Man Man

Wed 12th Nov, 2008 in Features

He desperately needed a break. After constant touring over the past two years, including opening for Modest Mouse, performing at big US festivals such as Coachella and Voodoo, and travelling to Europe for the first time, Man Man frontman Honus Honus, aka Ryan Kattner, says he needed time off, for one, clear his head.

“I think we’re just trying to put our heads back together in this month off,” Kattner tells FL. “We’ve been touring so damn much. It’s been, like, touring or working on the last record, you know. We just really got to take a break.”

The five-piece experimental/vaudeville/carnival/gypsy punk/pop group has a one month break before coming to Australia to play the Meredith Festival in December. Calling from his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, Honus says the band will use the break to film a music video for the song Rabbit Habits off their third LP Rabbit Habits.

“It’s all sketched out,” he says. “I don’t want to give anything away too much, but let me just say that one of the movies that kind of changed my young life, my prepubescent life, was Teen Wolf.”

Honus refuses to reveal much about the video, except that Man Man will employ a hands-on approach in making it and it will probably come out sometime early next year. The purposeful mystery of the video fits Man Man’s musical persona. Oddly catchy and nearly impossible to define, the band’s music warps genres and incorporates instruments from piano and drums to fireworks and kitchen pots.

Despite their catch-all musical appearance, especially evident during their high energy live shows, Honus claims nothing in Man Man’s sound is accidental or meaningless. “The one thing that’s really important about the band, and essentially the players in the band, is that it’s all orchestrated,” Kattner states. “There are not things thrown in there just for the sake of there being something else in there. If a dog barking in a song has more precedence than the same guitar solo you’ve heard before, then there should be a dog barking in the song.”

As such, the band treads into unchartered musical waters, willing to experiment with their sound but still questing to create the perfect pop song. “If anything, one of the greatest things about being in a band like this is the only parameters behind the music we make is that there doesn’t have to be any parameters,” he says. “Everything is just kind of united by my limited singing range. But also within having that kind of freedom, that’s also a little daunting when you can do whatever you want to do. We’re trying to figure it out. But I feel like the one constant, other than my voice, is I feel like we’re definitely trying to work towards writing that perfect pop song. We haven’t stumbled across it yet, but Billie Jean is just around the corner I hope.”

Similarly, everything in their live shows is experimental yet purposeful. Man Man has become known for wearing all-white clothing during their performances. “It just came from this notion that there’s a lot going on that it’s already kind of a sensory overload. Wearing the all white, the concept was kind of like a blank canvas where you just focus on what we’re doing and not on what we’re wearing. Now whether or not that aesthetic approach worked, I don’t know – maybe it didn’t. We also had a very energetic show and we sweat a lot, and it looks good when you’re sweating in white.”

Man Man maintain continuity in how they map out live shows. “We kind of approach every night that we play like no one in the audience has heard us,” Kattner explains. “We’re trying to win you over. Not in any sort of pandering way, but just in a sense that we believe in what we’re doing and we don’t want to be misrepresented at all. People aren’t dumb. They can see whether or not you’re genuine or you’re just fronting. We definitely don’t front ever.”

Considering the wide demographic of people at festivals, winning over fans with Man Man’s manic, pounding style of music can be a polarising affair. The group inspires two distinct opinions amongst listeners with no middle ground – either winning diehard fans or inspiring hatred. But Honus Honus says he would have it no other way.

“For me, the beauty of being in a band like this one – and this is the only band I’ve ever been in – is that people either get it or you don’t,” he admits. “That’s the great thing about this band; is that people are really into it or they just can’t stand it. I like being able to invoke those reactions. Better than having just this middle ground effect.”

Man Man are looking forward to polarising Australian audiences in December.

11 Dec – East Brunswick Club, Melbourne
12-14 Dec – Meredith Music Festival, Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre
13 Dec – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney