Leslie Mandoki: Retirement is out of the question for the musician

Leslie Mandoki (69) burns and lives for music. The busy artist is celebrating his 30th anniversary with his Mandoki Soulmates, and there’s no thought of retirement. He only drops everything for one thing: there must always be time for his children, as he says in an interview with the news agency spot on news. “Everyone knows that too. If one of my children calls me, then I have to interrupt.” Son Gabor and daughters Julia and Lara got to know the big, wide world behind the scenes and in recording studios. You accompanied your father on many trips.

What his three children have learned from an early age: their father is committed to a living and socially critical culture of discussion. “I brought up my children for this rebellion and also for contradiction,” he says. In an interview, he criticizes, among other things, the cancel culture that is currently spreading. “I would hope that we would rediscover a new dimension in the culture of discussion,” he says. “Cancel culture is not good. We have to be sure that our arguments are better. We have a shared responsibility.”

Leslie Mandoki: “The world has gone mad”

With regard to his children, intergenerational equity is particularly important to him. “It’s part of it to accept a hard discourse,” emphasizes Mandoki. “My generation has every reason to be ashamed of the younger generation. We had this wonderful fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Iron Curtain. Now we are facing a climate catastrophe and we have a financial and energy crisis and war in Europe. We have next to nothing done right. The world has gone mad.”

“When I see that the older generation of the younger generation is putting all these packages on the table, I say: ‘You can’t do that,'” he criticizes. The current album by the Mandoki Soulmates, “Utopia for Realists”, which he dedicated to his children, is about intergenerational justice. As usual from the group, there are socio-critical and political songs on it. “I define my work as putting my finger in the wound and being a mouthpiece,” explains Mandoki. The audience plays an important role in this: “I’m only as loud as the audience allows me to be.” The musician sees a great responsibility in music because it “immediately touches”.

Mandoki sees a responsibility in his “privileged” life

Mandoki promotes an open and colorful society in which everyone has equal rights. He sees each individual as responsible, including himself, for example in the fight against anti-Semitism and homophobia. “I’m a straight white male with a Christian upbringing. It’s my job to ensure that anti-Semitism never comes back. If a Jewish friend of mine has to defend himself, then that’s wrong. I have to guarantee that he doesn’t have any police protection is needed,” says Mandoki. “As a straight person, I have to guarantee that there is no homophobia. If queer people have to protect themselves, that’s wrong.”

As a successful artist, Leslie Mandoki says of himself that he lives “privileged”. However, that is no reason for him to rest on his laurels. Rather, he sees it as his responsibility to “look where the fire is”. During the corona pandemic, for example, he campaigned to draw attention to the hospitals and to say “thank you” to the nurses there. He also traveled to the Ukrainian border to draw attention to the suffering there as a result of the war.

“Celebrating 70 is weird – I feel like 30”

With Mandoki’s busy schedule, you almost lose sight of the fact that the musician will be 70 years old next year. “Celebrating 70 is weird – I feel like 30,” he says. But there are already plans: “Some of the Soulmates have already got in touch and want to celebrate with me. The birthday falls on a Saturday, so we’ll definitely have a party in Munich.”

In the Mandoki family there is a special birthday ritual from the time when the musician’s children were small. “On the birthday of one of my kids, we always put a present on the chair for the other kids too. I used to give birthday speeches too. ‘What’s on the chair?’ has now become a dictum for us,” says Mandoki.

When asked if he has already thought about retirement, he answers with a laugh: “I don’t know what you mean. I’ve already planned the next 30 years.” He is planning a new album and a tour with the Mandoki Soulmates. “Then I want to continue adding music to films, I really enjoy doing that. I also wanted to do an exhibition with my paintings at some point. I wanted to be a painter when I was twelve years old. And I also wanted to publish a book of poetry,” Mandoki gushes out . 70 years is by no means the end of it.