MANDROID OF KRYPTON


The band seems to have a weak spot for robots and science fiction? Who came up the idea to make it a band-concept and what are your favourite science fiction novels?

Shortly after the band's beginning when it was time to write the lyrics for the pieces already composed and find a name, we had the choice of navel gazing and talking about our existential malaise (as many groups) or to list a catalog of gory horrors (like many others). In the end, we preferred to turn ourselves toward the cosmos. Science fiction is a limitless source of inspiration we are also big fans of the Canadian group VOIVOD who have cleared the path before us. There will be many novels to quote, but for example this Philip K Dick one "The Penultimate Truth" where a war is simulated to maintain an enslaved population underground while a privileged caste enjoy the surface. but "any similarity with reality is pure coincidence " of course.
About robots , mandroids as they appear in Marvel comics are actually power armor, kind of exoskeleton worn by a human being, technological extensions supposed to make us stronger and powerful. To be honest we ignored all these details when choosing the name, we were just looking for something " m้tal " and cool, but without cataloging us into a precise style too much.

Your band is based on the concept that the environment of KRYPTON becomes uninhabitable and the people have to flee. Sounds quite similar to our living conditions - which elements of science fiction do you employ to make listeners think?

Yes that's it we use this Science Fiction faculty to speak about present time with futuristic metaphors one of our recurring theme that you mentioned in your question no doubt make echo with our own terrestrial ecological concern.

What has changed comparing your debut "Our brilliant embassies" with "Hyperkaossmarket"?

Our sound is heavier and songs are more complex, we tried new things, but fundamentally nothing has changed, we follow the path traced by the first album with a more radical approach probably ..


What kind of stage performance can people expect from MANDROID OF KRYPTON? Any robots on stage or do you rather focus on the actual playing?

Just three guys who blast off without further ado, or almost, in venues allowing this we ask the lightman for a lot of smoke and red lights only, it reminds us the krypton atmosphere..

What are your main influences … pretty hard to pin them down … shellac, melvins, cave in, mastodon etc but curently more doom and prog seems to find its way into your compositions?

hard to pin for the listener but even more for us, we use clean vocals on a metal sound and because of that many chronics compared us to Mastodon , but we actually don't listen to them, they got this "pop " side that we don't want to explore, plus we don't do guitar solos, you cite Shellac and Melvins so maybe we should have some math/noise influences somewhere? we appreciate these bands indeed, but they can't be named as first influences, some people find us experimental while we think we just play rock n roll, we listen to a lot of different stuff and for so long, maybe we should talk about genres we pick from, even if this will not make things clearer: punk rock, post punk, thrash, death, black metal, hard rock ...

Are you co-writing in the band or do you usually focus individually on a song? What are your experiences as far as songwriting collaborations go?

The songs always start with one or two guitar riffs proposal, if they please others we directly work on the structure together and we add some new parts on the go, then the vocal line appear quite quickly with "fake lyrics" and finally lyrics appears during a painful last minute prossess before recording..

You recorded the album yourselves .. any words of wisdom regarding that approach? Seems like a lot of work and wouldn't it have been easier to consult an engineer?

We try to do the maximum ourselves to the extent of our competence One of our member work as a soundguy so it seemed natural that he handles the rec., the artwork was made by a member too, we saves beers money that way !

The titletrack says "satisfaction guaranteed" and you seem to criticize capitalism using metaphors from outer space … overinterpreting? Really like the lyrics because there are several levels to them … quite kryptic as well.

When we begin to write song's lyrics, is often taken as a starting point it has to happen in space or be s.f .in one way or another, and we don't always know where this will lead us .. Hyperkaossmarket got the most naive and humorous lyrics of the album and they're ultimately very effective, you get it, it's the way we mock that omnipresent commercialism that pursue you even deep in the galaxy ..

What is the Geneva scene like at the moment … any band you'd recommend?

We got a great punk and metal scene in Geneva you should definitively check the following bands :
Impure Wilhelmina ( post harcore ) https://impurewilhelmina.bandcamp.com/

Montecharge ( grindcore/sludge ) https://montecharge.bandcamp.com/album/montecharge

Rayon Mortel ( old school punk n roll ) https://greasylisteningrecords.bandcamp.com/album/rayon-mortel-e-p-one

Marechal ( heavy metal punk in french ) https://marechal.bandcamp.com/album/coup-de-grisou

Hateful Monday ( skate punk ) https://hatefulmonday.bandcamp.com/album/it-must-be-somewhere

Intercostal ( heavy instrumental stoner ) https://gpsprod.bandcamp.com/album/intercostal-s-t-gps-031

Vuyvr ( black metal ) https://vuyvr.bandcamp.com/

Thx for doing this.

Thank you Thomas for your interest in the band, Kryptonian greetings for you and your readers.

Thomas Eberhardt