MANKATO (aka DARREN BERRY) is a young singer/ songwriter who we're all going to hear a lot more of if his superb debut single "Flesh & Bone" is anything to go by. WHISPERIN' & HOLLERIN' gave Darren a call and found out all sorts of useful information about subjects as diverse as life in a jazz band, the art of capoeira and why "Oh My Darling Clementine" is actually the oldest song in the world. You learn something every day, eh? TIM PEACOCK certainly did...
Darren Berry is one of the friendliest, most affable blokes you'd be lucky enough to call. He's more than willing to let us into the strange, magical world of MANKATO, providing he can extricate himself from rehearsals for his soon-come UK tour supporting Brendan Benson. Our opening chat is marred by sounds of tuning up and ideas being worked through, until Darren finally leaves the room to find someplace quieter. That's better. Darren, tell me more about your early years: you played in a jazz band, I'm told?
"Yeah, I originally played the violin in the school orchestra," Darren begins.
"The jazz band came in when I was 14. I played drums and I owe my musical education to an old guy called Brian Pickles, because he taught me to sight read. I got that gig by answering an ad in the local paper and I turn up and the other guys in the band were all about 50 years old!"
He laughs at the memory of it.
"Yeah, I'm dragging this huge drum kit into the rehearsal room, because I've been doing talent shows and drumming for rock bands at school as well. God knows what they made of me at first. I stayed with them for two years, though. It was a great laugh, actually, playing with this 20-piece jazz band."
What about your ballet scholarship?
"Haha! Who told you about that?" Darren guffaws.
Well, I didn't think it was any big secret. It's in your press release. At a tangent to that, I believe you also moved to Brazil for a while to study Capoeira? That's a combination of dancing and boxing for you out there reaching for dictionaries...
"Mmm...I was studying martial arts," says Darren.
"I got drawn to capeoira because I like to dance around a lot, really. It's a very musical art, like you learn how Brazilian music comes together. I was there for a good couple of months and certainly liked the lifestyle."
I can imagine...
"Yeah, I certainly started thinking: "I could get used to this." I hope to go back in July, actually. It's an incredible place...great energy, bizarre liquor. It's a place where your body clock changes totally and it's normal to wake up stupidly early on the beach and you wanna stay up forever because the atmosphere's incredible. I mean, we go on about how great the Notting Hill carnival is and it's just got nothing on their Mardi Gras."
OK, so to come up to date, what influenced you to start writing the classy, indiviualistic pop that MANKATO purvey?
"Well, I've always written songs," says Darren bluntly, "so the only quandary for me was what they would sound like ultimately. I'm kinda driven to write songs, but you can't force them. You can try all day and nothing happens, but if you're given an idea and a song comes, then you've got to jump on it."
How about the ties with both your label, 2M Recordings and you hooking up with producer/ Nellee Hooper acolyte Fabien Waltmann?
"I suppose it all came together quite naturally, really," muses Darren.
"I've had, shall we say, interested parties for a while and out of that 2M offered me a deal. As for Fabien, he was and is someone I knew I could trust instantly. He's a fantastic musician in his own right and we really clicked on that level. He's got a great understanding of music, plus he totally understands all the old analogue stuff, plus he was sympathetic to what I wanted, which is rare."
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How does MANKATO work live? I know in the studio it's basically you, but how does the line-up extend and expand?
"Well, as you've probably been hearing there are five of us at present, " Darren laughs.
"It's a deliberate attempt to adapt the sound for the live arena, because I want it to sound live, not processed. Consequently, some parts have been changed around. In fact the only things I've kept exact from the record are the drum loops and strings."
Will there be another EP next or is there a MANKATO LP recorded?
"Yeah, the album's done," says Darren, excitedly.
"We want to give out EPs as tasters. There should be two more singles, then the album, probably in June. I'm already working on B-sides, actually. Like I was saying about songwriting earlier, if the tide comes in you might as well fish, know what I mean?"
Meanwhile, Darren, do you still live in the East End of London? The press seem to be having a field day about all things guitar-based internationally at present, but does anything in london impinge on you right now?
"London's always good, I think," Darren suggests.
"Actually I'm currently living closer to Camden than Hoxton, presently. As to the guitar explosion, well there are a spat of bands influenced by the Ramones and Stooges at the moment, but it's all being recycled really."
"Don't get me wrong, I like The Strokes, The Libertines, he Vines etc," he continues.
"But music's all about creating something new and it should be the duty of the artist to so something to take it further. It's hard, though, because no matter what you do you probably end up sounding derivative at some stage. I suppose eventually you've got to try to take and use influences creatively, not just plagiarise."
Whatever the outcome of the current vogue for all things garage-y, though, songs will always survive, won't they?
"Totally," Darren agrees, sagely.
"You can do anything with a good song. Take "Kung Fu Fighting"...one way or another, that song's been in the chart for 3 decades! It's true that a good song always proves itself...look at Robert Johnson or Bill Haley."
"D'you know, I have a tape of an indigenous rainforest tribe and they asked the oldest member of the tribe - who's a contender for the oldest living person in the world - what the oldest song she knew was. D' you know what she started singing?"
Go on. Enlighten me.
"She started singing "Oh My Darling Clementine", but with different words. So apparently, it's actually a melody stolen from ancient Amazonian tribal song. How wicked is that?"
Darren relays this anecdote with real fascination and it's no surprise as MANKATO'S music itself ensures that great songs are always in the foreground whatever sheen of modernity he might choose to employ. "Flesh & Bone" suggests great things are coming this way. Who knows: maybe Darren will have to get used to the Brazilian lifestyle on a regular basis? To these ears, he sounds like an extremely classy contender.
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