aaamusic | On 15, Sep 2014

AAAmusic: Who are you and where are you from?

We are Sarah and Matthias. We met through friends of friends on a night out in New Cross (London). I asked Matthias for a few Jazz piano lessons and from there we just started writing together. Mano’s Daughter came out of us finding out sound for a few years on the London circuit.

AAAmusic: What inspired you to get into music?

Both of us have been into music from a very young age and it is just part of what we do and always have done. Matthias comes from a musical family and I just had the bug as a child and was writing songs at 12. We love mixing traditional songwriting with the modern edge of electronics, especially synths. Influences come from all over the place with us: anything from Bowie to Prince, Bon Iver to Pearl Jam. Sound wise we love the 80s and the new age of electronic like Little Dragon and James Blake. We just love good music, whatever the genre.

AAAmusic: What have you done? 

This is our second EP this year. Our first EP Smart was a warmer more pop record and this follow up, Shiver, has a darker side to it. More Portishead elements and a look at heartbreak and darker themes. We are very proud of these EPs and the videos that we have and will be releasing with them both. We have directed, edited, conceptualised them all ourselves so it has been a great journey for us.

AAAmusic: What are you like live?

Live, we like to mix the epic wall of sound, with our mammouth onstage synth set up, with the fragile and personal sound of some of our more minimalist tracks with say just a drone and a lead vocal. We love playing live and engaging with our audience.

AAAmusic: What makes you different?

I think our fans love the story telling side of what we do. Lyrics are very important when writing our songs but we try to mix that with the electronic element to give big choruses that people really identify with.

AAAmusic: Physical vs Downloading vs Streaming…How do you listen to music?

We LOVE Vinyl. We are massive fans of collecting records and we try to buy straight from the artist as much as possible. We always buy records that we like rather than streaming them; in fact I don’t use any streaming sites. We know how difficult it is to survive in this industry and supporting the artists that we respect and love is a really important thing to do.

AAAmusic: What have you been listening to?

Kate Bush at the moment, even though we missed out on seeing her. Reviving genius of the past.

AAAmusic: What are your aspirations for the future?

We are always working on new material in the studio and we hope to have something in the pipeline early next year…

Questions answered by: Sarah of Mano’s Daughter…