“When COVID started and everything got shut down, I think a lot of people didn’t have much direction because they were understandably shocked and their plans got all messed up,” Niall Mannion tells American Songwriter. “But for me, I had this thing that I could dive into on a deep level… it saved my mental health.”
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For Mannion—the Irish DJ known as Mano Le Tough—art proved to be a vital resource during the global crisis of 2020. With a discography spanning back to the early 2010s and a reputation around the world for creating intricate, melodic beats, he was already working on ideas for some new songs when the COVID-19 pandemic hit last March. The “thing” that saved him when we got into the thick of lockdown despair? Turning those songs into his new album, At The Moment (out August 20 via Pampa Records).
The process began in earnest when everything started to shut down and Mannion returned to settle into quarantining in his adopted home, Zurich. “At that point, I had already been working on these songs for about six months,” he explained. “But I was touring at the same time, so I didn’t really have the proper time or space to finish them. When COVID came, all of my summer plans for touring and DJing got canceled, which meant that I could solely work on the record. That was a blessing, really. I just started working constantly and I wrote tons of music.”
Ultimately, the extra space provided by the quarantine led Mannion to discover a new way to approach the record-making process—in short, he was able to dig in deeper than ever before. “I think the circumstances gave me a sense of direction,” he said. “It would’ve been much more difficult had I not started it before COVID—because I was already in the process of making it, I could just dive into it. It was either that or just doomscroll. So, I went into the record pretty hard and I was quite inspired. That really helped me not get too depressed or too caught up in the negativity of the existential crisis we were going through.”
Down to the bare bones, though, something significant about Mannion’s life and career shifted when the pandemic hit: the context. “For the last decade or so, I’ve had a career as a DJ, but in COVID, the context has changed—I don’t feel any pressure to make dance floor tracks,” he explained. “I don’t have to make things that’ll work in the club because there’s no roadmap for when or how clubs or festivals are going to happen again. So, it was actually quite liberating, in a way, and it freed me up to just follow my creativity and express myself more, in a more authentic and relaxed manner.”
It’s true—if there are any two words that could summarize the totality of At The Moment, they would be “authentic” and “relaxed” (with the distinction that “relaxed” does not equate to “passive”). Each song is arranged in such an organic and eclectic way that it’s as if Mannion has crafted an entire world for you to explore. With a variety of moods—from spacey, indie-inspired jams to ‘80s-esque backbeats to hauntological synth echoes—the album is a collage of memory and expression. And with full vocal parts, guitar lines, and a whole new vibe, it’s unlike anything Mano Le Tough has released before.
To that end, Mannion is ready to embrace this new era. “It’s cool—I’m just very interested by it all,” he said with a smile. “It’s been funny seeing people’s reactions—especially from the DJ world. With the first couple of singles, people were very surprised by the direction I’ve gone in, but for me, this is just what I’ve been doing for the past couple of years. So, I’m really excited that it’s coming out. I’m starting to tour a bit now too and get back into DJ life. It’s a really exciting time.”
Mano Le Tough’s new album At The Moment is out now—listen to the track “Pompeii” below:
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