Mangadrive is a solo project run by the raging otaku known as "Bee"

Q. What does the name "Mangadrive" mean?

A. It was the name of an old hard drive that became storage for my music projects. I learned the hard way that routine backups are highly important. It crashed and I lost all my files. In retrospect it meant nothing but at the time it was pretty brutal. The name stuck because it embraces a lot of what I'm influenced by, it explains the drive or energy I try to achieve and it was also taking a bad situation and making music out of it.

Q. Why do you not play live often?

A. I've played guitar and bass in live bands, and the studio manipulation of sound is not really relevant to stage performance to me. I don't write songs to be replayed live in any setting. I don't disrespect "Notebook" performers in the least, but it's not something I'd personally enjoy on a long term basis. The politics involved and dealing with shady promoters isn't my idea of fun. So in short: It's fun in very small doses. Its not 100% ruled out, but it hasn't been a very frequent thing.

Q. What genre does the music belong to?

A. I claim no real genre outside of Techno, but I call it "psytek" or "psytekno'. It's not meant to be some pretensious tag that I'll prove is justified, its just the best description for music that's influenced by Dark Psytrance and Techno. I'm not on a mission to create yet another subgenre. I've thrown the label Industrial in there plenty, but its not accurate by itself. I've been thrown Trance and Electro as labels by listeners and neither are accurate by themselves either. Psychadelic Trance is not even close. I don't like the cliche' response of "It doesn't belong in a genre because its just something unique", because nothing I'm doing is unique in any way. I'm just pushing towards my own sound and that by logic does not fit in any genre.

Q. Do you feel that the project is an "anime band"?

A. While I've done some AMVs and what not for the project (and would like to do more), I don't consider it integral to always have anime involved in each and every song. I do sample it a lot. I do consider it important and obviously naming the project "manga" anything is a direct mental tag. I do watch a lot of anime and it influences me to write on a ton of occassions because that's exactly what's going through my head when I'm making a good track. If I had the resources to push deeper into the theme, I would, but again its not 100% relevant always. Actual fact is, I've sampled horror films about 2000x more than anything.

Q. Will you remix my band/project?

A. You can hit me up on any of the social networks I'm active on, and send me the details about your project and a kit. I've read on other band's sites that they are basically too cool to remix you or if you send them money they'd consider it, but honestly I'm a lot more about community than anything. If I can wrap my head around your music, and you at least attempt to promote your project then that's enough for me. Remixes sometimes just don't work and I don't like to force it.. bottom line don't take no or it not happening as me thinking I'm too awesome to do it. I give everything a fair chance. Genre isn't relevant and I love remixing things that have nothing to do with my normal comfort zone. That said, I'd love to oontz up your country song.

(Click picture for larger view)

Mangadrive uses the following in their current studio setup (2011):

Hexacore_Beastmachine ™ - A custom built PC that will enslave you and your father and force you both to race light cycles for your freedom

Oontzcannon Technology ™ - Is it a mechanical lion? Is it five mechanical lions that form a giant mecha? The real information about this device is highly classified. It's a weapon strong enough to alter your browsing history.

"Oontzcannon™ is not designed to blow sunshine up your ass. Its designed to blow your ass up."

Access Virus Synths | Audio Damage Plugins | Camel Audio Plugins | DiscoDSP Plugins
Dynaudio Acoustics Monitors | Echo Digital Gina 24 | FL Studio 10 | Lennar Digital Plugins | Monster Cables | Native Instrument Plugins | Novation Synths | Korg Synths | Lexicon Reverbs | Ohmforce Plugins | PSP FX | Roland Synths | ReFX Plugins | Sony Headphones | UH-E Plugins URS Plugins | Waves SSL | Xbox 360 Controller and various free/oldskool plugins

 

These souls have been deemed very powerful cyberninjas in my domain.