Thursday 17 April 2014

Oliver Manning Q&A

Your name: 
Oliver Manning.

Where are you from? 
Sheffield, England.

How would you describe yourself?
I try to avoid it. If a gun were put to my head, I’d claim to be the bastard love-child of Neil Young, Lou Reed and Cat Stevens. But that’d be arrogant. I sound like 1971.

Who are your main influences musically?
The aforementioned trio. But throw in some Beach Boys, Elliott Smith, John Frusciante and Ludwig van Beethoven.

What do you hope to achieve in music?
What I hope to do is find some kind of inner peace. What I will do is publish a massive catalogue of music and a massive collection of writings, works that will be my stamp on the world for the next few generations to feast on. One giant act of charity, if you will, albeit one that I will be handsomely paid for to ensure my physical needs are met whilst here on this Earth.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?
Countless busking moments where a little kid just starts dancing, or a cute girl smiles at me, or some unwashed, bitter, tracksuit wearer tells me to get a real job. Actually, what I am saying? The highlight of my career so far was playing drums at a gig in a music shop and falling backwards off the stage.

And what’s the moment you want to forget?
There’s nothing I want to forget. There are, regrettably, several evenings I have forgotten, but memories are precious. Don’t wish the past away. Use it.

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?
An unreleased, unpublished song that I play at gigs called I Want To Drink Some Rum and Sleep With You, My Blondie.

Where can we listen to it?
You can’t. But listen to Don Draper, instead. That’s a song about meeting a beautiful girl in the mountains and her changing your life and you knowing that it won’t work out but that that’s okay. Don’t cry. https://olivermanning.bandcamp.com/



Where can we find out more about your music?
http://www.olivermanning.co.uk (I keep a regular blog)

Anything else you’d like to say about your band/music that I forgot to ask?
Truth is all that matters. And if you look, you will find it. Don’t decry the fact that the music industry isn’t what it used to be. It is what it is. Use it. Do what you like with it. It’s far more flexible than you realise. Move towards beauty, and away from that which is not beautiful.

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