From Croatia to Holy Ground: Manntra’s Inspiring Metal Adventure at Wacken

0:04 Hi you love LUNTI rure. W F see wow. For you young. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio and I'm here. With Marco Promontra. Nice to meet you and nice to be here with you. Oh, nice to have you here at Vakin on the Holy ground. Man, Holy, holy, holy holy. Have you played this festival. Before twenty two? It was amazing and we are excited, not yet scared, but ask me in two hours, I'll be scared.

0:44 Shit until you get up on stage. And then and then you go into a zone right like it's your an out of body experience. But yeah, right. Before you go on, definitely it is. Yeah, you know it's like right before you go on, you're still you and you're like, oh shit, oh shit. And then you go on stage and it's like automatic pilot. It's the last fifteen minutes. Usually it's that takes like for four hours to pass, you know, it's right, Oh my god, that's heavy, but we're gonna make it somehow. Today. Yeah, and the cool down for you because that must be brutal too. The heat we had today to be able to play in that heat, you know, I mean it's cool now, so it's better. I think the weather a hold too. I hope I'm playing it. I'm playing it out there, I.

1:32 Hope, I hope. So, So tell us a little bit about your journey the voking, and I don't mean how you got here, I mean how you got here as a band. Wow, it was really really a long, long journey because we are a creation band. Nice and to be honest, I don't know if this is a like a good thing or a bad thing, but we are the first creation band to make it that fast. We were pioneers and we had to work so hard for everyone to even put Croatia on the metal map, you know, because if we were footballers, everybody will say, oh, maybe this is the next local moderator or whatever, you know. But since we are metal musicians and we are not from Sweden that someone would say, oh, maybe these guys are the next in Flames, Sabaton or whatever they said. Croatia.

2:22 We know, we know shit about Creatia nothing. It's just a tourists good destination metal ban from Croatia. Go home, go open a tourist pansion or whatever, you know. So it was really hard to prove ourselves and we were always like a little bit looked, you know, a little bit through microscope, but on the same time we were looked from far away like we're not really interested in you. So this was really hard in the beginning. But later later we got lucky that we met many incredible, nice people that are supporting still us through the journey, our partners, and a bunch of amazing, amazing loyal fans that is growing day by day and we cannot be more happy and grateful for that. So we're happy now and now the road is good. But the road was bumpy. It was really rock and.

3:13 Roll, right, col I love how you came up with that. It's really so what is the metal scene like in Croatia? Well, I will be honest, there are many good bands, but the problem is that Croatia has maybe three point five million people in total, and we are counting babies and old people, you know, in that statistic, right, and so I think maybe there are five to ten thousand metal pads that could go to a concert. So the scene is pretty much small and smaller than a scene of a bigger city in Germany, to be honest. Kind of like all metal was like thirty forty years ago is basically what it sounds like to me because we were very small community.

3:57 Well it's cool, and imagine me. I was in high school. I was having Iron Maiden shirts and stuff like that, and they were calling me. I was the only guy in the whole school of I don't know, thousands of people wearing a Meal shirt and they were calling me a punkhead. And there was I'm not a punkhead. I like punk, but I'm a male guy. We are a punkhead. And then we will go on a fist fight, you know, every every day I was in a fist fight with them. So this was really old school, like in the movies from the eighties and seventies in the in the States, you know, but this was what has happening in. The creation, and that was me in the eighties in the States. I'd wear an Ozzy Osbourne shirt to school and people would call me a devil worship. Yeah, you got the message. But for me was twenty years later and still the same thing.

4:40 Seeing that blows my mind. You go out there and valk in and you would think that doesn't even exist anymore, like the sea of people out. There, And then now when they ask me, there's A cool thing is that nobody thinks we have a real job because we are musicians somewhere in Germany and we are not schlag a music pop singers in Creatians. Nobody knows about you. And then you say we play metal for example on Vakan, and they're like, what the fuck is that? And then you explain them it's a big festival. Nobody believes you, wow, because they know. About this thing. I mean obviously the metal people, rock and roll people that they know that. Yeah, and we have even this metal battle from Croatia for Vakan, and there was a good band today that played the metal battle fast the winners of Croatia you know, and stuff like that. So it's opening now. Somehow I'm proud in a way that I hope we opened a little bit of the door, you know for other bands. But they need to be good to enter in the door and close the door behind them. But they are good. There are many good bands and they're learning, you know. Also for us, when we played the first time in Germany, we came with the with the kauflin uh you know, w neyl Bags, you know what I mean, from from from the footstore with cables inside and fixed, and they were looking at us like, come on, you know, this was normal in Croatian nobody had wrecks and stuff like that.

5:59 You know, I'm not joking with this plastic confland pegs. Wow. And then we saw the other bands there. That's pretty metal though, and we. Saw the other bands like they're bringing REGs and stuff like that, you know, they have everything nicely done. And we were like, shit, we were really some peasants. We need to buy these things. And then we go home and we said we need to get the REGs and then we saw it's five hundred euros and we said, shit, we are not going to get that. We don't have one hundred euro you know. Yeah, yeah, and probably we wonn't even get paid that for doing it in Croatia. Right, paid nothing. And when we came to Germany for the first time was a revelation. We saw big productions, we saw big bands, We saw the other side that we didn't even know that exists or how it looks like behind the scenes. So it inspired us pretty much.

6:48 And then touring Europe inspired us even more and befriend big bands and opening for big eggs, you know, and playing with them on festivals really opened my brain explode. The moment was like, what the fuck? This is how it looks like. It's it's cool and we learned so much. We didn't have any person from whom to learn because there were no metal band before. We couldn't ask anyone, Hey, where do you print shirts? And the biggest rocker roll band in Creasha told me shirts. We print one hundred shirts to give to our partners. You don't have a merchant emerge what you know, and they make big arenas they don't give a fuck about them. Wow, because that's the way artists make money nowadays, is merch Like.

7:32 They make money from tickets or they play for the New Year's even you know, the Capital Main Square and they get fifty sixty one hundred thousand euros for that gigs alone and don't give a fuck about it. And they don't have a real crew. They don't have nightliners. It's a small country. They travel by van. They don't have expenses. You need to rent a fucking nightliner or whatever. Here you already lost five thousand. You're only to put the keys inside and people don't know that. Fans try to understand that, but they also have a lot of expenses. You know, I always admire the fans how much they are devoted to the band, they spend money. For example, for our show, headline Show of Mantra, they pay forty euro for a ticket. But then they told me the story, like they they paid two hundred euro for a hotel, they paid two hundred euro to hum somewhere, they took days off or whatever. You know. In the end, the show of Mantra costs seven hundred or to someone. And it's a huge respect. Come on, I mean, thank you, thank you, you know, to appreciate that us that much that you put, you know, in all the expenses you have.

8:36 I'm sorry for that, but also I'm grateful, you know what I mean? Yeah, totally. Well, and how about this, like we're doing the interview, you know why we're doing the interview here right inside the container. We were going to do an interview and the container, Yeah you got bumped by death Leopard Death. Yeah. I was walking in and do the interview. And when the person runs, it's like, oh no, you can't. I'm in here where you have it all blocked off? Right now because steth Leppard's coming and I'm like, okay, and I had to wait for. Well, they took our stinky containers and we are now hearing a beautiful field. Yeah, this is better. I like this better. Personally, I give them their stinky container. I don't care.

9:16 This is a great place to do an interview. I like this better. I love it, and I love everything that you're saying, because I think listeners need to know what artists really go through. They don't understand. They all like look at things like rock stars, like, oh, they're living the dream life. You know, you probably get it too from some people, like you know, they're like, oh, how lucky are you? You get to go to Germany? Lucky me. We drive sixteen hour in one direction right and vent where everything. Has spend every dime you have, Yeah, just to be on the holy ground. I'm grateful to our fans because I think they understand that they follow us. They see that we travel for sixteen hour only for one gig and then sixty hour backs sometimes and we're fucking crazy and everybody promoters, fans, pends, they say we're fucking nuts, And I think the time goes on and we are fucking nuts. We know that, but we're still doing that.

10:10 It's what it takes though, that proves your true musician, because you're doing it for the art, and that's when it ends up paying off. Like listen, Matallka, I knew them in the beginning, and they slept on the floor with three other bands in a one room thing and blowney sandwiches with no bread for like ten years. And we had a similar story. It was not ten years, but it was a few years, and we learned a lot, you know, and sleeping in front of the club because the owner doesn't want you to be inside. Then you sleep on the street, you know, la hobbos and stuff like that. But this was normal and we just accepted it like the way and maybe it will pay off, maybe it will sink, but in the end it's paid off.

11:02 So a lot of them it never pays off. But we were lucky. We were lucky enough to come till here. I don't know how far we can get, but if it ends here, we're still lucky, you know what I mean. I love that attitude though, because that's the attitude you should have as a musician, you know, because listen, you're getting to do what you absolutely love. It's a shit job long. But we love it. No, I don't know why, but we love it. You know. It's like I go on tour and I do music festivals all over in the US, UK and Europe, and my daughter sometimes in the US, I'll bring her to one and halfway through the first day, like, she's like, Dad, I don't know how you do this every weekend. Man, I'm done already, and I don't know how I can.

11:51 She's thirty. Well, that's not that young anymore. Yeah, exactly. And you know, you know the thing is is that when I get home, that's when I feel unlucky. It's like, you know, the feeling you get home and it's like that whole come down. I hate to start the tour because you are preparing mentally that you will lose all your comfort, that you will pup in shitty shitted toilets, and that you will not sleep and whatever. But when you are on tour, you get used to it and you start to love it again, and then you remember remind yourself, Okay, this is why I love it. Then you come home and then you have these tour blues. Yes, a million percent. And that's that's how it works.

12:33 And I find out all my friends are out at the festivals, not where I live, you know. And that's the thing too, right, You make all these friends everywhere you go, So that's where your friends them on. Yeah exactly, like to meet them, Yeah. Yeah exactly. And listen, our metal community it's like one big family. We're automatically friends once we know we're metal heads. This is what I like about this community. And I think metal community the the healthiest music community that exists still absolutely. I think all the other communities are besides punk. Maybe punk is still also true to the real core, or at least what remained. But metal migrated in something different than punk and immigrated to a big community that includes everyone. It's not excluding, and I really like it, and everyone is welcome and nobody is going to be mocked.

13:28 Before back in the days, metal was a hard community. It was not that easy. You were mocked, you were eaten, up keepers, shade keepers, you were beaten because you were listening to some pants or whatever. Everything is cool. I kind of like it to a degree, to be honest, I miss a little bit of this kind of you know, cleanism. You know you're listening to that, you're not my friend or whatever, and fighting with people or fighting with ravee people or whatever. You know, how it was back in the days. Maybe in your days was different, but I liked it, and this built character. It built my character. It built also my character to not give up and to be loyal to something that you believe doesn't matter.

14:10 It was music. There was other things that I believed, but I was loyal. I was getting beaten because of that. I fought back. I didn't give a fuck, you know. And it built my resilience and it built my character. And I think this is cool to be involved in a community as metal because it builds you up, and it's a good way to also run away from problems because the community is inclusive. It's not exclusive, and I like it now. I think it's better now like when I in my time, it was even worse than what you're talking about. First of all, if you had long hair, you couldn't go to a punk show. If you're a punk, you couldn't go to the metal show. You got your ass kick. We were both such small groups that we were getting bullied by the jocks in school. Why didn't we band together?

14:52 And then even like within the metal community, so much geatekeeping. I saw a Motley Crew before they were glam, when they were more like horror punk. And then once I started seeing Slayer, my friends were like, you gotta burn that Motley Cruise shit, you know. And then you would go to a Slayer show and if somebody showed up with Motley Cruise shirt on, they would immediately get ripped off of them. They would throw it up to Tom on stage and he'd burn it on stage. Crazy. I mean, I saw so many shy things back in the day. I remember a guy twenty years ago that the pet a girl outside in a club because she was wearing a fucking Nighties shirt. And then we both beat that guy's ass because he was a prick.

15:35 But can you imagine that that was the community for some people back in the days. Now I don't see that, and I'm so grateful Now I see just a bunch of lovely, incredible people. And also these assholes became lovely. People retired because they learned that they were assholes, you know, and they said, I'm sorry, we were assholes. We will never repeat that. You know. That's great. This is good because the community grew up to if I would have kids five years old kids and bring them to Vadkan. I will not have any hue and worries, you know. And this is crazy and this is special. Even though guys are drinking, jumping, mosh pitting whatever, it's safe. I have put three of my grandchildren into marsh pets.

16:19 And the beautiful thing about it is like you'll see the big dudes like guard them and they'll go like they'll push them a little bit, you know, and like they're like gentle with them so that you can make them feel good instead of hurting them. Yes, this is this is I hope this community stays like that. I hope it keeps grow like that and to be one kind of the last mankind. Even this sounds romenting and over dramatic, but one of the last mankind bestions, you know what I mean. Because even WACAN is a huge festival, it's a corporation in a way, but you don't feel that. You still feel you see the owners that they love the music. They are that you know, they are metal hats. They they are here, they feel it, they understand it. You don't have this in other music. It's just business, you know exactly. This is passion still and this is the lovely thing. And I see that in many big bands that we played with.

17:20 I see that they are still kids. That's it, and that's what it's all. Don care about money. They are burning money with fucking pirate you know, just to have big fames, you know, right right, So that's good. I love it. I love it, and I love that you're here at walking and I love your attitude, your proof of what great this community, this metal is, your proof of how we're all great human beings in this community. Forget the rest of the world. I'll start to cry. Well, you are not only a great musician, but a great human and that's all that counts. And thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Thank you so much. Wasn't my pleasure, my honor. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemen on w for CUI Radio.