Formed by former members of Ohhms, the UK group Man Band are this week’s featured Meet The Band artist. Their debut album is Strong Man. Guitarist Daniel Sargent and vocalist Chainy Rabbit introduce us to their band.
Give us a brief history of Man Band.
Chainy Rabbit: Daniel and Aaron (Jaygo, guitar) were looking for a drummer. I knew a drummer looking for a band and I knew a bass player who was tired of playing function gigs, so I introduced everyone to each other and some how became the singer???
Daniel Sargent: You became the singer because you didn’t want to have to carry heavy shit around to gigs.
Describe the songwriting process for Strong Man.
Daniel: Chainy and I have written most of the songs so far, but going forward the other guys and gal are putting their ideas in, too. I prefer to show up with the basics of a song already written and then have people do what the fuck I say, I mean put their own ideas in…. I always find it hard when someone just shows up with one riff, we all learn it, then its like what’s next and you stand around scratching heads and trying to force something and it mostly comes out lame. We don’t get a lot of time in the practice room together so I’d rather show up prepared with ideas and a direction.
Chainy: I have a collection of lyrical ideas on my phone and I’ll go through different lines to see what fits. I had decided on the album topic early on, which was mainly influenced by our band name, especially more so now with the Manosphere being in the zeitgeist, I thought masculinity would be a good topic to tackle. Even though there’s a lot of sarcasm in the lyrics, I have tried to include some seriousness too
What will be your strongest memory of the recording of the album?
Chainy: Personally, having a migraine from screaming for 5 hours straight.
Daniel: I love the recording process and I love hanging out with our long time friend and producer Ian Saddler (he did Chainy and I’s previous band’s albums) so I think I was the only person who was there for every recording session. A couple of the lads had never recorded their instruments in a studio before so it was a buzz for me to see their excitement and anticipation, then the enthusiasm when they heard it back for the first time.
What was the biggest challenge in its creation?
Chainy: Having been in many bands before this, my biggest challenge was doing something different. It would be very easy to write an Ohhms knock off album, but doing something that has very little in similarities, was my task. I tried being as objective as I could. What did I think Ohhms were shit at, and focus on working on that.
Daniel: There wasn’t really any challenge for me really, I don’t think, it’s a process I enjoy and look forward to. Everyone knew their parts and what they had to get down so we just went in positive and smashed it out. Oh maybe the money was a challenge, I couldn’t afford the cash for recording my guitar so Ian let me pay with an old Marshal JCM900 that he had wanted for years, in fact it lived at his studio for years.
How would you characterize its style/sound?
Chainy: We’re all quite old, so we embraced the music of our youth. The ’90s is what really formed our music fandom. So even though we’re still playing quite modern heavy music, we’re pulling from things like Faith No More, Rollins Band, Chili’s but playing it on drop tuned guitars.
Daniel: I hate feeling like I have to write in a certain style and make all the songs sound similar. I will write what comes out my fingers, that’s it. I don’t feel like people are too dumb to listen to a slow song and a fast song next to each other. That’s one of the benefits of working with Chainy, he’s very open minded and willing to work with any old shit I come up with. I think the album is quite eclectic, each song has its own character.
What lyrical topics do you cover?
Chainy: Strong Man is based on the dual concepts of modern masculinity. I try to both highlight the toxicity with positive and negative reviews. Yes, sorting your problems in life with your fists is bad, but its also bad to not be able solve things that way, too. Masculinity is a tool that can shape your life in many different ways. It can be a good thing as long as kept in check, but it’s a fine line between the two. I’m not trying to give answers or solve any problems around toxic masculinity, but I am asking questions, especially questioning the status quo of it. 2026 is an odd time to be proud of yourself, depending who that self is. I don’t believe I have the right to speak about women or the trans community, but I feel confident that I can speak on my relation to men and what it’s like to be the man I am. I spent 30 plus years being a boy, it was time for me to finally grow up, and some of those growing pains were put on this album.
Daniel: I only care about the riffs, you can’t hear what Chainy is saying when he’s rolling on the floor or climbing a lighting rig anyway. Oh, one song is about making love to someone you love in strange ways, I think 30 years ago it would have been passed round school friends on cassette tapes and sniggered at, but it’s actually really beautiful to me. It’s my fave song off the album. To be fair, the riff was written for Ohhms but they made it too heavy so I took it back and locked it in my riff jar for later.
What are your goals and expectations for the album?
Chainy: We missed being in Ohhms and all the amazing things we did in that band, so this is us trying to get back to where we were. Obviously if we can go further, that’s even better but for now, personally I’m just trying to get back to touring/playing festivals, and mostly being back in that community. I don’t see many bands talk about it publicly, but it really is like being in the “cool club.” Befriending bands you’re fans of and them being fans of you, too. We had such an amazing time being apart of that group of people. Hanging out at festivals and all the bands know each other and give each other advice or a helping hand. Community is very important to me and now with a more sober mind, I want to embrace it the best I can….. if the cool kids will let us back in that is
Daniel: Yeah, I really miss being part of the travelling circus of being in a band and making new friends at each show and meeting up with old friends when we tour through their town. I hope people like the album and listen to it lots, but I don’t expect it make us rich or anything. Hopefully get us noticed and get us some bigger shows, that’s what its really about for me, playing to people and seeing them enjoy it. I have a personal goal for the band as a whole, but its only me, I’m not sure if the others would agree, but I will say this band has finally made it if we get to play Download festival, I love it there. Every time I watch a band there, at least once I think to myself I wish that was me up there playing to these awesome people in the place I love.
What lessons did you learn from your previous band that will help build an audience for this new project?
Chainy: We learned a lot about business and THE business thanks to our old label and management. We learned what you should do and what you shouldn’t do. We made a lot of good friends that have helped us and we’re trying our best to learn from our mistakes. People always think, as long as the music is good then it’ll get you far. So many times I’ve been blown away by the local opening band (they were better than us a lot of the time) but they sadly never left their own town. The music was good enough, but that’s not enough. Look at all the shit bands out there who are doing the things you know your own band should be doing. There’s things you can’t fight and its more beneficial to learn how to work with than against.
Daniel: Chainy is right, it takes a lot of hard work, good songs, great live shows, being humble and grateful when some one is nice about your band, a lot of focused thought and effort, a little Energon and lot of luck. Oh, and cool t-shirts, it’s really just about having good shirts.
How was the video shoot for “Dane Valley”?
Chainy: Embarrassing for everyone involved, especially the little old ladies walking their dogs that morning. I could never be an actor, so having to take direction is alien to me. I had the director telling me to show certain emotions, which I believed I was doing, but apparently I wasn’t. I’ll be better for our next one, I learned a lot from working with Jamie Love. Also, wait ’til summer if you’re going topless on some cliff tops.
How important are videos in the promotion process?
Chainy: It’s hard for me to gauge as a 38 year old man. I grew up in a time where music videos were at their most important and I’m still quite biased to that idea. I don’t have TikTok and I barely use my Instagram, but I am aware the importance of these platforms for progressing any band. I don’t know if that’s necessarily music videos or just general content. I don’t feel comfortable talking into a phone camera as if its my audience, I barely felt comfortable filming Dane Valley, I can only hope it’s going to benefit the band.
Daniel: Yeah back when we were young videos were really important, being on MTV and Kerrang TV etc. was really important for a band to “make it.” Nowadays, as much as I personally enjoy them it seems like just more sludge for people to scroll past on social media. I was listening to a podcast about marketing a band on social media and they said chop the video up in to chunks and post it all separately because the majority of people won’t watch the whole thing. It was basically get the hook in and hope they go and listen on Spotify, etc.
What has been your most memorable Man Band live show?
Chainy: Usually its whatever our last show was. We recently played our first headline show at an awesome new venue in Folkestone called the Dracula Parrot. That was an amazing show. It was our first time playing with Millie on drums. She’s Aaron’s 15 year old sister, she had never gigged before in her life and she smashed it. Its basically like work experience for her. I wish I had that opportunity when I was her age. I think any time I get to climb on things is memorable for me. I don’t know if that’s my inner Pearl Jam or what, but I love climbing on shit at gigs. Thank god I’ve never hurt myself yet, or the devil, whichever is looking after me, I’m easy.
Daniel: Yeah that was an ace gig, Millie smashed it. We also played a place called Poco Loco in Chatham which is part of a Mexican restaurant, it was our last drummer Will’s final show and he played like a little demon, some times a drummer just lifts up the rest of the band. I was so gutted he couldn’t commit to the band. We get through a lot of members. We have been going just over a year I think and have 6 ex members already.
What are your upcoming show/tour plans?
Chainy: We haven’t planned any tours as of yet, mainly because we’re waiting to see if the album connects with people. But I’m hoping by the summer to have a few weekends around the UK.
Daniel: Yeah, it seems like we are a bit late for festivals this year sadly, but hopefully we will get a few next year.
What are some of your non-musical interests and hobbies?
Chainy: Music is so time consuming that we only have time for work and family. Luckily as a firefighter, fitness is a big part of the job so I spend a lot of time lifting weights or climbing ladders. My kids have all grown up now, so we get to share interests. My daughters like coming to my gigs so everything mixes together much easier now. I don’t know if drinking beer is classed as a hobby, but if it is, that’s my favorite.
Daniel: Cooking for my family and friends, drinking beer. Making homemade pizza and having a cold beer in the garden in the summer is heaven for me.
What’s the best thing you binge watched lately?
Chainy: I don’t watch TV.
Daniel: Peep Show is my constant go to while I’m cooking. I haven’t enjoyed a new sitcom in years and I’m bored of detective type things. There hasn’t even been a good cooking show for ages, that being said the Peep Show Great British Bake Off episode was ok.
Anything else you’d like to mention or promote?
Chainy: I try to avoid spewing my political views, there’s enough bands repeating your own views to you in the hope you’ll buy their album. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a band or just like going to gigs. We’re a community and we all need to support each other, without each other we have nothing. Now buy our album!
Daniel: Please get in touch if you want to offer us a show. We are keen to play everywhere! You can buy our shit at www.manband.bigcartel.com
(interview published April 18, 2026)
Watch Man Band – “Dane Valley” Video
