Normally. I’d do some long introduction but, hey I am getting ready to catch a plane. Luckily, all you need to know is that local favorites The Manichean will be performing at a pretty unusual place for a local band- The Alley Theatre - and they will have special guests, some crazy theatre business going on, and even a new 7″ to boot.    We figured you guys would like to know a little more about what these folks were up to so we contacted Cory Sinclair and Justice Tirapelli-Jamail to shed some light on Saturday’s show.

FPH: Explain the idea behind this whole Alley Theatre thing.

Cory Sinclair - This has always been the idea, only perhaps not the plan; “Let us catch their eyes and expose them to something they’ve never seen.” I think that a lot of people who come to see us or who happen to catch us at a show might never have had the chance to take in a performance at the Alley Theatre. It is a marvel of Houston and Texas and should be shared with everyone. So that’s one reason.

FPH - Well, it seems that you are keeping your cards close to your chest but can you give us any details as to what the show will be like?

Justice Tirapelli-Jamail – I think what Cory and I are really trying to do in the days leading up is to give a general feel for what is going to happen without giving too much away. What we can tell you is to expect ornate lighting, a rather large set structure, and flower pedals. We’ve incorporated the genius and grace of both Alsi Omar (The Tontons) and Tyagaraja as well as the sharp rhetoric of Mills-McCoin into our presentation. Two Star Symphony will be performing in the lobby before curtains rise on LOVERS and once more during the intermission. It is our biggest intention to make this as grand an affair as possible.

FPH - You have been releasing 7″s from the upcoming Lovers album. Why put it out in bits? Why not just drop the album? What’s the rationale?

JTJ - While LOVERS works as one solid structure, each song ebbing and flowing between one another, there are tracks on the album that we feel work in singularity. We want for these specific songs to be heard as their own compositions and to be absorbed that way before they become the part of a bigger picture. The first piece of this is our new track “The Swan” which is available digitally but that we will be releasing as a 7″ the night of the Alley performance. More songs will indeed follow before the album’s Fall release.

FPH - Tell us a bit about the upcoming album.

CS - It is an origin story, for us and for our fiction; the continuing tale we are struggling to reveal. It’s about chemistry and cadence, shifts of balance, thunder in the heart and feathers in the head. It’s about soft summer kisses and breathless apexes of passion. It is from the perspective of someone somewhere, anywhere between the twilight of adolescence and their Saturn Return, a vicenarian in fact. It’s as if it could be the last thing they would ever want to share, but is in fact the beginning of a great many ideas and dimensions. We call it ‘LOVERS.’

FPH- This story, is there a cohesive story line, is it more collected reflections on a theme, a concept album, or just some general idea you guys are going for but haven’t worked out?

CS – It is has the narrative thread of a cohesive story line and stream-of-consciousness elements akin to a concept album. The theme itself is eponymous. If people want to listen and have the desire to follow our story then they will pick up on the patterns and the leitmotifs inherent to our music.

FPH - So back to the show…I gotta ask, most local bands will play Fitz, Rudz, SHFL, Walters, etc. but The Alley Theatre is a bit unusual. Why that hall? How did you score that?

JTJ - The original idea actually belongs to my dad. He came to us asking why we hadn’t thought of it ourselves. He also told us how stupid we would be if we didn’t make it happen. He’s produced plays there for a good amount of time now and told us who at the Alley to talk to about the idea. No one has ever done what we are setting out to do there and because of that everyone at the theatre has been extremely enthusiastic. They were all immediately on board. As for the ‘why’, as soon as the idea became a possibility it was all we wanted to do. A rock show at the Alley theatre? You just don’t turn that down.

Saturday June 16 2024
The Manichean @ The Alley Theatre
11PM $10
all ages