Mantler Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 9th 2010 4:08PM by Summar Ghias
Comments

Indie-pop and R&B solo artist Mantler (aka Chris Cummings) has an affinity for the '70s. Not only does the singer and pianist play a Wurlitzer from the decade, but he also credits '70s R&B and soul heavyweights like the Stylistics and Marvin Gaye for influencing his musical style. Spinner spoke with Cummings on his obsession with the decade, the spontaneous origins of his band's name and the Austin hunt for his piano of choice to play at this year's SXSW.

Describe your sound in your own words.

I play electric piano, a '70s Wurlitzer electric piano, which has a watery sound. It was used in a lot of '70s R&B so my sound is kind of like indie pop with an R&B jazz influence.

How did your band form?

Well, I became obsessed with '70s R&B and I had studied classical piano. Around the mid '90s, I started playing the electric piano with a band because they needed someone that could play. As soon as I started playing it I realized that this was my interest and this was the instrument I wanted to continue playing. Then I decided to do my own thing under the name Mantler, and I've been doing it for 15 years now. It really spun out of that love for '70s R&B.

For a while now I've been playing with Jay and Matt -- they are in a band called Steamboat here in Toronto. Initially, I played a show with Steamboat as my backing band. They've played shows with many artists in Toronto so that's how I ended up working with them. They will be playing with me at SXSW too.

What are your musical influences?

Stuff like the Stylistics, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, the Beach Boys, '60s rock like the Kinks, Love, the Zombies. My influences are pretty wide-ranging, but it's mostly music between 1965 and 1982. And I do listen to R&B, jazz, rock and also contemporary indie stuff too.

How did you come up with your band name?

The name Mantler was someone's last name in a customer database at my day job. I thought I should go with it because it sounded humorous and kind of serious at the same time, the image of an antler on a man or antlers made out of men. I tend to like sad, introverted music and a lot of my songs are in that vein, but I also try to convey humor as well. The name is very similar to another man's name, Michael Mantler, but at the time the internet was in its infancy and I didn't know his name would pop up if you typed in Mantler!

What's in your festival survival kit?

My biggest challenge was to rent a Wurlitzer, so I had been trying to call around in Austin. It is hard to transport around this instrument; you can't just take it on an airplane. But I finally found one. Also in my survival kit – a lot of vitamins.

Who was your first celeb crush?

William S. Boroughs

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

So many, oh god. I don't know -- T-Pain.

Beatles or the Rolling Stones?

Stones, because although I listened to the Beatles when I was a child, I listened to the Stones when I was a teenager, so I identify more with the Stones because of the things I was going through at the time.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

I've been heckled here at smaller shows in Toronto -- mostly by people I know. But I did just come back from a tour of the UK, and one guy [in Dublin] criticized me for not having any punctuation in any of my songs. My retort was, "eh isn't this James Joyce's hometown?" [A section of Joyce's 'Ulysses' lacked punctuation -- it consisted of more than 30 pages occupied by seven sentences with no punctuation except for a period at the end of the novel.]

Who are you most excited to see play at this year's festival?

I'm excited to see Diamond Rings. He is a Toronto guy also playing in the TomLab showcase and he's very good. Also Niobe is a German woman who I've yet to meet, but the Mantler band is actually going to be backing up Niobe as well in the showcase, so I'm excited about that, too.

Summer Ghias is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.