Some musicians shape sound. Others channel something deeper – spirit, grief, memory.
Mantis and the Prayer belong to the latter. Their work isn't just performance; it's invocation.When we speak, Mantis is in grey-skied Melbourne and I'm up in Darwin's daze. We talk like bus-seat neighbours on a long ride – about places, sound, and what makes something true.
"I was born in New York," they tell me, "lived in London, and eventually landed in Melbourne, but music's been part of my identity forever.
"Violin was my first instrument, then piano and drums. My dad wasn't musical, but he loved 1950s ballads – 'I Only Have Eyes For You', that kind of sound. There was always music around, always something to tinker with."
If you lean your ears close, you can hear it in their compositions – doo-wop romance, surf-pop colour, poetic minimalism – but fractured through a darker, more experimental lens.
"I've always gravitated toward pop art," Mantis explains. "The Beatles during 'Sgt. Pepper's' – stuff that feels accessible but is deeply layered underneath."
He speaks of the late Brian Wilson not just as an influence, but as a kind of map. "He said he wanted people to feel love when they heard his music. That stuck with me. That's what I'm trying to do too, in my own way."
However, love – in Mantis' world especially – is often braided with loss. Their newest single 'Roses Blue' (which we premiered) is perhaps the clearest expression of that.
A tribute to his late sister Jacqueline, who survived long years of domestic violence before her passing, the song and its art-house video honour her life. We talk this through a little while.
"I had a dream about my sister – we were back in our childhood home, and I asked her to come back, and she said she couldn't." There was more to this, but it's cracked in the ether; watch the video. You'll get it then. 'Roses Blue' is a deeply personal tribute from brother to sister.
"I don't want to waffle on," they say, voice catching, "but if we don't talk about it [sexual and domestic violence], it's like we're accepting it. The more we say it's unacceptable, the more we make space for that to change. We have to shine that light."
I have no doubt he will share more this weekend and it will be a living act of service by honouring his sister and fundraising for Safe Steps, supporting survivors of domestic and family violence.
The song's art-house video made by filmmakers in dual visions, Wilk and Spike in collaboration with Mantis, unfurls this sentiment in two movements – one of grief, darkness, reflection; and one of spirit, return, a dreamlike return beyond this life. In that realm, his sister places a cape on his shoulders and sends him back – to continue, to carry.
Beneath the experimental surface lies real community. Their current band line-up has remained intact since 2016. "Undeniably we're something together; and I feel lucky," says Mantis, who met members through friend-of-friend chance or guitar ads that actually panned out.
Anchored in collaboration and a shared vision of art as offering, their live shows now include projections and visual elements, amplifying the experience into something nearly sacred. "It’s evocative," he says. "It takes people somewhere."
While their music sometimes explores grief and tension, it's never static. There's movement, transcendence – a reaching. "We've been in the studio, and I'll play something and Myles Mumford [Melbourne-based producer] calls it 'wizardry realms'."
That's when I hear Mantis laugh and I join him for a minute or so too. It's magick. In our final moments on the call, Mantis speaks softly about his sister, about survival, and about how music remains the only way he knows to stay close to what's gone.
"Sometimes we do something with the suffering," he says. "That's what 'Roses Blue' is." As we wrap, there's a flicker of something lighter. It was a nice bus ride kind of conversation I tell him, and we laugh a little more.
Don't miss the bus. Get down and see Mantis and the Prayer and let me know if he was wearing his cape.
Mantis and the Prayer joined by Dandelion Wine and Fabels play Bar Open (Melbourne) 2 August.
