Leslie Mandoki

Leslie Mandoki – Mandoki Soulmates

By: Lori Smerilson Carson

Living the dream is truly what Drummer/ Producer/ Singer/Songwriter Leslie Mandoki does and has been doing since he was in his early twenties. He is still going strong with his band Mandoki Soulmates, originally formed in 1992 with world renown artists such as Flautist Ian Anderson, Bassist Jack Bruce and Guitarist Al Di Meola. This past May, Mandoki Soulmates have released their latest album A MEMORY OF OUR FUTURE which not only includes Anderson and Di Meola, but artists such as Guitarist Mike Stern, Trumpeter/Flugelhornist Randy Brecker, Keyboardist/Singer Tony Carey, Saxophonist John Helliwell, Drummer Simon Phillips, Pianist/Organist Cory Henry and Bassist Richard Bona, to name a few. This prog rock, jazz fusion LP has such a catchy variety of tunes, and even some old school flute and keyboard solos. The first single release “Blood In The Water” showcases many of these components, as well as strong vocals and great harmonies.

Catching up with Mandoki just after the release of A MEMORY OF OUR FUTURE, he revealed some details about the album and its analog recording style, Mandoki music in general, a few particulars about his past, and what fans can look forward to.

SFL Music Magazine: Your new album that just came out May 10, A MEMORY OF OUR FUTURE is awesome! I love the track “A Memory Of My Future” with the tempo change. What inspired the album?

Leslie Mandoki: Well, the band is together now for thirty-one year and actually, this is probably the only album, the first album it was not really planned or scheduled or Leslie’s writing other stuff and we get together. We were on the anniversary tour, thirty years of Soulmates, and playing up and down and talking about life and the crisis, and all this kind of division in our societies wherever we were, and all the disaster.  I started to call it elaborate of crisis, and we just remembered our childhood. Woodstock was looked as unruly children, and we were just children of Woodstock. Optimistic and that we can change the world with the music and all this. Then all of the sudden, Tony Cary said, “hey Leslie. You know what? I really hate you.” I said, well, what’s wrong buddy? “This is ridiculous. You’re writing now like you would be twenty-two or twenty-three, like full energy. All these tempo changes, all these crazy things, all the lyrical content and all the melody and harmony. You’re too crazy.” Then we couldn’t really find a big slot in our itinerary to get together for recording, and I can’t recall anymore who was the one who came up with this, but someone in the band. “Leslie, you’re never sending anything from out of your big studio. What do you have in your cellar? In your basement?” So, we had these old two-inch tape machines and so, make a long story short, of course I have all those. You’re a lady. So, how would you like to have a love letter? In a handwritten with a pen, or a text message?

SFL Music Magazine: In handwritten with a pen.

Mandoki: Alright. So, I came up with that. The bad boss, bossing around and I said, ok. What we are going to do, we write a handwritten love letter to our audience. Thank you for thirty years with us. So, we bring up again with the studio elevator, all the old gears. Then we will line it up again, so it will be bringing in the old engineers. They were in retirement. Can you line it up with us because I can’t get technical anymore, a big two-inch machine lined up? So, we changed some tubes, and all of the sudden we were done and it was fantastic. We got together and I wrote the songs, and this time, I was not programming anything. So, it was not like normally nowadays, you program everything and piece it all in. Then you replace some tracks. We were just working on and playing on it. It went fantastic. Absolutely fantastic!

SFL Music Magazine: Songs like “The Big Quit” and “Devil’s Encyclopedia” seem to talk about the division you mentioned and social media. What inspired those songs? What would you like people to get out of those?

Mandoki: Lori, often I’m saying that I’m not the songwriter. I’m just the privileged person who is wandering around in the world and have the capacity to write it down, what life is just giving me. I see this short attention span, and everybody use this writing incredibly nothing (he laughed). You know, an influencer was early scientist. The great artists. Someone who knew much more and much better than we do, and we were looking up to an influencer because he was a hero in our life. He’s a doctor. It could be a writer or a big rock star. In many ways we would say, ok, this is a great politician who created peace or social balance, or whatever, and we called it an influencer. Today, an influencer is someone who is not a big writer, not a big actor, not a big script writer, not a great doctor. These were the influencers in the early days. So, this little device (he held up his cell phone) changed our life, and also the way you listen to music. We just wanted to give the aesthetic back to music. The way it sounds, and also the way the creation of the music. The creation the artist takes place while recording, and not while you’re in a prose for action. So, this is a totally different ball game. All of the sudden, the red light goes on and you have this feeling, wow, yeah! And you really want to do it in the first take. Some of the best recordings are in the first take.

SFL Music Magazine: The song “Matchbox Racing” has the lyric “don’t dream your life, but live your dreams.”  What influenced that?

Mandoki: I wasn’t writing this. My father died as I was sixteen and he said that to me. It was the saddest moment of my life. In his death bed, he said, “my son,” in a weak voice. He lost the fight against cancer. In a weak voice he said, “son, you’ve got to promise me that my grandchildren are never gonna have to read censored papers.” I said, daddy that was the Iron Curtain. He said, “boy, this is not for you. You’ve got to go and live your dreams and don’t dream your life.” Then he went to death. So, he left me this message that was actually taking me to this tunnel to escape communism. Escape oppression.  I wrote that song based on my father’s message. I was two-days in London and coming back to the studio, and my little daughter Julia said, “Daddy, if you don’t mind, I just rewrote the whole song. I was not touching your lyrics, but I wrote new melodies and new harmonies to it.” So, this is a family effort.

SFL Music Magazine: So, Julia wrote that one. Very cool! Like you said, you guys have been doing this for thirty-one years. You started in 1992 with this band. You’ve worked with many, many world renown artists (such as Chaka Khan, Steve Lukather and Greg Lake). What would you say you took away from those experiences?

Mandoki: That we all have such a great respect. We adore music and our audience is propelling our creativity. So, we’re just very thankful. We know this is a privilege being able to make the public play. We are also very thankful to our audience because we know that our voice is only as loud as the audience is allowing us. It’s wonderful. Really, really very impressive.

SFL Music Magazine:   What would you say inspires your music in general when you are writing?

Mandoki: Life. Just with open eyes and open ears and don’t use social media.

SFL Music Magazine:  What would you recommend to a new artist?

Mandoki: What would I recommend? I’m so sorry for you (he laughed). A new generation has as much talent as my generation. We were much luckier. We were much more fortunate in our times because there was creativity and a long player. It was not about short attention spans like this, and it was not like uniforming music in any shape and form. It was more the individual you had been; you were better off. This is what we’re doing. Actually, what are we doing now? The song base is a band fusing, merging actually, the wonderful British prog rock. Let’s say, our representative playing as genetta with an American jazz fusion. It just gives you a new element of rock music. Even to the socially relevant lyrics like in the song “The Big Quit” on the new album, “hard times create hard people. Hard people create easy times. Easy times create easy people, easy people create hard times, again.” That’s where we are now. Actually, what is inspiring me was your question. If you are going around with open eyes, open ears, and you see what’s happening around, then actually, you realize that so much went wrong. The greatest inspiration, it was on the last tour, the last song off the last album, Utopia For Realist “The Torch” and I was just talking to the audience, our last song is about the old drivers are passing on the torch to the young rebels. Then I said, no, no wait a minute. We cannot do that because the world turned upside down (he laughed). The whole world is crazy, and we were just children of Woodstock and we promised a better world. We were thinking ok, let’s make love not war. Let’s make music not war. Music is the greatest unifier. All of the sudden, you’re in the element of division, again. Something went wrong. So, we cannot leave it up now to our children, fix it. We screwed it, now you fix it. It’s not going to work like that. So, the old drivers have to take the hands of the young drivers and fix it. That’s what we’re saying.

SFL Music Magazine:  What would you say attributes to the longevity of Mandoki Soulmates?

Mandoki: Actually, a guy like me who was growing up in the communist, behind the Iron Curtain, and I’ve been told by my teacher that you’re never going to see Los Angeles or New York City or London or Paris. You’re never going to have a passport at all.  You just get close to your own boarder; you’re going to get killed. So, having a chance to escape through a tunnel, almost got killed, twenty-two. Having a chance to sit down as I was twenty-two in the refugee camp with an American resettlement Officer, and he asked me, “hey boy. I understand that you wanted to leave this Russian communist, horrible, awful thing, oppression, but what the hell are you going to do now in the free west? He was just having a pen in his hand so he had to write it down because it was an application form for political asylum. So, there was the last two-thirds of a page was, what is the plan? So, I’m saying, I would like to play with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, and Jack Bruce of Cream and Al di Meola. And he’s writing it down, he said, ok, are you totally crazy?” He turns to my friend Gábor Csupó who is also twenty-two years old,” and what the hell are you going to do boy? I mean, your friend is obviously total crazy, Leslie.” So, Gábor was saying, “I’m a young cartoonist. I have visions and dreams, so I’m going to go to Hollywood and establish studio. That’s what I’m here for.” You know his name because he started with The Simpsons and then the second world-wide was with the Rugrats. So, he has two stars on Hollywood Boulevard. So, we were just two friends and we had some dreams, and the communists were pointing out these two guys, one filmmaker twenty-two and one musician twenty-two. “You guys never gonna get a passport. You’re never gonna see a studio from inside.” So, I said, ok, let’s see.

SFL Music Magazine: Showed them!

Mandoki: So, I just went on my life and you know, life is very inspiring and inspiring me and my kids. This is wonderful! So, this is a good vibe. It’s a great honor and a great privilege to have the best musicians in the world in the band.

SFL Music Magazine:  What can fans look forward to?  Are there going to be any shows?

Mandoki: Yeah, we are planning all our shows in America, but we are going to tour now in Europe first. Our management is negotiating, so we never know what we’re going to take on.

SFL Music Magazine:  Was there anything else you want to add about the album (A MEMORY OF OUR FUTURE)?

Mandoki: What I always like to add. Imagine us sitting together like in the old days. The two-inch tape machine is running, and when I came down to mix the whole thing, I had nothing to do because everything was sitting right. Because the real recording is to put the microphone in the right room, in front of the right instrument or right amp, and the right player with the right effect, the right song, the right arrangements, everything is fine. You don’t have to fix it. Nothing is fixed. It’s just analog. Only purely analog. So, enjoy that sound, because you know what? The big secret is our analog. So, all of the sudden, it’s a relief for your ears because sympatico highs, warm middles, and the bass is not banging in your brain. You’re rather listening to the wonderful bass melody. So, that’s what it is.