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.

2025.02

MDC Interview#67 " MANAPOOL "