Interview by Brandon Pestano
Brighton based acid-tinged folk musician Lando Manning has released his second EP Brighter Days, a project he describes as “an affirmation of hope that through dark times there is light at the end of the tunnel.” With a distinctly dreamy acoustic sound and a gift for subtle poetic song writing, he has continued to impress with every new song since his debut single “Today” released in 2021. Lando’s father was a classical violinist and Lando himself is a classically trained pianist and multi-instrumentalist, but he didn’t start writing songs until he was in his late teens after getting into folk, citing Bob Dylan and Townes van Zandt as major inspirations.
We were happy to chat with Lando about his origins, inspirations and more…
MOOF: Has your environment sculpted your creative outlook in any way?
Lando Manning: I was born into a very musical family on both sides so I was always doomed to be musical in some sort of capacity! Creativity was very encouraged from an early age so that has allowed me to be very free in the way that I write songs, most of my songs don’t really have a distinct structure which is probably down to that.
I grew up in South London a stone’s throw away from The Windmill in Brixton which meant I had incredible access to a really thriving scene in the 2010s which is no doubt what encouraged me to start performing my own music live.
MOOF: What made you fall in love with folk music?
LM: Mainly I think it’s the immediacy of folk music that draws me to it. You don’t need to be the most technical musician, nor do you need a huge amount of musicians, it’s most effective when it’s minimal. I read an interview with Shirley Collins recently where she said that when you sing a folk song you’re singing it with all the other people who have sung it over the years, decades and centuries.
Although this is more related to traditional folk, I think that it really hits to the core of what folk music is about, untold histories of people written out of history. Folk music is actually extremely punk in some of its attitudes, it is a very un-gatekept part of the music world as it relies on anyone being able to participate which is another thing that I really like about it.
MOOF: What does ‘Acid Folk’ represent to you?
LM: Acid Folk is a hybrid of psych and folk and takes the traditional elements of folk music and imbues it with the dreaminess of psychedelia. Someone once described my music as acid-tinged folk which has stuck as I think it’s a good way of describing my sound, while not ostensibly part of the acid-folk genre, it fits in somewhere on the periphery.
MOOF: Tell us about the concept behind Brighter Days What inspired it and how were you feeling when you made it?
LM: I wrote the collection of songs during a particularly rough time for my mental health. It’s an assertion that even in rough times brighter days are around the corner. Although most of the songs have a melancholic undertone they all have a hopeful message.
MOOF: What musicians inspired you growing up and who would be your dream collaboration?
The main inspirations for me come from 70s psych folk artists, Mark Fry, Vashti Bunyan etc. An unexpected influence is that of dub, Lee Scratch Perry in particular, although it’s clearly not an obvious influence in the music, his production techniques have massively influenced me in the studio. I guess my dream collaboration would be with someone like Max Richter or the late great Ryuchi Sakamoto. I came from a classical background and have always wanted to incorporate elements of that into my music so I think that would work nicely!
MOOF: What does a perfect day look like for Lando Manning?
LM: Somewhere hot, relaxed morning, big walk in the afternoon and a boozy dinner in a nice restaurant!
MOOF 
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