MDC Interview#67 " MANAPOOL "

“Manapool” an eclectic artist from Saint Louis, known for being one of the founding members of the underground midwest rave movement ‘Materia’, and one of the two guild leaders of online netlabel ‘chaogardem’. A producer first and DJ by means of having her production heard, her sets evoke a sense of industrial lust and transparent emotion shadowed in a dark warehouse. Pioneer and leader of the genre “Romantic Hardcore” - Manapool is excited to speak on some of the things that made all of this come to be.
https://manap00l.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/manapool_/

Q. Where are you from? What was your hometown like?

I’m from Saint Louis, Missouri. Located in the middle of the country (the Midwest). Saint Louis has a industrial / cathedral aesthetic to it, with french architecture Churches and Power Plants/Factories.

Outside of the city you can find a lot of deep woods and beautiful nature, I spent my life split between living north of Saint Louis in a rough street area, Spanish lake - and deep in the country woods at my grandparents house.

I think of these locations / types of areas whenever I make music, my more technical / industrial music representing the harsher sides of my upbringing, and the emotional / romantic trance movements representing the serenity of being in the woods away from the city.

Q. How was your childhood?

Overall good, albeit a bit scary at times. I’ve had an overactive mind since then, and found myself feeling scared a lot. Not of my life at home, but more so the violence and worsening conditions of the area I lived in. My parents both worked and my brother had to look out for us.

I played a lot of video games and JRPGs, even once spending an entire summer break not leaving my parents house - playing Kingdom Hearts in the basement all day the entire time. When I wasn’t playing games, I was listening to nu metal with my older brother and his friends and riding bikes.

Q. When did you first become interested in music? What kind of music did you like first? Do you remember the first CD or record you bought?

I’ve been interested in music since I was young enough to remember, I think. My dad would talk to me about music all the time, I’d make him retell me stories of being a metalhead in the 70s and 80s, and all the concerts he’d go to. In a way he instilled in me my passion for music. He bought me a guitar when I was 10.

I was raised on a lot of metal and hard rock music, bands like Black Sabbath, to the 90s nu metal scene like KoRn and Linkin Park. I got into the Japanese band Dir En Grey when I was 10 years old, I saw their music video on a music channel. I immediately looked up the song “the Final” and called my dad down to come listen. He took me to see them live when I was 8th grade. My first two albums I bought were Dir En Grey’s “Withering to Death” and “Marrow of a Bone”.

Q. I feel that the core of Manapool's music is breakbeat music such as breakcore and jungle. When did you first encounter this kind of music?

Through video games and anime on toonami, specifically games like Tekken Tag Tournament and Armored Core. Toonami would play these promos for Gundam in which they played oldschool jungle and breakcore over it.

Once getting more into the genre, I found the digital hardcore group Atari Teenage Riot - and their first album. This was truly the start of me understanding and looking deeper into it.

Q. What kind of music environment was there in your hometown?

The Midwest Emo / Screamo revival! In the early 2010 there was a huge surge of emo bands in the midwest, bands like Algernon Cadwallader, to then what turned into harder versions of this like Scowler and Lord Snow. I got involved in this scene relatively young, when I was still in highschool. I played in my first band when I was 15 or 16, my dad taking me to play the show.

The scene took place in basements or small dive bars in Saint Louis, and truly these moments and experiences are what solidified me wanting to be involved in music for the rest of my life. I would go to 2-4 emo or screamo shows a week, from the last two years of highschool til two years after.

I played in a screamo band until I was about 20 or so, and then some bands here and there until I started Manapool.

Q. What has had the greatest impact on Manapool?

Playing through emotional games like Tales of Symphonia or Final Fantasy 7 at a young age, both of these games were important to me as a growing person, but also shaped the tones and execution of emotions seen in my music. Besides media, the experiences and things i’ve gone through have played a big part as well. I can’t help but be transparent about how I’m feeling in music, whether it’s good or bad. 

Q, I think that your early works (such as Nephalem) used images from Japanese manga and still using Japanese samples from anime. What do you think of Japanese manga, anime and other aspects of Japanese subculture?

I’ve always been a deep appreciator of anime and manga, also since a very young age. I think both are incredibly strong mediums and have had a worldwide cultural impact most don’t recognize. The first anime I watched all the way through was Fooly Cooly and Trigun, which still to this day play a part in the aesthetics I favor. Lots of anime and manga have had a serious impact on me as well, specifically Berserk, Evangelion, Perfect Blue and Serial Experiments Lain. As mentioned initially I’ve always thought a bit too much, and anime’s like these made me feel less alone in a lot of ways, or have enthused me to keep trying. I think that’s the best thing about both, however leaning too into that can be just as bad.

I read a lot of works by Tezuka growing up, manga like MW and Dororo shaped my tastes in a lot of ways. I actually have Hyakkimaru as a baby tattooed on my arm, something to remind me as the story does that “no one is born whole”. I read a lot of these mangas during a serious depressive part of my late teens, and truly looking to Guts from Berserk or Hyakkimaru from Dororo kept me going.

Regardless, I guess you could call me an extreme appreciator of Japanese culture - albeit being exposed to some of the darker truths of it that's portrayed in seinen manga, whether psychological or cultural.

Also - Satoshi Kon is my favorite mangaka and director! I watch Tokyo Godfathers with my friends every christmas.

Q. When did Manapool start? What did you do before Manapool?

Manapool started in 2019, after getting involved with a local producer that produced some experimental beats for my friend Eric Dontè. I’d sit in on production sessions, and eventually started rapping over a few of the beats until the producer told me to just start producing and that “I got it”. I tried to make a rap beat, but it sounded like Aphex Twin or something, and Deth (producer) told me to lean into that. I had just gotten into Atari Teenage Riot, and Machinegirls WLFGRL, and I wanted to create something similar.

Before then I played in screamo bands in the Midwest Screamo Revival scene, screaming over sharp guitars and writing lyrics about Evangelion and Tales of Symphonia.

Q. Manapool's first release was Floor Breaker?( Kitty On Fire Records/2020)
Please tell me how this album was made. What are your thoughts on this album now?

Technically, yes. My first release as Manapool was the mixtape Nephalim, with a EP that I wiped off the internet before then. Floorbreaker was my first actual LP released, and I can say that its in sound the first thing to harness what I wanted out of Manapool.

I think the album is okay, as with anything its hard to look back at without thinking of what I couldve done better. Though it still does make me proud in a lot of ways. Songs like ADVENT CHILDREN and CHAMELEION SCYTHE are my favorites, being directly comparable to the style of music I’m making now. 

Q. The time you started your activities was right in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. What was the situation like when you were making music at that time (2020)? What were you thinking at the time?

I actually played my first couple of shows, my first notable one being a rave we threw in Chicago I named called ANGEL BATTLE 2019. Featuring 99jakes, Laura Les, Andrewgoestohell and more. This was such a crucial moment for me starting out.

Once covid started, and we were getting money monthly from the government, I truly locked in on making music everyday. We started the online netlabel “ChaoGardem” during this time, where we’d release 2 compilations a week for almost an entire year.

While I was as scared as anyone else was of what was going on, it was genuinely a very happy time for me. I spent all day producing music or playing MMORPGs in Chao Gardem - and during so I got so much better at everything. I wasn’t really worried about much then.

Q. From 2020 to 2023, the US rave scene seemed to be expanding greatly. A new generation like you guys was entering rave and reviving hardcore rave music. Why do you think rave or rave music was so popular during this period?

Alot of reasons, one huge one was the death of the band oriented music industry. People stopped going to concerts or caring about them as much, but still were going out on the weekends. Even commercial style EDM shows were losing their luster, as it was usually extremely expensive and the music was too “safe”.

I started a IRL rave collected Materia right as covid was winding down, which initially started as something similar to the DIY Screamo basement shows, moving up to now being held in a warehouse that was opened specifically to accommodate the crowd we draw. It blew up in Saint Louis very quickly, which I think was in part due to underrepresented groups of people, especially younger ones, wanting something different. They also wanted a dark room to go be themselves in, regardless of how they achieved that.

Underground raves which usually featured harder electronic music were the perfect answer to people wanting to go out that didn’t want to hangout with bros at the regular clubs. It provided a space similar in tone to what I felt in the screamo and emo scenes, where everyone was there purely to experience something through music. It was also something new again, and perfectly timed with the uprising of younger people appreciating the era of time I grew up in, the late 90s and early 2000s.

Q. Your music has a Y2K-like sound and atmosphere. Is this intentional? How do you feel about your music being categorized as Y2K-like?

It is absolutely intentional, however to me it’s me clinging onto the atmosphere present in Playstation 2 games, and other media present as I grew up. For instance when I think about trance music, I think about Final Fantasy 10. When I started Manapool, I said I always wanted to make “Final Fantasy Trance”. I feel fine about it, as I’m coming from purely what I want to make. I just got lucky that it lined up with something on the cultural rise.

Q. I think there is something nostalgic about your music and visuals. This may be a difference in generational values. I get a nostalgic feeling from your music, but what is your actual mindset when you make music and engage in creative activities? In other words, are you pursuing a time you have not experienced yourself? Or are you focusing on the atmosphere of the present or the future?

There is a lot of nostalgia at play with what I make, and I refer to things that touched and moved me when I was very young. The emotional aspects of games like Kingdom Hearts moved me so deeply as a kid, but in its execution entirely. From the music, to the design of the game. Things like the opening where it’s just Sora talking to himself with only the text of what he’s asking on the screen. Just typing that gave me goosebumps.

My mindset is purely me trying to replicate the beauty or emotional significance of these experiences in music, in a way I want to make people feel moved like I am. Lots of games made me feel safe, whether in general or safe to express my emotions.

I’d like to say however, that I am never looking back or intentionally looking back when I create anything. In a way I hate nostalgia, and think it’s a very dangerous thing to lean into. With that being said, with you saying it feels nostalgic is the other side of it, where I think it’s a good thing. Whenever someone tells me that it means I did what I wanted to, which is connect with someone purely through a song.

The tone of my music is either rooted in the present, or my yearns of the future. Sometimes whenever I make music it’s to remind me how beautiful life is, or to remind me that It can be that beautiful again.

Q. Please tell me about your music production. What equipment do you use?

I have a gaming computer I built with a pirated copy of Ableton, and a M-AUDIO 49 key midi keyboard. 

Q. When you write a song, where do you start? The melody? Sampling? You make music in a variety of styles: jungle, trance, techno, etc. Do you decide on the genre first? Please tell us the process of how you create a song.

I definitely start with the genre first, where I’ll set a pretty hard basic structure in my head of “this is a Trance song” etc. I always make the most dense, or “best” part of the song first, and then expand or deconstruct based on that.

If I’m making Trance music, I start with the composition of pads and lead synth lines, and if I’m making more drum oriented music like Jungle, I start with a break, that I then chop and add things like kicks and percussion on top.

Q. Your breakbeats are very unique and good. What do you focus on when programming breakbeats? Do you have any rules you follow?

Thank you! I follow pretty strict things I must make sure to do, or keep in mind when working with breaks. For instance, I always make sure to add an extra kick on top, matching completely with the break. I do this so I can sidechain synth groups to the kick, adding more movement.

Lots of times my break oriented songs end up with up to 10 different layers of drums, where the break takes up a lot of the surrounding area, and the sharper aspects like kicks, high hats, and snares are isolated into their own tracks, allowing me to create a more full sound. I also add slight reverb to most of my breaks, making it feel massive.

Q. What are the most enjoyable and painful times in music production?

Most enjoyable: writing and composing emotional trance music, put simply it just feels like something I have a knack for. I dream of composing music for JRPGs.

Most painful: learning how to produce specific genre oriented drum patterns, Trance and Electro proved to be the most challenging, which always end up me missing one very minor crucial aspect of the movement.

Q. Please tell me about materia. When did this collective start? What is the concept behind materia's activities?

Materia is a IRL rave collective I started with one of my creative partners, Nadir in 2021, later being joined by local musicians Umami, Eric Donte, and Sweeet.

Initially started by me and Nadir, I was driving up to a outdoor punk show that he was DJing, and I was listening to “Lomay Lomay” by Locked Club in my car, I turned my car off and heard Nadir DJing the same song. By the end of the night I made sure to introduce myself to him and told him we needed to throw parties together. I was playing all over the country but wasn’t getting booked in my hometown, mainly due to there being no scene for what I was doing. I felt ostracized, whether it be for my edgier style of electronic music, or gate keeping within Saint Louis’s electronic scene. I met Umami during this time, and if I were to ever DJ at a regular club it’d be with him, through a opportunity given to me by him.

Me and nadir threw 2 shows together, joined by my longtime friend Eric for the second. After that we were all sitting in one of our cars, and decided to solidify our crew. We strategically decided on the four initial members to tap into every scene of Saint Louis Nightlife, me and nadir taking over the experimental / global club side, Eric tapping into the rap scene, and Umami bringing the crowds from their house / rap DJ sets at the local bars. Once meeting with Umami, they introduced us to a very young Sweeet, someone passionate about lights. With this set up, we had an entire team, from performance to production.

We started as somewhat of a rebellion against the nightlife in our city, where we threw our shows in illegal venues, with illegal bars set up, at only $5 a person. After doing this for a year - every last Saturday of the month, we just got bigger and bigger. Every venue we’d use we’d overfill and have to find a new one.

Eventually we did a 2 story show with DJ MANNY of TekLife, that was sold out and overcapacity. The owners of the 2 story venue then told us they had a warehouse they hadn’t opened that they wanted to open for us to use (named: Mississippi UnderGround) for our NYE show. Since then we’ve thrown all of Materia there. Words cannot express how much I owe to the owners of these spaces, as we’ve mutually allowed eachother to prosper over the past few years.

The concept of Materia was me and nadir wanting to capture the essence of the DIY Emo and Screamo shows we grew up going to. Where it didnt’ cost much, and at the end of the day it was just a party and a dark room to go enjoy music and art. While we’re much larger now, we will not budge on that inciting attitude.

Q. Which labels, artists, organizers and events are important in the current US rave/alternative hardcore rave music scene?

All of the Underground in the U.S. - groups like Mitclan and Transient in Chicago, where they’re doing something similar to Materia. Groups and organizers like this are doing it out of the love for the game, not for social media engagement or personal clout. We’re all doing it for the same reason, to give you a dark room to go by yourself in for a night.

Q. Last year you released the song “I Get So High” in collaboration with Danny Brown. Could you tell me about the session with Danny Brown and the concept of the song?

Danny Brown has been one of my favorite rappers for a long time, and besides Nu Metal and Electronic Music - rap is another genre I’m extremely passionate about. He shouted out my initial collective 909 worldwide, and I messaged him to thank him for that. We got to talking and I had been working on a electro flip of Your Love is My Drug by Kesha - I sent him the beat and told him I could make something similar to that. He sent his phone number and told me he wanted to get on THAT song, not something like it.

I asked if I should take the vocals out - to which he replied “Nah we’re gonna use that for the chorus.”

Working with him was incredibly easy and smooth, I didn’t realize but Danny is from Detroit, in which the rave scene is known for Electro style techno, which was exactly what I was trying to make at the time.

The initial motive for me sampling Kesha was me going through a pretty toxic and self destructive relationship, almost making fun of myself. I titled the song “I get so High” due to me allowing myself to fall into it - and also referring to me getting high at the club because I was so stressed out about my life.

Danny took the song and made the lyrics a portrayal of his recent sobriety, which was funny to me as the song was titled I get So High. I loved that, since I knew people would think me and Danny made a song about getting high, when really it’s almost a warning to do exactly the opposite. We didn’t talk about the lyrics, he just sent it back to me after a week or two with the beat.

Overall Danny has been nothing but a good influence in my life since then, and a good friend as well.

Q. Which of the songs you have released so far is the one you feel the most attached to?

That is extremely hard to answer, but plainly it’d be the song FINAL RESOLUTION. I made this song after a friend of mine committed suicide, and after I ended a very hard relationship. I made it as something to heal myself from all of this, and since then my parents listened to it when their parents passed away, telling me it made them feel better. I’ve been told this by most of the closest people in my life, in similar contexts. The song feels like one of the most true representations of me, not as manapool, but as Alexandra - that i’ve ever made. It’s also my girlfriends favorite song.

Whenever I need to cry or I miss my family I listen to that, it feels like everyone I’ve ever loved hugging me at the same time, whether they are alive or not.

Q. Please tell me about your future schedule.

Currently I have another full album ready to release “aesthetika: the sound of breathing”. I’m extremely excited (albeit semi nervous) to release it, I’m more than confident it’s the best thing I’ve ever made. I plan to release it by the end of spring.

Q. Lastly, please give a message to the reader.

Don’t give up! Life is hard and seemingly never ending, but the more you put up with and the better you deal with it, the more beautiful it will become. As well as this, do not lose yourself to trying to “do enough” in life - always take a moment to look at where you are now.