Throwback Files: Myele Manzanza
My 2012 interview with Myele Manzanza for Rip It Up.
Selected Works is a regular newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter, and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell. Yes, that’s me. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately and some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken + some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms.
Early in 2012, I interviewed the New Zealand-born drummer/producer Myele Manzanza for the long-defunct music magazine Rip It Up in advance of the release of his debut solo album One. At the time, Myele was arguably best known as the drummer for the breakout New Zealand future soul trio Electric Wire Hustle. These days, he’s an accomplished member of the modern UK jazz scene with a long list of albums to his name. The reason I’m revisiting this feature is because sometime in the next couple of weeks, Audio Culture - The Noisy Library of New Zealand Music, will be publishing a profile I just finished writing for them about him.
Rip It Up: Myele Manzanza (2012)
The debut solo album from Electric Wire Hustle drummer Myele Manzanza, One is a shimmering haze of intricate rhythms, swirling futurist synths, expansive woodwind orchestral parts and soulful vocals. Certified in his hometown of Wellington and around the country as a tellingly diverse drummer, over the last few years, through his membership in Electric Wire Hustle, Manzanza is quickly becoming a fixture on the international contemporary soul circuit. Along the way, he's learned a thing or two, and based on his recent works, he's about to become known as a competent record producer and electronic laptop musician in his own right.
"A lot of the time, the focus is placed on the singer or the producer of a song, and people don't really acknowledge the creative aspect a good drummer brings to a song," he explains, seated in a slightly dilapidated club chair on the mezzanine floor of the rented warehouse loft he shares with his partner and several flatmates. "It irked me. The idea that my main form of creative expression might not lead to recognition. So I decided this was probably something that I needed to address, because I didn't want to go through my musical career with this baggage." A 2008 Jazz performance degree graduate of the New Zealand School of Music, Manzanza had been considering another year of study. Instead, with Electric Wire Hustle's music picking up momentum in the Northern hemisphere, he committed to some serious overseas touring and travel, and decided to, as he puts it, "Invest thousands of dollars into making this record instead of studying."
During the period of time following, Manzanza spent stints of time living outside of New Zealand in Berlin and New York, writing music along the way, and where and as possible, collaborating with friends and admired artists. "When you're sitting at home in Wellington, you suss your scene out, and you're safe," he reflects. "You know what you're doing, but you're not growing. That whole trip overseas was a big kick in the ass. Being in New York, I would go to jam sessions and see Jazz players you've never heard of rip it better than anyone you've ever heard play. Being in these environments makes you realise you've got a long way to go, and you need to be able to do something both unique and good to foot it. It was the same in Berlin, except it was more about the language barrier, pace of life and the arts scene. Travelling changes your headspace, and hopefully, you can put some of that energy into your music."
Working away on his laptop in the downtime between shows, Myele began to formulate and work within a continuum. This thread connected the tribal African music he's been brought up with by his Congolese father, Sam Manzanza, with the jazz, funk, hip-hop and modern electronic beat music he had so grown to love. He was assisted in this concoction by his collaborators, New Zealand singers Bella Kalolo, Ladi6 and Rachel Fraser, Philadelphian rapper Charlie K, Woodwind arranger James Wylie, legendary New Zealand-born keyboardist Mark De Clive-Lowe, Electric Wire Hustle and numerous other musicians and vocalists, not forgetting his father, who contributed vocals to One's lead single 'Me I Know Him'. "Working with Dad was funny," he recalls. he had injured his knee and was staying with me and my mum. I had an idea it would be cool to record with him, so I got him to sing a chant he used to use when I would play with him in his drumming circles. I thought it would work well. We recorded it, edited it up in one take, and it just came together."
Another highlight was working with Mark De Clive-Lowe on two songs, 'Big Space' and 'Elvin's Brew'. Manzanza describes Lowe as "a beast" and was totally floored over by the speed with which Lowe drafted, as he puts it, "an opus of synth glory" on 'Big Space'. A long-time fan of Lowe, based on the results heard on One, the feeling must be mutual. "I guess we have a lot of the same influences," Manzanza says."I think he's gone through the same thing as me of knowing jazz and being into hip-hop and electronic music and kind of forging it together in his own way." He pauses to think before continuing. "It's a funny thing making music and then trying to talk about it afterwards. People can say you sound like this artist or have these influences, but at the time of the actual making, that isn't what you're really thinking about at all. I could be playing at a gig and play a J-Dilla [style] beat, and people who know will be like, dope, that's a J-Dilla thing! But people who don't know what will just hear a beat. The context people have from listening gives them a greater appreciation for things." Manzanza's observations are astute and to the point, much like his music, and when the world hears One, he will definitely be recognised as more than just a drummer.
FIN.