Manchester Orchestra are neither from Manchester nor an orchestra, but as an Atlanta-based rock band, they do just fine for themselves, thank you very much. In late August, Manchester Orchestra visited the Upper Midwest, where they performed as part of The Current’s Music on-a-Stick show at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand. The show was notoriously cut short due to a sudden burst of severe weather, but not before Manchester Orchestra got in a good chunk of their set.

Earlier in the day, Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull and Robert McDowell visited the MPR booth — aka Camp MPR — near the corner of Judson and Nelson, where they played acoustic versions of a couple of their songs and chatted with host Bill DeVille.

Watch and listen to the complete session above, and read a transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Edited for clarity.

Bill DeVille: That's Andy and Robert of the band Manchester Orchestra. They performed the song "Bed Head" and they just wrapped up with "The Gold." Nice acoustic versions there, gentlemen. It sounded wonderful. So how big of a deal is the State Fair in Georgia? Is the Georgia State Fair as big of a deal as the Minnesota State Fair is?

Andy Hull: Not at all. 

Bill DeVille: Not at all?

Andy Hull: No. I don't think we've ever been to one actually.

Robert McDowell: No.

Bill DeVille: Where is it in Georgia?

Andy Hull: I have no idea. They don't ask us to play, that's why we come to yours.

Bill DeVille: Good answer. What is your favorite food when you're at a fair?

Andy Hull: It's got to be some like weird, right, there's a lot of weird fried stuff?

Bill DeVille: Yeah.

Andy Hull: ...to try? Yeah. Probably something like that, like an Oreo.

Robert McDowell: I think as a kid, it was, it was a funnel cake. But I think if I ate a funnel cake now, I might die.

Andy Hull: Yeah, I think I would pass away.

Bill DeVille: A little bit of a gut ache, I could see that happening. Here, the theme is everything's on a stick at the state fair. I just had an avocado cone. It was it was to die for; it was wonderful. So how did you guys manage to get through COVID? Were you off the road for like a full two years? 

Andy Hull: Yeah, pretty much. We started a fan club, and it was a direct relationship with our fans. And we recorded a live show every month, multitracked and camera'd and they kept us really tight. And we reworked all of our songs from our catalogue over the course of a year and a half. So yeah, we had a really big project and it helped us stay tight.

Bill DeVille: Did you write songs during the downtime, too?

Andy Hull: Yeah, here and there. I mean, we're always sort of writing something, you know? For a while not not so much though. It was like I had to kind of do a little bit of like, living and learning and experiencing what was happening, you know, before I could say anything about it.

Bill DeVille: Yeah. Did you find any new hobbies or rediscover some old hobbies?

Robert McDowell: I think for us, it was nice with our schedule, you know, we leave home a lot, so it was good to be home with the kids. My daughter was born in August 2020. 

Bill DeVille: Well, the perfect time spent some time at the house.

Andy Hull: So they picked up children as a hobby.

Robert McDowell: Yeah. 

Bill DeVille: It's a good one, the gift that keeps on giving, right? So the latest song that you guys did was with Jason Singer of the band Michigander, one we played quite a bit on The Current. How did that collaboration come about?

Andy Hull: You know, we heard that he was a fan of our music and then we listened to his music and thought it was great. And he asked if he could come up and do a day of writing and we clicked right away and wrote and produced the song together and a couple months later they were opening up for Manchester on tour and we released that song.

Bill DeVille: It's a great song.

Andy Hull: Thank you very much.

Bill DeVille: Well done. So, one from Michigan is called a Michigander; what do you call one from Georgia?

Andy Hull: A dear Georgian.

Bill DeVille: A Georgian?

Andy Hull: A Georgian.

Bill DeVille: Or I suppose a Georgia peach?

Andy Hull: Maybe.

Bill DeVille: When you're just goofing around, maybe at soundcheck or something, what is like your latest go-to song to... ?

Andy Hull: "Hash Pipe" by Weezer, which we don't know how to play.

Robert McDowell: Other than the intro riff.

Andy Hull: We know the intro.

Bill DeVille: Oh, the intro riff is awesome.

Andy Hull: And then we fail our way forward throughout it. That's a go to.

Bill DeVille: Yeah. What was it before that one?

Andy Hull: We don't really do it. We just... generally, we don't really like soundcheck, so we try and get it over with as soon as we can.

Bill DeVille: So what is next? You're here in the Twin Cities to play that Music on a Stick later on tonight. Where do you go from here?

Andy Hull: Go to the U.K., London, in a couple of weeks for a handful of shows, and then festivals throughout the year and...

Bill DeVille: Oh, the festivals in England are fabulous.

Andy Hull: Yeah, they are. They're great.

Bill DeVille: Which ones are you playing at?

Andy Hull: We're not doing any festivals there this year. We're doing U.S. festivals. We're going home and doing a headlining show as ourselves.

Bill DeVille: Right, right on. Well, it's been nice of you to drop by our little booth here and play a couple songs for us. It's Manchester Orchestra, part of music on a stick tonight at the State Fair Grandstand along with Bad Bad Hats, and Portugal. The Man. It's Andy and Robert again, thanks so much, it's been a treat to chat with you. 

Robert McDowell: Thanks for having us.

Andy Hull: Thanks, y'all.

Bill DeVille: Thanks for playing some great music.

Songs Performed

00:00:00 Bed Head
00:03:58 The Gold 

Song 1 is from Manchester Orchestra’s 2021 album, The Million Masks of God; song 2 is from their 2017 release, A Black Mile to the Surface. Both are available on Loma Vista.

Credits

Guests – Andy Hull and Robert McDowell of Manchester Orchestra
Host – Bill DeVille
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Video Director – Evan Clark
Camera Operators – Evan Clark, Tom Campbell
Audio – Eric Xu Romani
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor

External Link

Manchester Orchestra - official site