope people really enjoy it, as we love the songs on there & worked extremely hard to produce what we think is a great album.
What’s the best piece of praise you’ve received so far?
Someone recently described our music as “uplifting, energetic, sincere, arousing and euphoric”. I thought this was all pretty cool, except the idea of it being ‘arousing’ – that’s just kind of weird.
How do you promote your music?
Our promotional work is all very grassroots at the moment. We don’t have much cash, so social media & organic web-based activity is very important. But even more important is playing a lot of live shows, and getting out and meeting people. We’ve recently started receiving airplay & TV exposure in Australia, the US & Europe. That is also helping spread the word.
You’ve performed a lot in the UK, Australia and USA. What’s the best thing performing live? How do you know when you’ve had a good gig? Any memorable live experiences you can tell us about?
You can just tell when things have all come together live. You can see it in the faces of the audience & the band. Everyone is sort of thinking ‘that was good, I could do that again’. We played an interesting show in the middle of London. We were invited to perform at the Nokia store on Regent street, one of London’s busiest shopping areas. We played during lunch on a weekday. We thought it was going to be massive, but the traffic on the street was louder than the band inside the store, so people walking by didn’t even realise we were playing in there. The guys in the store did give us free pepsis though.
In addition to the debut album, what’s the plan for 2011?
There will be at least a couple of international tours into the UK, Europe, and USA. We’ll also be doing a lot of shows at home in Australia. Keep your eye on www.allmankind.com for updates.
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