Mandrake Handshake

Words by Isis Armitage Photographs by Marieke Hulzinga

I meet three members of Mandrake Handshake at a small café by Kings Cross. It was overpriced and Trin poured frothy oat milk all over herself but what can you do, it was nicely decorated! Having engaged in some light-hearted discussion with lead vocalist Trin (short for Trinity) about the woes of studying Philosophy then leaving university and being struck by lack of purpose, Elvis (Tambourine/ Vibes) and Row (Guitar) arrive. The three have an obvious air of familiarity and comfort around one another which felt nice to be a part of. Inspired by Latin Pastoral Poetry, folklore, funk, psych and krautrock, the band creates interesting sounds that make you feel both grounded and floaty. The mandrake plant is rich in folklore - bringing you good fortune, or to hell, a state of unconsciousness, or even death. Who knows what you will get!

Talking on the wider band, we spoke about how it can be difficult to organise and blend so many voices, opinions, and instruments. Row seems to be the person who has the final say; “if everyone else does exactly what they want all the time, it can kind of become meaningless free rock... what you really need is for someone to tell people when to stop playing, do something a bit simpler.” The writing has a lot of modelling and remodelling, which makes sense with a nine-person band. The variety of members, however, is not something they dislike, describing it as the essence of the band. This aligns with their mentality of people coming and going, but with music being the core member’s priority. However, Trin describes how jarring it can be coming back from tours and gigs to the academic and professional world. They don’t seem to be able to get a proper break – all of their annual leave goes on the band. You can tell how passionate they are about Mandrake Handshake, a place where they can be with friends and genuinely do something they care about.

The festival Greenman was the founding place of the band. After returing home, Row started the first wave of music writing, entering the second wave with a tambourine being added into the mix (thankyou Elvis). Having been steady goers of Greenman for the past five years, their experience this year did not disappoint. Describing Kraftwerk, Beach house, Parquet Courts and Mdou Moctar as some of their favourite performances, you can get an idea of how their personal taste in music inspires the band overall. I wanted to know who they didn’t like as much, and some very minor tension arose over the band’s love/hate relationship with Alex G – “the issue is always Alex G.” Some members were not blown away by his performance. Row does not subscribe to the hype. This brought us onto how some artists really come across as live bands, with others music being too produced. Unless you have pre-recorded sounds, it’s difficult to convey the sound from the record. Mandrake themselves are trying to capture their live sound and focus that onto the record, focusing on the tracks - a conscious shift from prioritising gigs. They are a little tired of the post punk scene at the moment, describing it as “a bit saturated,” sometimes they just want to see someone actually singing. I think this is fair.

I ask them what they thought of the trope that comes with psychedelic music – acid, weed, drugs. Their general response seems to be that the euphoria and escapism often felt with psychedelics is something that they would like to convey through their music. Mandrake don’t want drugs to be the content, and they aren’t, but they don’t want to deny that sometimes it is fun and okay to write music which is nice to listen to when high! They don’t write music on psychedelic drugs, it is just more of the aesthetic experience – “the aesthetic of the psychedelic moment can be mimicked in sound, which is really inspiring as acid trips are rare and worth reflecting on in sound.” They don’t want to dance around the idea that music can, and is influenced by drugs sometimes, and think that that is ok. Whether or not you like to take drugs, Mandrake’s music is enjoyable for all – hence their description of themselves as more krautrock than psychedelic. (As a simplified example, Krautwork = Hallogallo by NEU! - according to Elvis and Row.)

To come back to the birth of the band I asked them some questions about Folklore. If they had to align with one folklore, it would be, the Mandrake folklore. (Who’d have thought it!) Medieval people used to carry around mandrake in their pocket as good luck charms, so it seems apt – they really want to bring good energy. I was also absolutely dying to know what their outfit would be to a folklore themed party. Row would be Shrek and Elvis would be an elf.