13 Jul Mantra- chat box interview
Mantra is an artist that blends trap, emo, and pop music to characterize his own style. The artist is from Cornwall and has started to make a name for himself in the underground scene and now with the release of his first EP of 2021, Love Sick, Mantra aims to take it to the next level and bring out more music in the near future.
Yo man how’s things?
Yeh bro just working on stuff right now really.
So the new EP, Love Sick. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Is there a story behind it?
Uhh okay, well I moved back to Falmouth last year from Bristol and since then I’ve just been collecting tunes on tunes to be honest and getting in the studio pretty much every day with Skol (Skol Goth) who’s on the EP and Switchlanes (LouieSwitchlanes) as well. So yeh just been sweatin’ it man, stacking up tunes and I wanted to drop a project so I went through the hundreds of tacks on my drive and put them together. There’s not much of a story behind it, I think it’s a true representation of myself, a lot of it talks about mental health and shit like that, just going on past experiences and my own life really and also just showing the evolution of my sound as well.
Yeh bro, I listened to some of your older stuff and the jump between 2019 and now is crazy, like not necessarily the style but the quality of sound is mad.
Yeh exactly I mean things changed a lot. This past year I have definitely found my sound more, way more. Everything before this project (Love Sick) is quite experimental, even the social suicide project that shit was still experimental. Like when I was in Bristol I was with a lot of people which were like real grimy you know shottas and shit so obviously they’re all spitting bars and shit which its cool but I feel like nowadays I’m not trying to label myself a rapper but more of a recording artist. So I’m not tryna just rap all the time if you know what I mean.
Yeh I rate that because like you say everyone’s a rapper now, its hard to find someone with a unique sound. So who influenced that? Did any artists help to inspire your style?
Yeh to be fair, growing up I used to listen to a lot of like emo music. When I was growing up especially when I was like sixteen I was listening to a lot of metal and shit like that but I was also listening to a lot of indie music too, like Turnover, Citizen, Boston Manner like I still rep the Boston Manner long sleeve like all that sort of pop, punky, indie shit which you can kinda hear especially in the new unreleased stuff. That’s all probably where I get my melodies from in reflection, like im not trying to purposefully imitate but when I listen back and I think my influences did come from a lot of pop/punk and a lot of mid/west emo sort of shit.
Yeh for sure. I know that being from Cornwall its tough, especially in the creative industry-
Yeh!
– and like you say you’ve moved back from Bristol which is pretty hot for all that stuff at the moment. How have you found it in Cornwall?
Well to be fair you’d think that Bristol is better but its honestly worse. Like in Bristol people are stuck in their ways, everyone loves that proper underground UK kinda stuff. Whereas in Falmouth yeh there’s not as much of a scene for events and stuff here but the artists that are here, there’s more freedom to be yourself. I tried to get on to some events in Bristol and people wouldn’t take me on, they were like “yeh this is sick but it wouldn’t work on our event” that’s when I kind of realized when I was in Bristol that its not really the scene for me, like I don’t really wanna be pushing this niche underground scene. I wanna be going places where I can create kinda free music if that makes sense.
Yeh man I rate that, you gotta stay true to your own sound bro. well lastly, you say you got a lot of music stacked up on your drive and youre working as we speak, what’s next for you as an artist?
Yeh so as an artist, I’ve got another project in the works. It’s going to be titled Ghost Boy and its pretty crazy, I mean Love Sick was more commercial sounding and I wanted t push that out first whereas this is almost like a bit more alternative, bit more emo and shit and so its like a bit more harder to get to grips with, there’s gunna be some heavy shit in there as well like there’s gunaa be tracks rapping and shit and also just like heavier stuff like heavy bases like Peep style sorta stuff. So yeh that’s gunna be next up. I’m just getting the artwork done at the moment, it will probably come out later this year, but I’m hoping really to get on more shows and stuff before I can drop it so I can tease out the tracks but obviously the circumstances we are in at the moment, its quite hard.
Nice man! I’m looking forward to what comes next.
Safe bro.