Homelands England 2000

Manchild Interview

Skye Hi caught up with Max Odell and Brett Parker, Manchilds core duo, after the bands appearance in the Home arena which finished around 2.30pm - read a review of their performance here.

I only caught the end of your set, pity you were on so early.

Max: Yes, I think alot of people came in and caught the end, we enjoyed it and gave it our best shot.

There were quite a few people jumping up and down, I mean it's that sort of music?

Max: Yeah there was. I came expecting a crowd who perhaps weren't going to get into it, you know it wasn't all full on four to the floor but everyone was jumping and mooshing as well.
Brett: When we started more and more people came in and that's always a good sign. We mix a lot of styles together, so its not completely dance orientated but everyone seemed to get into it which was really nice and it does cross over nicely and it proved it today.

Heard you live on Radio 1 the other night and I've listened to 'Let Me Tell You Something'. There's a Prodigy comparison there, how do you feel about that?

Max: We are kind of finding it hard to avoid that kind of comparison at the moment because our manager also manages the Prodigy so its going to be inevitable.
Brett: I think they're wrong. I think we do a lot more varied stuff, there's a lot more scope to our music. I'm not like slagging them off in any way - I think they are fantastic, but on our album we've got tracks we've done like hip hop tracks, strings, more sort of innovative, and a drum and bass track in it as well, so we cross more spectrums I think really.
Max: And a 12 piece string section and things that prodigy never delved into.

So festivals, they're a different kettle of fish aren't they. You're doing quite a few this year?

Max: Yeah, all the ones in Britain and quite a few in Europe and one in Ireland.

Do you know what times you are going to be playing?

Max: At Reading we're going to be playing a lot later than we did here - I think about 6 or 7 o'clock so that's good. Stereophonics are playing that day as well, and as we've done a track with Kelly Jones we spoke to him the other day and he's up for doing a collaboration possibly on stage which would be pretty exciting. We're playing Friday at Glastonbury, same day as Chemical Brothers, there'll be a bit of time difference there though I think [laughs].

So do you go to festivals yourselves just for the fun of it?

Max: Well kind of we get to do it anyway now, but yeah I used to go to a lot of festivals, I've never been to Glastonbury though so I'm looking forward to this one a lot.

What's your best festival experience?

Brett: I'd have to say it was one we played last year - V99 - the first one we'd ever played. The weather was great. Everyone enjoys it anyway but when it's hot and sunny you can just sit out and its fantastic.

Manchild have made their first video for 'Rehab' featuring vocals by Andy Cairns which will be out on 19 June and their debut album 'Untied States' is released on 21 August.

Read a review of their Homelands performance here.

Interview by Skye.