I watched Mandala play a show 10 years ago in south London at the recommendation of my friend David Peters. At the time I was seeing a lot of local music in incredible venues and pokey bars, some of which don’t exist anymore thanks to Crossrail.
Back in September 2014, Rhys (who now lives in Norway) dropped me a line. The band were recording in Hackney, so I went along with 4 cameras. The guys prefer the authenticty of film so I used a variety of expired polaroids and 35mm film. This batch of film was too far gone which was always a risk. Thankfully I had a digital, albiet with a broken lens. Mandala didn’t ask me because they like my high quality crisp images, of that I am sure they’d concur.
Their album Midnight Twlight was released last week and went straight to number 5 on the iTunes Prog-Rock/Art Rock chart. It was a really lovely surprise opening the album and seeing my pictures. They look better in the liner notes! Thank you.
Laura Ward 