08.27.05 - Volume 1, Episode #7 - Length 38:18
MANALIVE is more then your typical rock band. They are bound like brothers, this tight connection along with their diverse musical tastes create a band that never follows the corporate beat. Get ready to find out what this no-nonsense rock band is all about.
MANALIVE members: Terry – vocals, Josh – guitar Wheat – guitar, Alex – drums, vocals.
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Wheat: Well I guess it started out, I met Alex and we were playing with some other guys and over the years we weeded out members and acquired others. About 2 years ago we got this group here lined up, actually started writing some songs and it has become what it has. Its the most cohesive and chemistry orientated band I think any of us have ever played in, kind of what sets us apart.
Alex: Everybody has a job, everybody has responsibilities. No flake’s, everybody shows up on time. We have all been through how many bands? Actually between Brian & I from just answering ads, I was done with a band of mine, he had been done with a band, backed up Jim for a while. I answered an ad and played for another band, was done with that. Started playing around a bit. Then how did I get a hold of you?
Wheat: I put out the word that I was looking for somebody. Somebody called somebody and the next thing I know I get a phone call, “Come jam with some guys.” So I came down and it was you and some other guys that we don’t play with anymore.
( ♪ SHUT UP from the album Constant State of Sickness ♪ )
Wheat: It’s usually the singer that makes or breaks the band. Its putting a lot of pressure and importance on that position, but its like the quarterback, you know. I had the same singer for a long time before, and when that kinda’ changed and went sour. I realized how hard it was to come across a good talent and someone who is the right type of person because that is just as important, the person as a whole. Personality, not big head, just one of us.
Alex: A singer that’s not an ass like every other singer you have ever known. Finally got a singer that is not an ass, he’s part of the band like everyone else.
Wheat: Amazingly enough, after we quit playing with this other singer, for the first time ever I didn’t have to go on a search for the singer. I get a phone call out of the blue, maybe 2 – 3 months after the other singer departed and its Angel saying “hey are you still looking for a singer? Terry is not playing with his old band anymore.” He came out and instantly we just knew there was something special, that we could do something, we could work together.
Josh: It had been a search to. At that point it had been the 3 of us for 3 years almost.
Wheat: We had been playing together and some of the songs we have now, we pulled some of these songs out of the back pocket, sorta’ speak, that we had come up with a long time ago or we had played with a couple other guys but never finalized, never had lyrics. They were just songs, music. Once we got Terry and Ryan, the final pieces of the puzzle, we were actually able to start making some of these songs reality instead of being ideas. They were a finished product. Performable, recordable, we are finally where we want to be.
( ♪ GOOD INTENTIONS from the album Constant State of Sickness ♪ )
Alex: How you write songs is you just jam, you start throwing shit out there, rhythms, beats, riffs.
Jim: Everybody’s part just kinda’ fall together
Alex: You just build up stuff from there, you find out as you are playing around what cool riff is somebody playing and hooks up and basically stops playing it, and “what the the hell were you playing right there?”
Terry: We are a pretty strong improv people.
Alex: It really is, its all about improv.
Wheat: Once you have play together for a good couple of years or so, if you are a good musician. We are not the youngest guys in the world. We have done it all and you learn what everybody’s traits are, how they play. Alex knows exactly when I’m going to make a change when I’m jamming. When we are making stuff up, you almost think its a written song because everybody knows when everybody is going to change. There is a formula to writing songs so to speak. A lot of people free form a little more then we do, but the formula works for us. Its about writing good songs with hooks. Memorable hooks. Lot of melody lot of good vocal parts that blend and mesh.
Terry: If you can’t take a song home from a MANALIVE show, you weren’t listening. You have to remember a song from a show you have seen. Wake up the next morning and remember a song. Its pretty rough. (sarcasm)
Alex: We are the type of band too that if we come up with something, we’ll play it for a month. If by the end of the time, after its a written song, if its a month, if its not moving, if its not us then it just gets garaged. That’s it. If we didn’t hear something positive, we just wrote something….
Wheat: Definitely don’t believe in filler. The word filler does not equate into MANALIVE. I have been in bands and worked with people that were real pushy and they want you to produce, produce. They are just never satisfied, they always want more, more material. They would rather have 30 half-assed songs then 10 potential kick ass songs. We are looking at this now from the stand point now as, we have families, we are not looking to make a million bucks, we are not looking to be rock stars. We do this because we love to do it. We don’t do this for anything but to please ourselves and the few people or hopefully some day more people that want to jump aboard the band wagon and like what we do. Its really, the expectations aren’t there that say we had when we were 21, 22, 23 when it was rock star or bust. We all have other things to live for now so it takes that pressure of, even though we are still going to approach from the most professional approach we can because you always want to be as good as you can. I not going to shun a record deal if it comes, if its the right one. You can play hard ball because we are all satisfied with our lives the way they are. In the back of my mind I always wanted to make it. The realism of it has set in over the years, its like winning the lottery, but you can’t win if you don’t play. I could never quit, love to do it. We are going to keep on pumping.
Terry: Gotta do it.
Wheat: This band, I have no doubt, because of how close we are as a band and members, its like a little brotherhood. I have no doubts to think that this band will last 10, 15, 20, 30 years, I mean we could go forever. As long as we are going to stay health and arthritis doesn’t take over.
( ♪ MISSED OPPORTUNITY from the album Constant State of Sickness ♪ )
Terry: I like the idea of having multiple different sounds, different microphones. I throw a lot of different inflections in my voice normally just with one microphone singing a lot of different ways. I’m not tied to singing one specific way. The megaphone idea, a lot of guys in the 70’s or a few people were doing that. Its kinda’ hard to control, but if you can do it. I guess its new again. I enjoy it, its pretty cool.
Josh: It goes with your schizophrenic lyrics
[laughter]
Wheat: It works out as a nice live touch. Its always nice to do something that is a little out of the ordinary, to draw some attention when you are playing live.
Terry: We are really multiple layered, vocal wise especially. Lots of background vocals, it just adds another layer, another feel. With a background vocal being on a straight mike then the megaphone being the lead vocal just kinda’ flips it back and forth, especially for that song, Missed Opportunity. It has a real chunk along feel in the groove there and it flips it back and forth.
( ♪ MISSED OPPORTUNITY from the album Constant State of Sickness ♪ )
Wheat: Everybody that comes up to me after a show, everybody likes a different song. Everybody names out what their favorite song is and rarely the same one. That to me means a lot because we have a pretty diverse group of songs.
Terry: Cover a lot of bases.
Wheat: The fact that we can cover a lot of bases and the way the stylistic changes are between me and Josh as guitar players. You don’t get that, its very different then most bands. Most bands if you have 2 guitar players, they are pretty much playing the same thing. They are doubling, they are building they are dropping out. I play a heavier wood-chuck sounding bass of a guitar. It’s an aggressive energy type of rhythm. Try to have these riff’s with hooks but are heavy and energetic. Josh has this great blues talent. He’s got these great riff’s and great leads and he’s a great complimentary guy to have. I mean I love that style of music too, but I can’t play both, so he was like the perfect guy to fill the shoes. Its been great, its been everything I could hope. Everybody is a good player, everybody brings it all to the table.
Josh: Going back to the way we write songs, a big part of it is, all of our songs are going to take some time because we don’t know what we are going to end up with realistically. It keeps going and going, we find vocal parts.
Terry: They evolved, absolutely.
Josh: The guitar parts evolve. Finally falls into this spot where its “OK this is where that songs is supposed to be”
Wheat: At this point in our lives you know, when you get to be the age we are, you don’t need one guy walking in trying to tell everybody how to play their instrument, its got to be done this way. It doesn’t work that way in this band. The initial riff comes up and everybody just jams and they come up with their own parts. Then you know, after playing a song for a while you are working on it, you tighten up the loose ends. You tighten up your fils and it all comes together.
( ♪ DRAG ME DOWN from the album Constant State of Sickness ♪ )
Alex: At least hopefully with us, we are not going for some goofy look like Mudvayne or something or painting your face and blood and guts or what not. Hopefully we can get all that stuff done with our music. Going up there and playing and rocking the house for people because they like what we play. So far we have been received pretty well.
Terry: Basically straight forward rock & roll music.
Wheat: The biggest thing for us is getting the product into the public eye. People don’t know who we are really yet. Its been a pretty underground thing. We only play about once a month and we have only been playing gigs for not even a year and half total It was a good 6 months after we started jamming together before we played a gig and we have been together for a little over 2 years.
( ♪ DRAG ME DOWN from the album Constant State of Sickness ♪ )
Alex: I got this back in 94, 95. I was playing in a band called Good Gravey, a couple buddies of mine from high school, Stadium High School. I got this at Northwest Bus Sales down there in Fife, got if for like five grand. Rather then everybody’s cars or trucks it was like, how can we pack up our gear and at the same time be a little comfortable.
Wheat: Its the party wagon, is what its all about.
Terry: Backstage out front.
Jim: The green room on wheels.
Alex: You are in the bar every night with the smoke and the loud noise, let me put it this way, literally for me too, if a band freakin’ sucks, I don’t want to be in there getting my ears blown off with a band that sucks all night long. I want to come out here and relax with some free beer that you bought.
Wheat: Yeah, we got a cooler, packed with ice.
Alex: Its about comfort and about knowing all the band and all the gear is together in one spot. You don’t have 3 cars, you know some one is going to break down, somebody is here, somebody is there. It was just a great investment so far. Don’t get me wrong, this thing has broken down quite a bit, we’ve had to put a quite a little bit of money into it.
Terry: A lot of character right here.
Alex: Yeah. At least its something that everyone enjoys. Kinda’ one of those now that every band that I’ve ever seen comes up “Oh my god, where did you guys get that?” Its like “Dude, its just a fucking pile”
Josh: “Where did you get that great piece of shit man? Its a piece of shit with a couch in it.”
Alex: We can sit out here and relax and kind of unwind. Everybody else has to be stuck in the bar. Don’t get me wrong, we like the bar. When they are breaking down, doing sound checks and everything. We don’t need to be in there listening to that crap. We can come out here and have a couple of drinks and relax and B.S. with people, then we can go back inside.
Wheat: We are our own best company.
[laughter]
( ♪ DRAG ME DOWN recorded live by BSB ♪ )
Terry: I try not to be influenced.
Alex: Pretty much what we have absorbed, I guess.
Terry: Everything from being 15 and listening to Steve Perry to moving through Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, of course Led Zeppelin. Any sort of vocal band.
Alex: For me it was always the same thing, bands with drums, bands with hooks. I was always a big Van Halen, big Rush fan. Led Zeppelin fan. Got into The Beatles a lot, more song writing, obviously more song writing then drumming. I come from a back ground of playing for the Tacoma Youth Symphony for classic oboe. I play classic piano, so my whole realm is from classic music to hard rock to punk. Then you have Josh, between you guys.
Josh: All kinds of stuff, from Hendrix to hard core punk to reggae. Pretty much everything. If its good music, I like it.
Wheat: I went through the blues stage. The Rolling Stones were big for me, Hendrix was big. Then you go to like the AC/DC. You start adding some distortion on there. All the way up to Metallica. The old Metallica was kill. I loved that stuff you know. High energy rock, there is nothing like it. It allows me to let something go that’s like built up inside. There is nothing like it.
Josh: Suicidal, tons of bands that I could just list.
Alex: The energy thing, that’s a big thing. I grew up, finally had some good bands that had a lot of energy. Growing up through the 70’s, we have talked about this, 70’s are always a bad time for music. Bull shit, that’s probably one of the best times for music. Now you go back and listen to it, great musicians, great songwriters, whole albums, like we were talking about, are good, not just 1 or 2 songs. I learned a lot more through the 70’s then I thought, and it wasn’t fucking disco.
Wheat: Look at the 80’s. Everybody looked ridiculous, even though we all did it. With the hair bands and the ridiculous cloths and what not. I will say one thing for the 80’s is, most of those bands that were big were really good musicians. I mean those guys smoked on their guitars. They might not of had the feeling aspect down quite as much as I may have liked. You get a little bit of the robotic feel to it. The playing was pretty amazing for a lot of those bands. Like a George Lynch of Dokken. The guy was an astounding guitar player. Jake E Lee. Kirk Hammett.
Alex: If you can’t appreciate bands, you can sure as hell appreciate good musicians, and they are all around.
Terry: That’s a good point. There is a virtual ass-load of good musicians out there. You got to clump them together in the right way.
Alex: With out an attitude.
Wheat: Its really about the chemistry of the band.
Terry: Its like 5 painters all painting one painting. Its going to look like dog shit unless they all absolutely in a groove. Then in the end you want to look at that painting and it looks like 1 person painted it.
Wheat: Good analogy Terry.
Alex: Way to go, you must be a writer.
Wheat: “When are you going to give us something we can put in and listen to?” Its coming.
Terry: Fun Bobby, yelling at every show. “Where’s my CD?”
Alex: It’s on Pro Tools at Kevin’s place.
Jim: He finally got one, so he’s yelling something else at us now.
Josh: Like “Fuck you”
Wheat: What a great feeling to finally get that CD out.
Terry: Yep, and now we are working on the next one.
Wheat: The name of the CD is “The Constant State of Sickness” and is currently on sale at Bubble Records in Kent, on East Hill, Buzzard Records in Tacoma up on 6th Avenue.
Josh: Rocket.
Wheat: Rocket Records.
Josh: Thats on 6th. Buzzard is more downtown.
Wheat: Thats right. Rocket is on 6th and Buzzard is down bye what, Division?
Alex: Plus you can listen to our stuff on what, MANALIVE seattle dot com?
Wheat: Website, the website is MANALIVE seattle dot com where you can listen to all the songs on the album.
Terry: We are on myspace.com so you can hear us there too.
Alex: Its all about writing a good song.
Jim: The process is the same.
Wheat: Its all about writing good songs with hooks.
Jim: We have not changed anything. There’s a couple new songs that might be slightly different, but its all basically the same.
Wheat: We don’t put limitations on our song writing.
Terry: Even our first record is so diverse. MANALIVE can be anything. We haven’t limited ourselves to being one thing, so we can be anything.
Wheat: Because the way we all play our instruments and sing, no matter what we do, it still sounds like us.
Terry: The difference is a lot of bands start out with an idea of another band they want to sound like. They get together and they already know in their mind they kinda want to sound like Tool because they already like that. They are going to move in that direction, so they sorta do sound like Tool or a lot like Tool.
Wheat: Or The Clash.
Terry: Or a lot like The Clash. We never once ever, still never have and never will, try to write a song that sounds like somebody else. What we do, we just improv jam. We write what comes out of us and that’s what its going to be.
Alex: Probably the best thing is, we don’t all listen to the same music all the time, so we are not pigeon holed ourselves as a band. We all listen to a dozen different things every day. He’ll play a riff with a hard rock slide in it, he’ll play a blues riff and I’ll play a Rush type of drum beat. We got it all, so its like just with the mesh of styles we play, we won’t pigeon hole ourselves.
Wheat: The best thing we got going for us is we don’t sound like anybody. You know, in a world of 10 billion bands, its nearly impossible to be original.
Terry: There’s three sounds and then MANALIVE. Your punk pop shit.
Alex: Your hard woodchuck.
Terry: Your cookie monster or your Tool.
Wheat: There’s a little metal, there’s blues, there’s rock.
( ♪ UNTITLED SONG recorded by BSB ♪ )
Alex: Working like we do, we all work. We all know what work is, we were all taught what work is. We all bust our ass, so I think that’s why we can look at our music as music. Even though its time away from work, its the fun job we get to do. Its what every band hope it can do, is quit the job you don’t really want to do to do the job you really love.
Wheat: You know, we are not, like I said before, we are not greedy.
Alex: Yeah, not being 18, or like a semi-pro ball player and jumping at any contract and you will just take it up the ass, just to play. We are not like that. If you can’t give us some kind of contract that’s making us money that we are doing right now. I can have my family, my job content. It would be nice for a while maybe.
Wheat: I guess it could be good, I mean, I would just be content not having to work a shitty, fucked up job like I do. Beating my body up everyday. Just to replace my income, just so I can hang out and play music everyday would be a dream come true.
Alex: Plus we make a lot of people happy. They come to see the shows.
Terry: Buy a T-shirt and CD.
Wheat: Come check it out, buy a hog pack.
Alex: Come to our show and see what a no nonsense rock band is all about.
( ♪ PILLS – From the album Constant State of Sickness ♪ )
"The difference is a lot of bands start out with an idea of another band they want to sound like. They get together and they already know in their mind they kinda want to sound like Tool because they already like that." -Terry, Singer
MANALIVE Official Website http://www.myspace.com/manaliveseattle
