Manora
Interview conducted on december 02, 2020
By Dan Locke
Manora: Symphonic metal from the Netherlands
What is your upbringing
Mirte: If you mean music wise, my parents are very musically talented, so music was always a big part of my upbringing. At home we had several instruments, which I tried to play. I also took piano lessons for a few years and I had some djembe lessons.
How did you discover music?
Ivo: I started playing drums at the age of 7, a few years later I found my dad’s old guitar in the attic of our house, and that’s how I picked up playing the guitar.
Mirte: I’ve been singing since I can remember. As a child I sang in a church choir, the school Christmas choir, and I participated in some local musical productions. However, back then I was really shy so I never had the courage to sing solo, until I started taking singing classes at the age of 16. I slowly gained confidence in my singing abilities, which lead to me singing in a few cover bands, before I joined Manora.
How did you start to write music?
Ivo: Like most others, I started out by trying to play music from other bands, and as I gained more skill and experience, I started getting my own ideas. At some point I bought a synthesizer, and with that I discovered recording with a DAW and to work with plugins for choirs, brass, etc.
You are a symphonic metal band from the Netherlands. How did you get started?
Ivo: I am always working on music, and at some point I asked Arthur, who I know from previous bands, to start a new adventure when Tijn was showing his interest to join as a drummer. I contacted Mirte on facebook when I saw some videos from her previous band, and she blew us away during the audition. Tomasz joined a few weeks later after reacting on an online advertisement we placed.
How did you get your name?
Mirte: We just put a bunch of potential names on a list, and by process of elimination, decided on Manora, because we thought it sounded nice and catchy. It doesn’t have a meaning, which leaves it up to us to give the word its meaning.
What is the difference between symphonic metal and powermetal?
Ivo: There are clear differences between those styles, but there is also a certain overlap as well: energetic powerful music with catchy melodies. We have been categorized as powermetal as well in the past, on our upcoming cd there will be 1 or 2 songs as well that are “touching” the powermetal area.
Mirte: I think of powermetal as a very catchy and fast-paced type of metal, which most of the time also includes some symphonic element, but doesn’t have to. In symphonic metal, there is much more focus on the “symphonic” part, and it is mostly a little bit less fast paced. But like Ivo said, there can be a lot of overlap, which is the case for some of our songs.
What was your first performance at like?
Ivo: We first did a little try-out for family and friends in 2017, and a month later we had the opportunity to step in into a show of Phantom Elite for promoting their new album. Unfortunately the whole country was covered with 30cm of snow, so it was a nice private show for the few people who managed to show up. But it was still a nice experience to get more comfortable on stage.
What makes a good songwriter?
Ivo: I think a good songwriter is always improving his skills, and in a band, work as a team to get the best possible results.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
Ivo: Actually I can’t remember, this is really a long time ago. The first song I wrote for Manora is “Ice Heart”, we are still playing it live and maybe it will be on the album as well.
What is your favorite track on the album?
Ivo: For the upcoming album for me it is “Wired to obey”, the music video of this one is currently scheduled to be released in December, as the first single of the upcoming album.
Mirte: It’s difficult to say yet, because we have not finished writing and recording everything, but so far my favorite one to write, lyric wise, was “A beautiful tragedy”. The song has some creepy horror story vibes to it, so i wrote some horror story lyrics to go along with it.
How do you stay healthy while touring?
Mirte: I actually graduated as a dietician 5 years ago, so I think it wouldn’t be a big problem to stay healthy during a tour. I would probably be the guys’ personal dietician, telling them what (not) to eat and to do their physical exercise 😉
What are you’re feeling about streaming music?
Ivo: it is a perfect platform to be discovered, I really like the way how we can show ourselves in this way.
Mirte: The downside of streaming platforms like Spotify is that as an artist, you don’t earn a lot of money with it. But I think it’s a great way to get discovered by a new audience, especially when you’re featured in certain playlists.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Ivo: Both and in between are great. A lot of people don’t really have a device to play a cd or vinyl anymore, so a digital release is definitely necessary, also to be able to put your music on youtube, Spotify, etc. However, there are also a lot of people who want to have a physical CD, mostly for their collection. Vinyl is also great for the collectors, although I think in our genre, the market for vinyl is very small.
Do you think kids should go back to school?
Ivo: Here in the Netherlands the schools are open again since June, looking at my kids it is better to have this daily routine with school and friends.
If you look back at to February 23th. It was your last show. Before that on February 02th, you had a show with Nevaria and Gallia. And at that time the lead singer from Gallia got sick. Did you ever think it was the Covid-19 virus?
Ivo: Interesting, I never really thought about that. I don’t think so to be honest, from what I remember Tanja only had voice problems that time, this happens sometimes with singers.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
Ivo: This is changing every day, but thinking about the past and musical taste I can only think about Nightwish – Ghost love score. Pure perfection in terms of songwriting. At the moment I listen to Parkway drive – The void a lot, I just love the song and energy of the band.
Mirte: In my teenage years, I used to listen to Within Temptation a lot. They just released a new single, which I really like, so I also started to listen to a lot of their old stuff again. Mother earth is one of my favorites by them.
Back in April, you reach 2000 likes, then the virus hit the world hard. How do you feel how the Virus affected you?
Ivo: This year we wanted to focus on the album, with the cancelled shows we can focus 100% on finishing and releasing the album, so it hasn’t affected us very negatively.Mirte: We have been very lucky, because we didn’t have a lot of shows planned, because we wanted to focus on writing and recording for the album. However, some things, like recording the music video for “wired to obey”, we initially wanted to do earlier in the year, but it wasn’t possible due to the corona measures taken by the government. Also, in planning for next year, it’s also still unsure whether we will be able to do a release show for the album, for example. So in short, a lot of insecurity, but it could’ve been much worse. Personally, as I’m also working as a research assistant in a large hospital here in the Netherlands, I see how the virus is affecting health care and how many people develop serious health problems due to infection with the corona virus, so I think the precautions taken by our government have, unfortunately, been necessary.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Ivo: mainly working from home, I am a astronout(just kidding, my kids believe that), I am working for the Europenion space agency(ESA)- The europenion NASA, I am doing electronics, developing PCB’s, I can do a lot from home, but still my job is 50% technical work and ESTEC allows me to perform my tasks onside most of the time.
Mirte: I’m also mainly working from home nowadays. As I said, I work as a research assistant in a hospital, but as I don’t have necessary patient contact, I can work from home. I also have another job in a health store, at which I work 2 days a week. This is a nice change from constantly being at home, and it’s relatively safe because we wear masks all the time, keep our distance, and only allow a maximum of 9 customers in the store at once. Besides working I still try to keep up my social life, mainly via zoom, and I try to keep singing every day to keep my voice in shape.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Mirte: I started learning to play the piano again. As I said before, I had piano lessons when I was a child, but I have unfortunately forgotten most of it. So I am trying to pick that up again. Something else I started doing during quarantine is gaming. I’ve never been much of a gamer because I thought I wasn’t good at it, but when I saw “the Witcher” series on Netflix, I really wanted to try the game as well. So I started doing that and discovered I actually really like it. Since then I’ve played a lot of other games as well, and currently I’m hooked on the Assassin’s Creed games.
95% of people said that they have changed the way they watch television. This includes people who don’t have television and using their computers to do streaming of programs and movies. Which is your favorite streaming channel?
Ivo: Not really, I don’t like to watch movies, television or playing video games at all, mostly when I watch TV I get bored and tired and fall asleep after a while on the couch. I am spending a lot of time in my home studio working on music which is my working office as well these days. What I have learned from this teleworking situation is to get out to make a walk or a run every day(which I am normally doing in the evening), and take the time to have my breaks for lunch and coffee.
Mirte: I don’t really watch television anymore, but I watch a lot of series on Netflix. The latest series I’ve seen was The Queen’s Gambit, which I thought was really good.
– Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. In October that is going to change at least on Facebook. Facebook is cracking down on livestreamed shows that include recorded music with new terms of service, preventing artists from using the platform for “commercial or non-personal” purposes, unless they have obtained the relevant licenses. The updated music guidelines state that users “may not use videos on our products [which include Instagram] to create a music listening experience […] This will includes [Facebook] Live,” and stipulates that such content should be posted for the enjoyment of friends and family only.
How do you think this will change the landscape of Facebook?
Mirte: I believe they have commented on this, saying that nothing really changes, because as an artist you’ll still be able to upload your original work. These new terms mostly prevent people from streaming (and maybe covering?) music by other artists, which is something we don’t do as a band. So I don’t think this will affect us much.
– In addition, from October 24 onwards, you can no longer simply paste your links in WordPress to make your Facebook and Instagram content appear on your site. Will this affect how bands use Facebook?
Mirte: We don’t actively use our website anyway, so I can’t really say much about this. I think most bands are already more active just on social media, and use their website mostly to sell merch. I guess bands that want to engage with their audience directly via their website will have to find other ways to do this in the future.
– How can bands keep their fans if they cannot play live in front of the fans and sell merch to them at the show?
Mirte: For us, and a lot of other bands, selling merch at the shows is an important source of income, so this is something that we’ll have to approach in a different way, if we cannot play live next year. I think a great way to sell merch is to promote it via social media.
– Is pay to play still a thing?
Ivo: Here in the Netherlands you don’t have to pay if you want to play, but venues are not offering any money. When a lot of people are showing up and they sell enough drinks, then the band is getting a certain percentage of it. Our income is coming mainly from selling merch during shows. Of course there is still a “buy in”, when you want to tour with a bigger band there is mostly an option to pay to play with them.
– What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
Ivo: I think this will be something which will be possible within 10 or 15 years
If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?
Mirte: I can’t imagine a life without music, so I probably would be really sad. But I would try to find something else to do where I could use my creativity. Maybe painting? Or writing a book? It’s really hard to imagine.
– Anything you would like to say in closing.
Mirte: Thank you for these nice questions, it’s a great opportunity to share our views and share a bit more about who we are. To the people reading this who are interested in symphonic metal: I’d like to invite you to check us out on Spotify, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram. We’ll release our new single “wired to obey” very soon, and next year there will be a full-length album!
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