Apocalypses and Argonauts: Chatting with a Man in the Woods
In the midst of a deep dark forest, a shadowy figure is telling stories. Perhaps an apocalypse is looming, and he’s warning you of your sorrowful fate; or maybe the doomsday arrived many moons ago, and he’s telling you how he survived. Add in fuzzed-out guitars, pulsating drum beats and a whole lot of heavy rock and you’re starting to get to know Manx four-piece Man in the Woods.
At their core, Man in the Woods are storytellers. Where these stories come from is a tale within itself. All in good time…
We sat down with the band to chat all about their eclectic writing process, being signed by an Italian record label and preparing their upcoming album, Badlands, set for release in early 2022.
Songwriting Processes
Musically, Man in the Woods can be hard to pin down. Nowadays, people throw around genre terms like their collectibles, without really meaning anything ー people call Man in the Woods all of stoner rock, sludge, grunge, doom metal and more. The boys are aware that all this might sound pretentious, so instead of avoiding the discourse, they joke around with it; they’ll be the first to admit they don’t know what a lot of these really mean. Stoner rock, for example, can be anything from chilled-out droning to heavy psychedelic screaming. Man in the Woods sit somewhere in the middle.
Though it was actually drawn from a hat, their music is better defined by their band name. The image that name conjures has metamorphosed into their imaginary narrator:
“Every song is like a new story, and it is as if he [the ‘man in the woods’] is telling you the story. That is why, although there’s a loose idea for what we’re doing, it all boils down to seemingly random stories that come from the same universe.” ーMarc, bass/vocals
Though thematically imagined, Man in the Woods’ music is instrumentally real-world. The songwriting process can be arduous, and inspirations come from different places for different members of the band: often, guitarist James comes up with subject matter ー he has a notebook for when he thinks of a phrase or a song title, so there’s always something relevant ー and fires it towards lead singer Marc. After Marc goes off to research the concept, he will bring his ideas to practice, and there it will come to life. Another time, guitarist David might have a riff, and that starts its own chain. Everything is organic, and most of it collaborative.
Recently, Marc was reading a book around the Knights Templar and tithes that funded the crusade. This is making its way into some lyrics for future material. Concepts, lyrics or hooks might sit on the back burner for weeks or even months before they come to fruition.
“We come up with stories, and the music is the soundtrack to that. That’s why there’s so much variation, in terms of it going heavy, psychedelic, slowing down. If we look at a three-act structure in a film it does vary: introduce the characters, everything goes to shit, and then everything rectifies. That’s the way I’m looking at it when I’m writing the lyrics.” ーMarc, bass/vocals
Big News: Badlands the Album and Argonauta Records
Badlands the album exists not just within but as a dystopian world. Some of the music comes from before the apocalypse ー like Signals, Saucers and Satellites, about the alien invasion ー and some from after ー like Einstrider, which chronicles a manic, post-doomsday rampage. The music has stayed in this place of darkness (the depths of which come from “somewhere within Marc’s belly”, according to James) ever since they decided to embrace the limits of their musical abilities ー and especially of Marc’s voice, which has only got lower and lower as time goes on.
“The darkness just is, I guess” ーJames, guitar
Keen Man in the Woods fans may remember the release of the Badlands Part One EP all the way back in late 2018. In January 2020, the band recorded what was originally supposed to be a second EP: Badlands Part Two. As we know, the real apocalypse came soon after and this dragged out their post-recording process extensively: they weren’t able to get everything mastered and refined. In the end, the gap between the two parts increased sufficiently as to justify packaging everything together.
Of course, there is another motivation for this pivot to an album release. Man in the Woods recently announced that they have been signed to Italian record label Argonauta Records; thus, they will be releasing Badlands as an album under Argonauta.
Speaking to the boys about the excitement of this move, they told me about some other bands on the label they’re fans of ーlike Rancho Bizarro, recent signing Goat Father, or James’ pick High Fighter. Marc told us that, every now and then, he finds a gem and they become his favourite band for a while. Since Man in the Woods has been signed, Marc has been getting acquainted with his new musical brothers and sisters, and so recent gems for him have come from Argonauta. The roster is a diverse lot, which is representative of the label’s sprawling music taste around the heavy side of post-rock and -metal.
Ultimately, Man in the Woods is just doing their own thing, which is why they think they fit so well on the label: they’re not trying to be anyone else.
You can listen to Man in the Woods alongside their new Argonauta contemporaries below:
The practical implications of this move are apparent for the immediate future: looming is the album’s second single (the first, Icarus Landing, dropped recently) and the full Badlands release in early 2022. Of course, labels also help immeasurably with producing, selling merch, PR and (perhaps most importantly) networking; Man in the Woods is now under the same umbrella as a hoard of exciting musicians, like the ones mentioned above. The boys are also looking forward to playing gigs in the UK and even further afield ー after all, Europe is Argonauta’s main pull. Truly, the sky’s the limit.
Growing from Island Roots
James told me he feels that growing up as an island band gave Man in the Woods a different perspective; though there are certain geographic limitations, this background makes way for some surprising advantages. Playing for the same people allows you to build a fanbase. The necessity of mixing genres on line-ups in such a small place has allowed them to play with a wider variety of bands than they would have done across.
Man in the Woods are happy to admit that they’ve come a long way from where they started musically. Though the first four tracks from Badlands Part One fit well on the newly reconfigured album, the boys feel like they’ve progressed a lot since:
“The first song we wrote was ‘Angel of Gasoline’, and yet I’m not sure I could actually go back and write something like that now. I just think that we’ve moved on; there’s so much more influence now. At the moment I’m thinking ‘I want more screams in there, I want more aggression!’ When you do that, it becomes post-metal. It’s not that we’re trying to change, I think we’re just trying to expand. Maybe it’s because I’ve developed my vocals a bit more and I can do more now.” ーMarc, bass/vocals
When preparing for this interview, I had just finished doing research for an article on the resurgence of the vinyl market. In this article, I wrote about the prevalence of shorter and shorter songs to satisfy algorithms. Thus, it struck me how Man in the Woods, as an emerging band who are still growing their audience, bucked this trend.
Apparently, this wasn’t an intentional rebellion; rather, a tendency for longer songs was just part of a fluid, if a little self-indulgent (their words) writing process. Man in the Woods enjoy playing with form, especially on newer material: Einstrider, for example, seems to end at its halfway point just as an interconnecting section lifts it into something completely different. In fact, it used to be two separate songs. On average, songs on Badlands end up around six minutes, but there are a couple that touch ten.
I ask every band I interview about a gig that changed their lives. The moments that Man in the Woods brought up in answer to this question make the kind of presence they aspire to more apparent: Slipknot’s first show in London, intense mosh pits at a two-hour Machine Head gig in Manchester, people being thrown around and jumping off balconies watching Dillinger Escape Plan.
Ultimately, the boys are all about trying new things whilst following their natural journey. There are a few things they want to achieve along the way, and among those aspirations is a vinyl pressing (of course!) and the chance to play at DesertFest, an underground festival that so many of their favourite bands frequent. Marc joked that he just wants to show up on time to rehearsal.
The date for Badlands’ release isn’t even out yet, but MITW are already working on the next album. Though they wouldn’t give too much away, they have a rough concept pinned down: “We don’t know what it is or where it’s going yet, but it’s going.” From fantastical tales to mosh pits, from European post metal to apocalyptic landscapes, I can’t wait to see where the journey takes us, and which unhinged stories that Man in the Woods will tell next.
Written by Owen Atkinson
Icarus Landing, from the upcoming album Badlands, is available to stream and download now.
