MANDY MANALA
MANDY MANALA is a heavy hard rock band from Vaasa, Finland, who sent out an anonymous casette last summer. Now they are signed, and will release their self-titled debut album on May 23 through Octopus Rising. And that's an album that you really should check out.This interview was done with Kenneth Norrlin (bass player, producer, songwriter) in the beginning of May 2025.
Press photo taken by unknown
So what's the story behind the band?
- The band came from the ruins of the female-fronted MOTÖRHEAD-cover band MotörCünt which disbanded during Covid. No gigs = no cover band. But we all knew that Christa's vocals couldn't go to waste. So with that in mind, bits and pieces started coming into place. We have all been in the local music scene for over 20 years. Together, or in different bands and projects. So it was just a matter of finding the right groove.
You sent out a cassette last summer with no information about the band and no contact information. How were you thinking there?
- Well, you know, nowadays you can Google basically everything. Back in the days when you found a cassette with good music you had absolutely no way to find out more about the band. That created mystique and anticipation. You don't have that anymore. That's why we wanted to take advantage of the fact that there were no information about us whatsoever even if you had a PhD in googling. If you found something when you googled "Mandy Manala" it was about someone else that had got a similar cassette on the same mission who also had no clue. I think by this somewhat unusual approach MANDY MANALA stayed in the subconsioussness of alot of people.
You will soon release your self-titled debut album. What can you tell us about that? Is it the same recording as the cassette?
- Basically the same as the cassette, slightly differently mastered and different artwork. It is the first presentation of MANDY MANALA. It is recorded in four days on a very tight budget. We took a long time on writing the songs and to decide what kind of approach we wanted to have. So when we got into the studio we knew exactly what we wanted to create.
Also, keep in mind that the cassette is a very rare item. I hope you can sell your copy for a lot of money in a couple of years and move to Kiribati!
You seems to have many different influences, but how would you describe the music that you play?
- Productionwise we wanted to create an old-school soundscape where you can actually hear the true identity of the instruments and which guitarist plays where and when, cause we thought modern metal music has been lacking that for a while. Then we put on a modern twist with good hooks and catchy melodies combined with Christa's enchanting vocals.
We wanted it to sound like FLEETWOOD MAC had made "Rumours" in a different time with different influences and with visuals heavily inspired by Ingmar Bergman.
Lyricwise it explores the dark and twisted part of humanity alot.
It seems like there's a concept behind the band and that you won't play live that much. Can you tell us more about that?
- We want to keep the live experience exclusive. We don't want to be that small local band that plays EVERYWHERE. It is also very time consuming to have a functioning live band ready to go everywhere. So we don't want to waste time. We rather focus on spending it on production value and good songs/albums. With that said, we're not gonna go "full DARKTHRONE". There are plans for live gigs and we are ready to play live and put on a good show when a good opportunity presents itself. If someone want to promote us to headline Wembley, we will (probably) go.
So what plans do you have for the future then?
We are going into the studio to record album #2 in the end of May, one week after the first album is released. After that we will continue to build our legacy and the lore of MANDY MANALA. This is just the beginning of a long and twisted journey.
Everything made by Blom since 2001