Mandippal

23-year old Mandippal wants nothing more than to give audiences some authenticity. In a world where radios are constantly favouring the sound of over-produced pop music, Mandippal strives to maintain his uniqueness. "I'm writing pop music right now but I don't want to compromise what I want to do just to give people what they want to hear. I want to be able to entertain with integrity."

And he does. With a songbook inspired mostly by life experiences (and one song that takes a critical view about the issue of racism) Mandippal makes it a point to stay as real as possible. "I get inspired by whatever, but most of the time it's something that has happened to me." This is not surprising considering his 8 years worth of experience as an indie artist.

The Cambridge resident started off young, as one of the leads in his high school production of Guys and Dolls. "I actually wanted to go into musical theatre", he said. After becoming familiar with a guitar and writing music, Mandippal and his sister had a duo, fittingly called "Sibling Rivalry". "We got pretty well- known in the university circuit. Then she decided to be a teacher and I decided to go solo, so here I am."

And here he is with an uber chill, uber authentic EP called "When It's Only Me Standing". Strictly an acoustic record, "When It's Only Me Standing" features the "unplugged" sound that seems to suit Mandippal well. "I wanted to give people something simple. All but one are about heartache and heartbreak and all of the in-betweens." The title track of the song is a line from "Beggers and Bedsheets", a song that deals with a different kind of relationship, was written in 2005 for Anti-Racism Day. "I was living in toronto for school, at Dundas and Sherbourne, which is this really scketchy area in Toronto. I was walking down and there are cops parked at every corner of the street. That line came in my head and it turned into this really nice political song, which I'd never done before. It's basically about how ignorant we can be, and that's what needs to change. I haven't been inspired by anything else like that before."


read more