9+1 Q&A with The Rungs

What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.

Mandy: I always found listening to music to be really healing, but I fell in love with the feeling of playing music in a group after joining a steel drum band when I was 20. The Rungs started kinda by accident when Diwas threw me a surprise birthday party show. I sang some songs with him and that was it.

Diwas: For me it was when I heard ‘Like a virgin’ by Madonna for the first time when I was a kid. I remember the feeling of wanting to hear a song over and over again and that was a feeling I wanted to be able to create. As for the Rung’s inception, after Mandy’s birthday show we started playing these epic three hour shows at a local bar on Sunday Nights which gave us a lot of room to try out different genres and styles until we found a suitable sound for us.

Provide us with some info about your latest release…

We recently released our EP Everyday Visions and ‘King of Books’ is a song off of that for anyone who has ever been in a relationship that didn’t serve him or her well. Whether with a person, a habit, a place, or anything really.

Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?

Diwas: I love all kinds and genres of music both old and new. However, I have always appreciated a well crafted song both, compositionally and production wise. Currently I am listening to Yumi Zouma a lot, we just saw them live and they were flawless! Outside of music I take a lot of inspiration from films and books.

Mandy: I’ve been listening to a lot Pearl Jam and Wilco lately. Non-music wise I feel really influenced by nature.

In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?

I think our sound differs in that, although everything stems from a basic pop song structure, we tend to get pretty eclectic with the production. Lyric-wise I’m kind of all over the place with my topics, from nature, to media, to war, etc. although this recent single, ‘King of Books’ is the one love song on the EP. We try to stay true to what is inspiring us for each song and not limit ourselves in terms of style.

Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…

Mandy: I would want the biggest fattest densest encyclopedia ever so I could keep learning and experiencing the world while hanging out on the island. The movie would be ‘Maverick’ because it’s silly and fun. And for album could I have Pearl Jam’s entire discography?

Diwas: ‘Life’ the Keith Richards biography, ‘Revolver’ by the Beatles and ‘Princess Mononoke’ by Miyazaki…although I would probably get sick of them within a week : )

Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?

Mandy: I love doing both, they’re such different modes to be in and I feel like you need the energy of one to do the other well.

Diwas: Both.

Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?

Once we played an impromptu show in Brunei by singing our songs to backing tracks. I think someone handed Diwas a very metal looking guitar for it. It was so spontaneous and fun.

Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?

Mandy: ‘Confluence of Anomalies’ – we had only just started learning music production and I had literally just started singing for the first time…but all the little imperfections are what make it unique.

Diwas: A lot of people love ‘Confluence’ but my favorite is ‘Grindstone’ which is an odd funky song about WW 1.

Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?

We are working on our next EP to follow up Everyday Visions. In addition, Mandy is releasing a demo song each month on Bandcamp. March marks the 11th one, which will be out by the end of the month. The previous 10 demos are on our Bandcamp and YouTube page. We also post little snippets of them up on Instagram.

Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…

Diwas: Who are some of your favorite guitar players?

Jeff Beck, Adrian Belew, Nels Cline and George Harrison amongst others

Curated by: Christos Doukakis

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