Toronto Rock Duo The Manic Boys And Girls Club’s “We’ll Be Fine” New Single Out Now
Canadian rock duo, The Manic Boys and Girls Club, consists of co-fronts and siblings Bela and Fernando Ferreira, whose haunting music is a mix of her vocals and his harmony blended with synth, guitar, and undertones of rock and pop. Their personal, introspective lyrics are informed by the pair’s upbringing as strict Catholics in rural Portugal.
“The Manic Boys and Girls Club is more than a band,” they explain. “It is an escape from the submissive existence that was reality, an escape from the disposable music packaged for the masses, and an escape for any misfit looking to join the club.”
“We’ll Be Fine,” the latest single from their acclaimed self-titled EP, the collection of five songs recounts the two loners’ experiences touring in a van, as well as interpersonal relationships. “Every song starts with a lyric and a melody,” they say. “No matter how it is produced, every one of our songs can be a lullaby.”
But they did lose some sleep perfecting “We’ll Be Fine.”
“There are songs that come together super-fast and you know exactly what you hear in your head; this was not the case for ‘We’ll Be Fine.’ I think,” offers Fernando, “because it has always been a pretty important song to us, since the first demos or voice memo versions of its existence. So… we explored and spent many hours messing around with guitar tones and ambient soundscapes, we rearranged and made rewrite after rewrite a lot before mixing. Bela wanted to go back into the studio and re-do some vocals. Gavin Brown (who was producing and mixing) was very much against the idea. So, we did the obvious appropriate thing: We waited till he was away for a weekend, booked the studio and engineer, and, on our own, did it anyway!”
Forget about the life we left behind
Forget about the drugs that kept us high
We were born for so much more
Our time is now
Forget about the books we never read
Forget about the words we could have said
We were born for so much more
Our time is now
The inspiration behind the song is just personal experience, says Fernando.
“I don’t think either of us is really able to give life advice to anyone… but the idea is to have hope in the future. It’s like, ‘Yeah, we’ve made mistakes,’ but all we can do is live in the present, look forward, and not have our future affected by whatever regret, or past, is weighing us down.”
Watch the video for “We’ll Be Fine” below and learn more about The Manic Boys And Girls Club via our mini-interview.
Hi Fernando & Bela! You’ve been in this space before, so what’s been going on since your last single?
Fernando – Since the release of Blacked Out we’ve been getting ready for the full EP due in July. So, we’re playing a few warm-up shows, we have a Wednesday Night Live series on Instagram where we play a few songs or a cover, maybe a request, really.. whatever, and chat a bit with viewers live on Instagram. It’s pretty spontaneous and just a weekly look into our rehearsals more than a “performance.” That is every Wednesday night. At the moment we are also booking U.S. tour dates for this summer.
Tell us about the process of writing “We’ll Be Fine.”
Fernando – I don’t know if it is because this has always been a pretty personal song to us, but this song has had so many changes, versions, and rewrites… There are songs on this EP that came together super fast. “We’ll Be Fine” is one that really took some time. Like it was always changing.
We had finished the song. Gavin Brown (who produced this) was ready to be in the mixing phase. Bela and I had this idea that we wanted to re-sing it. Gavin was totally against the idea. I guess sharing a stubborn quality, being siblings, We booked a studio on our own and re-recorded the vocals on this song one weekend that Gavin was out of town. We are the only two people that can probably tell any difference between the vocal performances, but if we hadn’t, it would probably bother us forever.
What’s the dumbest fight you two have been in together?
Bela – It’s funny, despite being in a band together; which involves having to agree on major, creative, and business moves together, the few fights we have endured have had nothing to do with music at all. Usually, fights will involve differences in opinions on how we lead our social lives. Things that have to do with more our personal lives. That might come from having full trust in each other inside the studio and having less trust in the decisions each other is capable of making on their own outside of the studio.
The one thing for sure we can always agree on is which Mexican spot we wanna have dinner at. (…hands down, El Compadre in Echo Park, by the way).
What’s your plans for the Spring?
Bela – Our plans for the spring, just like our plans for every season, if we can help it, is to perform live. It’s the one thing that never gets old. It’s the one thing that keeps us feeling alive, and like we are exactly where we’re meant to be. It’s the one thing that leaves depression at bay.
There’s really nothing like being in a hot and sweaty room full of people who silently agree on one thing. To leave their differences and their realities at the door and just have an incredible night of loud, live MBGC music.
Glad you see you’ve made it past COVID. What did you learn about yourself since then?
Bela – I learned that I had been afraid of silence. Much of the past few years had been full of white noise and chaos that kept me feeling like I was thriving. I think all I was doing was just distracting myself from reality. Internal and external. Having the whole world stop for a while was a chance to be really introspective and learn that maybe there were things I was avoiding thinking about and facing. In a strange way, I sometimes miss the calm of Covid. And I know that sounds crazy, but there was something beautiful to be appreciated in the very basic, quiet, ordinary existence we had for a while.. But I am back to being quite addicted to madness.
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