About The Mandevilles
The Mandevilles are a 5 piece Rock and Roll band from Welland, On. Founding members Serena Pryne (vox) and Nick Lesyk (guitar) have been musical writing partners for over a decade. Along with bandmates and collaborators Taylor Laslo (guitar/synth), Brett Bendo (drums) and Dan Risi (bass), they’ve toured across Canada and parts of Europe while releasing new original music.
From the Band:
“When we were writing the songs that make up the Junkie EP, we didn’t think there was a concrete underlying theme. But, ultimately most of the lyrics end up being about whatever’s going on in your life at the time. Serena adds, “I was heartbroken, so there’s a lot about the death of that relationship in there.”
The band started laying things down in the studio – what we thought were just gritty demos turned into really incredible recordings with our friends and co-producers, Neil Morrissey and Ryan Defoe.
We’ve cultivated such an amazing working and personal friendship with Neil and Ryan over the last few years. The whole process leading into production has never felt so natural – it was an instant connection.”
ABOUT THE JUNKIE EP – out on November 18th
““Junkie” felt like the right song to start off the project. It starts with a cool slicey guitar that Nick had written that grabs your attention. It feels like it’s steeped in some blues, but is still rock ‘n’ roll. There’s a solid 90s vibe, paired with a modern guitar sound. As we were writing the record, that song always felt like it was complete and ready to go from the beginning. It wasn’t the first song we wrote, but it was the first that we recorded. We would often use it as reference for other songs throughout the process. So, when tasked to choose the jump-off point, this was the natural choice.
Serena picks the focus track “Wasn’t Always” as her favourite song on the record. “To me, it picks up where ‘Turn a Blind Eye’ left off. It’s some of the best songwriting we’ve done,” she’s referring to the single from the 2012 album Goodnight Golden Sun. It started with the lyric and melody “I wasn’t always like this” as we were noodling over what became the pre-chorus chord progression. The idea that you can be changed into something you no longer recognize as yourself. By a person or circumstance. It’s an introspective soliloquy – a plea to yourself. The rhythmic drum pattern hypnotizes.
“Moon Cry Water” is another big song on this album. It’s been in the vault for a really long time, as it was written with Charlton Pettus (of Tears for Fears) way back when we were in Oliver Black. The song has always had a special place in our heart, but never felt like it belonged on any of our albums. Until now.
“Sad Talk” has a lot of surprises. It features our friend, Tara Stanclik who sings harmonies with Serena. But listen carefully… you’ll hear the warm click of castanets in the background. Nick is especially proud of learning how to play these wonderful percussion instruments, and it adds a southern warmth to the whole song. Neil also introduced us to the haunting Farfisa Organ – an incredible Italian organ – which brings in even more depth.
About “Bleed Me Out”, Serena says: “I remember we were gushing about Big Wreck the day we wrote this. We basically had a verse/chorus idea mapped out fairly quickly… and we knew we wanted a lengthy jam to take it home. So we started building those parts pretty intensely, as we wanted them to feel like different sections. I think the end result culminates sonically and still feels a little unsettled with the unanswered “Is it over / Are we over?””
– The Mandevilles
Stream the Junkie EP on your preferred platform
For any more information on the artist, email pr@fromthestrait.com
