An avoid 9-5 work at all cost mentality forced three mates into the realms of music around a decade ago, and now The Manor are selling out prestigious venues like Brixton Academy. Danny Graft, Johnny Dutch and Scotty Stacks, the latter of whom we had the pleasure of interviewing, have built a firm following off their intrinsic tales of being a lad in London. Propelled through geezer lyricism, rich cockney accents and witty wordplay, their mixtape's nostalgic tones combine the energy of British rave scenes with the anthemic nature of indie rock.
Supporting The Streets and boasting millions of streams on 'Don't Do What We Did', their most recent mixtape offering, are just a few accolades to the Manor's name, and finally fans have the prospect of their debut album. The singles thus far, Young Sinatra, Don't Go and All Goes Cold, elicit their musical versatility: Indie, House and UKG are all sonically prominent. This mismatch means you can be as comfortable in a stone island jacket and adidas gazelles as a Moschino shirt and Prada C Cups at their gigs, which are known rowdy affairs.
We had the pleasure of talking to Scotty Stacks about getting Yannick Bolasie on a tune, his favourite pint and pub snack combo and where that french pizzazz comes from in their music. Read up below.
HOW ARE YOU LADS HANDLING ISOLATION? IS IT A CREATIVE TIME FOR YOU GUYS OR HAVE YOU BINNED THE MUSIC OFF TO TRY AND BECOME TIKTOK FAMOUS LIKE THE REST OF THE NATION?
Isolation has been alright actually. Bit boring with nothing to do outside the house but I think everyone's done all the DIY and wardrobe sort outs they've been putting off for ages so that's definitely a positive. Haven't felt particularly inspired to write much music but I've become a pretty good vegan baker. Weddings and funerals...
YOUR MUSIC REFERENCES FOOTBALL A LOT, KNOWING THAT, DANNY AND JOHNNY, SUPPORT ARSENAL AND SCOTTY, YOU ARE AN EAGLE FAN, HAS THIS EVER CAUSED ANY BEEF BETWEEN YOU ALL?
It hasn't historically, but since the mighty Crystal Palace are on the rise and Arsenal seem to be in a steady decline, this season has created a bit more beef than usual as there's only 1 point separating us as it stands. If Palace finish above them they will never hear the end of it from me.
READING AN INTERVIEW YOU DID WITH RIDE MAGAZINE, YOU DESCRIBED THE MANOR’S LIVE SHOWS AS WINNING 7-NIL. WHAT HISTORICAL FOOTBALL MATCH IS THE EQUIVALENT OF YOUR UPCOMING SHOW AT BRIXTON ACADEMY? WHERE ARE THE PARALLELS?
Wimbledon 1 - 0 Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final, which coincidentally is the year we were all born. Honest, hard-working bunch of South Londonders defy all odds to achieve their dreams. Wasn't quite an O2 or a Wembley, which will hopefully come one day, so for now an FA Cup win sounds like a good comparison.
SURELY YOU THREE HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT MAKING AN ENGLAND TUNE, CAN WE EXPECT ONE FOR NEXT YEARS EUROS? IF YOU PULLED OFF A NEW ORDER, AND COULD GET ANY FOOTBALLER ON THE TRACK, WHO WOULD IT BE?
Yannick Bolasie would have to get a 16 bar feature on there, he did alright on Lord of The Mics a few years ago.
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE MANOR REPRESENTS IN 2020? IN COMPARISON TO A LOT OF MUSIC FROM 2015, 'DON’T DO WHAT WE DID' FEELS TIMELESS.
Unity. Hopefully our music serves as a reminder to focus on the good times, even when everything around us seems to be going the other way!
'YOUNG SINATRA' IS A BIT OF A BANGER. IT STILL SOUNDS INTRINSIC TO YOU THREE, BUT DEFINITELY DIFFERENT TO YOUR EARLIER MIXTAPES. HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR MUSIC HAS EVOLVED SINCE THOSE DAYS?
I guess our music has grown up with us. So even 'Young Sinatra' for example, which is a fun song with a comical video still has elements in the lyrics and flows, which show a lot of progression from our older stuff.
HOW DID THE FRENCH REFERENCES START IN YOUR MUSIC? THEY COMPLEMENT YOUR INHERENT BRITISH SOUND SURPRISINGLY WELL. EVEN IN 'YOUNG SINATRA' YOU’RE RHYMING UBER AND THE LOUVRE.
Our mate came back from travelling with a French girlfriend who had a decent voice on her and voila, nous sommes les Manoir.
ARE WE BUILDING UP TO ANOTHER MIXTAPE WITH THE LAST COUPLE OF SINGLES? IF SO, HOW’S IT COMING ALONG? IS THERE ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR YOU ARE CURRENTLY INSPIRED BY?
Album next, we haven't released a long form body of work since "Don't Do What We Did" and we're itching to give the fans something more than singles and EPs. We've got most of it finished already. As usual, it will be a big mix up of all the different types of music we've been listening to, the emotions we've been feeling and the experiences we've gone through during the recording process.
IN YOUR CAREERS, WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST PINCH YOURSELF MOMENT?
Our headline show at The Roundhouse was insane. Singing along with the crowd to 'Angels' by Robbie Williams a couple weeks before Christmas for our encore was a proper moment.
The first time we went on Soccer AM was also pretty mad. We're all massive football fans but none of us are any good at football. So that's probably the closest any of us will get to making it as footballers.
PERSONALLY, IF THERE IS ANYTHING I AM CRAVING DURING LOCKDOWN, IT IS THE SIMPLE COMBINATION OF A PINT OF GUINNESS WITH A PACKET OF DRY ROASTED NUTS. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE PUB CLASSIC COMBO? You can't beat a nice local IPA and a home-made warm scotch egg at a random pub up North on an away day. WITH A SOLD OUT BRIXTON SHOW FORTHCOMING, WHAT IS NEXT FOR THE MANOR? WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE?
I want to do a headline show at Selhurst Park. Capacity wise I reckon that's within reach pretty soon.
BIG UPS TO SCOTTY STACKS FOR ANSWERING OUR QS. YOU CAN STREAM ALL GOES COLD BELOW.
WRITTEN BY LIAM CATTERMOLE
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