SOURCE – Pain Is Forever and This Is the End is the fifth studio album for the band. At this point in the career of Mantar, what do you wish to achieve in terms of the creativity and performances album to album – and where do you see this album sitting in the discography style-wise?
Hanno Klänhardt (Guitars, Vocals) – Actually I see “Pain Is Forever And This Is the End” as our forth real album. The one before this (Grungetown Hooligans II) was a complete cover-album… so I personally don’t count that in but everyone as he likes.
Every band tries to make the current recording/album as good as possible and better than the previous one/s. So do we. We started as a band that wanted to play as heavy as possible and now we are at a point where we are aware of the importance of a good (catchy) song more than ever. If you are a good performer but your songs suck then it will sound like shit. So we focused on the songs more than before to have good foundation for the rest. And to be honest…. it was not that hard as we both are addicted to popsongs in a way which made this development pretty organic. To answer your question – I would say this this record expresses what we are and what we want to be better than any other album: playing popsongs heavy.
SOURCE – Composing for this record remotely, do you believe that the band was able to focus maybe a little more on specific details to get the songs finalized just as you wanted, without any burden for rushing into specific deadlines?
Hanno Klänhardt (Guitars, Vocals) – Well… even though we didn’t have any given deadlines in the beginning we still made our own ones. We have to make some kind of pressure for ourselves otherwise it working on stuff will take too long. But we failed in our first attempt. We had already booked the studio for the recordings but then the difficulties didn’t stop. It felt like the whole universe was against us. Hanno hurt is knee two times so he had to go through several surgeries – the whole workprocess was hard and not as quick as we wanted. So we gave up and everyone went home. Then we took our time. Hanno finished the songs and send me demos. I practiced the stuff and recorded the drums in germany and Hanno did all the rest in Florida. Then suddenly we were confronted with deadlines again. Because if we wanted to put the album out on a specific date we had to finish everything in a certain time. So therefore… we still focused on optimizing everything on the recording of this album but it didn’t feel like we had no deadlines.
SOURCE – What do you consider three of the most important albums that helped define your outlook on great music – and can you think of an underrated band (metal or otherwise) that people need to dig deeper into and gain appreciation for their work?
Hanno Klänhardt (Guitars, Vocals) – I would say my personal Top3 influential Albums got to be (in no particular order): Melvins “Houdini”, Sisters Of Mercy “Floodland” and Nirvana “Bleach”. Those records had a lot of impact on me and my view on making music myself. Nowadays I am a big fan of the band “Sumac”… but I don’t know if they are still that underrated. If you don’t know them you should definetly check them out.
SOURCE – Where do you see the importance of social media, digital music, streaming, etc. in building the profile of the band? Is it as important as what the band can do through live shows to solidify their following?
Hanno Klänhardt (Guitars, Vocals) – Socialmedia and digital content got so important over the last years – it’s pretty obvious. It became a mandatory event to represent your band digitally. Music got so reachable and bands got pretty transparent for everyone. That’s a good thing in many aspects. It’s so easy to get in contact with your favorite bands and find music from all over the world that you like. Nothing will replace the impact of a real live show but all those digitality is undeniable the thing of today whether you like it or not.
SOURCE – Did it seem obvious to release Hang ‘Em Low (So the Rats Can Get ‘Em) and Odysseus as singles – and what can you tell us about the video shoots? Do you enjoy the chance to express yourself in this medium that may differ a bit from what people can expect on record and through the live shows?
Hanno Klänhardt (Guitars, Vocals) – It was kind of obvious to release “Hang ‘Em Low” but a pretty late decision to put out “Odysseus” as the second single to be honest. “Hang ‘Em Low” was shot in Florida – around Gainesville. There is a lot of nature and swamp in that area which was perfect for our vision of the song. It was about four days night and day shooting – something you don’t see when you watch a 4-minute videoclip. We love shooting videos and putting a visual aspect on songs but it takes some time to say that it’s fun to make videos because it’s hard work in the first place. You have to forget the effort to realize the enjoyment and then you get very happy and proud to offer your song on such a visual medium.
“Odysseus” was made in our hometown Bremen in Germany. The shooting took place in a historical room called “Himmelssaal” which looks a bit like a church. We wanted to bring that midsummer vibe into that song. There is a big contrast between how we play live and how we perform in that particular video-clip considering the colors and clothes we were wearing which makes it pretty interesting.
SOURCE – When looking at your career within Mantar or any of your other bands/musical projects, can you think of a time when you had a setback or failure that in retrospect set you up as a learning experience for a future win or success in the long run?
Hanno Klänhardt (Guitars, Vocals) – I would say the whole covid-related pandemic was one of the biggest setbacks in our career. And unfortunately it’s still going on if you look at clubshows in Germany and Europe nowadays. You kinda lose the reason why you are in band when you don’t get the opportunity to play shows in front of people. This is something hard to deal with: booking, postponing and cancelling concerts. The only thing we try to see for good in this whole misery is to learn to motivate yourself in doing what you were doing even if it looks impossible. But we are not here to give up.
SOURCE – When looking at the career of Mantar, what do you consider some of the special moments that have occurred – either albums, songs, tours, or festival dates – where you knew you were making an impact and moving up the ranks when it comes to your career?
Hanno Klänhardt (Guitars, Vocals) – I remember our first show in Hamburg in 2013 in a small club called “Astra Stube” as something very special. The capacity of that venue was about 50 but more than 100 people showed up. Our first album was not released yet but there was such a big word-of-mouth recommendation for our show that you could feel the excitement in the air. It was so much fun to show off in this little room and convert everyone to Mantar-Fans. From that show on all our concerts in Hamburg over the years (to capacitys up to 1200) were sold out… so we left a good impression I guess.
SOURCE – Anything else you’d like to mention or promote?
Hanno Klänhardt (Guitars, Vocals) – Stay safe and listen to our latest Album “Pain Is Forever And This Is The End” ..and we hopefully will come to play shows and Brazil.
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