Other articles on A&B:
- Awen Review - 2010

- A&B -
Hi Ben and welcome on Artists and Bands. Let's kick off with the usual question, would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?
- Mank –
Hello, my name is Ben Powell, I live in North Wales and I've been making electronic music since 1998.

- A&B -
When did you first start making music?
- Mank –
I was given an acoustic guitar when I was 11 and started learning how to play it, by the age of 15 I was in a band playing grunge and metal covers.  I bought a 4 track recorder when I was 17 and I guess that's when my experiments began, the next purchase was a drum machine followed by an Atari ST which was the beginning of my fascination with electronic music.

- A&B -
During your carreer you've published a lot of albums, but two of them have been published with the nickname”Micrographia” and one of them has been published with “Llyn Y Cwn”. What's the difference between those albums and Mank's?
- Mank –
I can not take full credit for Micrographia, it was a "post rock" band with two other members, Dave McCann and Andy Jones.  We were a strange combination with two guitars and a bass playing along to computer generated rhythms and an ambient backdrop, we stuck out a bit on the local live scene.
Llyn Y Cwn is the name I use for the more "dark ambient" oriented releases, there has always been the odd dark ambient track on the mank albums but they always felt a bit out of place to me so I decided to give them an entity of their own.

- A&B -
You sell your albums exclusively through the internet; actually, you ask for a voluntary donation which is meant to support indie music. Why are you acting this way? What's the reason why you chose to avoid any contact with record companies?
- Mank –
It has not been my choice to avoid record companies, they have chosen to avoid me. I find that releasing the music myself gives me complete creative freedom to release what I want.  The mankymusic webpage was set up before places like myspace existed and was created to enable people to listen to / download my music.  The donations idea came about after I received several emails asking where to buy the albums, people wanted to support the music and pay for it in some way.  This works out quite nice as the donations received pay for things like getting the music on CDBaby and making promotional cds for radio stations.

- A&B -
How important is to you to keep your music genuine? I'll try to make myself clear, would you be able to reach a compromise with a record company to increase your profit?
- Mank –
I have no interest in comprising my music, I don't see the point in  "selling out" and making commercial music purely for income.  I make my music for my pleasure and have been doing so for years with zero profit. I'm not saying I wouldn't like to have an income from my music but content of the music is the most important thing to me.

- A&B -
Your work as a boat technician involves spending a lot of time at sea. Was it your love for nature that drove you towards this kind of job?
- Mank –
I believe everything happens for a reason. I used to work in a factory and I hated it, I was desperate to get out, eventually I got my current job and it has worked out very well for me, a happy accident.

- A&B -
How much is this job linked to your music?
- Mank –
I spend periods up to 5 weeks at a time on ships, when you are not working there is very little to do, this time is the perfect opportunity for me to focus 100% on my music, I think all of the albums were mixed at sea.

- A&B -
During your sea trips, has there ever occurred any event that's really impressed you?
- Mank –
On my second arctic trip in october 2008 I saw the Aurora Borealis which I think is the most impressive sight I have ever seen. Also the year before we hit bad weather and had to dock at Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen, what a place!  The beauty of it will never leave me.

- A&B -
In which circumstances did you record “Isbjorn”? Were you heading towards the Arctic?
- Mank –
I have had two trips to the Arctic Ocean, first in September 2007 (when I recorded Isbjorn) and again in October 2008 (Ambergris).  I am part of a team of oceanographers making measurements, although we didn't quite make it to the north pole, we did make it as far as 82deg north. The feeling of being on a ship ploughing through the ice, the endless sunrises / sunsets, the polar bears - quite unique!

- A&B -
Allow me a selfish question. I I think the best song you've ever recorded up to now is “Quiditty, The Dream-sea” from “Isbjorn” Could you tell me about this piece? Where did you get your inspiration?
- Mank –
When writing songs I just sit down in front of the computer and see what happens. I guess what ever is running through my mind at the time will come through in the music.  Sometimes it can take months to get a track where I want it, other times a song comes out in one go, full, almost a finished product. These are always the best songs.  I wrote "Quiditty" on my first arctic trip. Its pretty hard not to be inspired by the sea of ice, the name comes from the book "The Great and Secret Show" by Clive Barker, the title had been waiting around in my head a long time for the song to materialise.

- A&B -
How has your music evolved from “Ecaz Nous”, your first album, to “Awen”?
- Mank –
Ecaz Nous was mostly sample / loop based, these days the sounds are mostly from soft synths and field recordings. I would say the driving force behind the evolution on the Mank sound has been the technology available.  Also I guess as I have gotten older I have mellowed a bit so the music isn't as abrasive as it used to be.

- A&B -
How can you succeed in conveying Nature inside an album?In “Awen”, the last two tracks “Blodeuwedd” and “Cyhreath” was composed using tidal current data from the Menai Straits and a field recording of an ice breaker crashing through ice at the north pole. Do you need to be a very sensitive person to be able to do that?
- Mank –
Since my music is completely computer based it is very easy for it to become sterile and faceless, for this reason I like to incorporate natural patterns and elements into the music to make it more organic.  Sometimes this is achieved by using field recordings, sometimes I use natural patterns in the composition process. I use fractal generative composition software a lot, I believe that maths is the language of the gods.   I think the only real way to get the feeling of "nature" into the music is to try and make it as beautiful and fragile as possible. I don't think I have succeeded yet (and doubt I ever will) but I'll keep trying.

- A&B -
Listening to your works, you get a "cold" feeling. How much do you think that living in the north and being a mountain person has influenced your music? Do you think that if one day you had to move to, say.... Italy, your music could change?
- Mank –
I have to say I am very much a cold climate person, anything over 30deg and my brain starts to melt…I dare say my music might sound quite different if i lived in a different climate.

- A&B -
What kind of instruments do you use for the sounds on these tracks?
- Mank –
I don't think there are any "real" instruments on awen, it is entirely composed (on the same laptop I am typing on now) using virtual instruments and filed recordings.  I recently bought an SD card recorder, its about the size of an ipod and records direct to compact flash memory. Its very handy as I can carry it with me everywhere and never miss that "perfect sound".

- A&B -
I had the chance to look at your pictures. Some of them have been chosen to be the cover of your albums. They're very beautiful pictures, they're just amazing because of the sceneries they depict. Which standards do you use to choose one picture instead of another, to be used as an album cover? Is your decision influenced by the moment when the picture is actually taken and by what you are feeling?
- Mank –
Thank you, usually the artwork is the last thing to happen on an album. Once its been mixed and mastered I listen to it on my ipod to get the overall feel and mood of the finished product. Its then a case of finding the right photo for the theme. I usually select a photo taken during the period of time the recording was made so I guess it does give a snapshot of a chapter in my life.

- A&B -
You've recorded 13 album in 10 years. Don't you ever give yourself a break?
- Mank –
Its not work, its my hobby, this is what I do for fun, so no.

- A&B -
Is there any artist or musician you feel quite close to?
- Mank –
I don't know about "close to" but my musical heros are people like Harold Budd, Biosphere, Loscil, Steve Reich, Max Richter. I could go on…have a look at http://www.last.fm/user/mankymusic to see what I listen to.

- A&B -
What's in the future of Mank?
- Mank –
Hopefully just to keep on making music, I would like to release a dvd at some point, when I play live I make visuals which are projected on a screen behind me, these are usually made from my photos (you can watch a few on my youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/mankymusic). That would be nice.

- A&B -
Thank you for this opportunity. As for me, (and I wish to say this publicly) this interview has been like a little dream come true. I'll leave this place to you to greet our readers.
- Mank –
Thank you for this opportunity for me to explain my music, I don't do much of this kind of thing, I'm not a "rock star", I'm just a geeky guy who enjoys messing around with a computer.  I don't make my music for money, I do it for my own pleasure and if one other person in the world listens to it and enjoys it then that makes the hard work worthwhile.  Thank you for listening.