Manna and Quail

Manna and Quail conjure grand, sweeping dream-pop narratives, forming surreal landscapes onto themselves ... a world in which one can easily get lost. M&Q is the vision of singer/pianist/guitarist Steve Saputo who, up until ‘05 had spent time honing his writing skills in another band that wasn’t getting off the ground. Towards its demise, Steve met drummer Adam Davis and after the friendship blossomed, Adam said he’d be happy to start a new band with Steve, on the condition that Steve branch off and start singing (as he’d been singing only back up in those days). With Steve singing, Adam invited his old friend Gjon Gegaj, intense performer and intrepid traveler of genres (from speed metal to Motown) to bring the bass groove while Steve’s friend from a previous band, Matt Walsh, brought his guitar.

With the stately pop-allure of the British invasion, the soft timbre of chamber pop and the swooning theatrics of progressive folk, Steve’s tunes are perfectly complemented by the incredible rhythm of Gjon and Adam and the dreamy-effects laden guitar of Matt. The songs are cathartic, dark and mystic, but always with an overture of hope.

“I don’t try,” said Steve, “in my personal life, to avoid emotional situations, I enjoy them, good or bad. Well, obviously I don’t enjoy the bad ones, but I just don’t avoid them and I think that comes out in the music.” - Real Detroit Weekly

By Phreddy Wischusen

For the ancient Greeks, a symposium was a “drinking party.” In Plato’s work of the same name (written 360 B.C.), The Symposium was one particular party where Socrates, Aristophanes and other Greek philosophers, drank and debated about the “true” definition of love. The work continues to provoke thought and discussion in the 21st century. An impromptu symposium occurred when I interviewed the adrenalin warped melody weavers, Manna and Quail. The characters involved (including their instruments/beverages): Chad Nicefield (guitar/Bud Light), Adam Davis (Drums/ King’s Hardtail Ale), Matt Walsh (guitar/Bud Light) and Steve Saputo (piano & vocals/black coffee). Nicefield and Walsh wish it be noted that they only chose Bud Light because it was on special.

We began with the usual questions — their influences, how their different styles merge, the future of pop music, etc. As the conversation shifted to the grittier sound of their newest recordings, Nicefield said, “I want our recordings to sound like real love.” Saputo interrupted, “You know what … I want to branch off on … defining what love is ... I think that love is a verb, an accumulation of actions, where the feelings are the fruit; what [our] songs end up being is all of our actions combined, and the fruit of that is the feeling people get when listening." Walsh enters the conversation, “Love is also physical. They have gotten love down to three chemicals: dopamine, norepinephrine, oxytocin; people can truly experience love through a physical [chemical] connection.”

Meanwhile, Davis typed furiously on his laptop and made at least three phone calls — he had more or less tuned out the entire discussion. Finally, he was pressed to participate. What is love to Davis? “I believe that the synergy we’re trying to create as a band, and as a cultural band, I believe is real love. Manna and Quail doesn’t care about being a rock 'n’ roll band, doesn’t care about taking this or that gig. All we want to do is be influential on people and spread real love. I think what we’re creating is real love, I think it’s realness and raw and of community and just bringing people together.”

Listening, one can hear their individual concepts of love manifest in the music. Nicefield, who told me he brings “grit and edge” to Manna and Quail’s sound, views "real love’" as “difficult, painful and beautiful.” Walsh’s complex guitar harmonies flood the ears like the undulating release of serotonin during the first phases of infatuation. Saputo, the writer/composer, nurtures every note and phrase of his songs until they are perfectly crafted with the loving dedication of a 50-year marriage. Constantly striving to bring people, culture and music together for mutual benefit (hence the phone calls), it is not surprising that Davis sees love as community.

All night they bickered and laughed — like brothers. It felt as familiar as dinner at home, or a book you read in high school about a night of drinking over 2,300 years ago. The Symposium is still relevant because love is as enigmatic, powerful and personal today as it was then. Music is the same; the sonic experience will always supersede the attempt to define it. The relationship Manna and Quail builds among each individual performer is a unique type of love — a day dream in fast forward. Come experience your own version of love when Manna and Quail performs at the Corktown Tavern on Friday December 21. You might just fall in love. | RDW
- Real Detroit Weekly