Mandi
Can you juggle?
How many tasks do you want? I can do it.
Can you juggle objects?
Metaphorical objects. Once upon a time I would’ve said I can throw up two balls and catch one.
You’ve just described juggling. Tell me about your favourite worst job.
Does it have to be enjoyably bad? I’ve had a lot of jobs, very varied jobs. I used to work at a theme park where I painted faces for like £3.80 an hour. But I also had to dress as a character in the morning. It was called Gulliver’s World in Warrington. It was like a 15mins walk from my house. I was part of the entertrainment team. They were all dancers who’d dress in character. I couldn’t do it, but I’d have to dress in character still. We’d play a game of how many kids you could make cry. I was no older that 20.
So a full blown adult. Go on.
There was like a bottle of vodka up for grabs at the end of the month. It was really easy because so many kids were scared of the characters. I really liked getting into Percy Pig. I called him Percival, we didn’t know about the Percy Pigs at Marks and Spencers then.
So you liked climbing into a pig and you didn’t know what M&S Percy Pigs were?
It was a pig costume that used to be a guy but then became a girl then a guy again, so it was quite progressive for the time.
How do you get into a pig?
Have you seen Ru Paul’s Drag Race with the padding?
So it’s not a real pig?
That would really scare the kids.
When you said it was easy, you’d just get into a pig…I did wonder.
No, it’s a character. There was padding then you’d put the padding on and put the cushioned head over your head. Dependent on who you were wearing, there was a space you could see through. I liked getting into Percy Pig the most because he smelt the best. Some of the characters smelt like armpits. There was a really old raggedy one I liked. He was a wolf with an open mouth, so easy to see out of and you got a bit of air coming in during summer.
Wow
Another time, I had a dragon head on and got sent into town centre.
Immediately at risk.
The dragon’s head was about 1 foot over my actual head and these teenagers punched it in the head. I was only allowed to do this because I couldn’t dance nor should've been allowed to.
How did this help your self-esteem?
It’s fine as long as I can pretend to be someone else.
Do you think your job now would be easier if you could do it in fancy dress?
Yess 100%
You know you own your business so you could do that?
True! On a much more serious but boring level. I used to have a waitress job but I was so anxious that I didn’t think I could do it. I couldn’t even approach a group of people because I was so anxious. The way I got through it was to dress up in the uniform, look in the mirror and say ‘I look like a waiter, I’m going to go out there and pretend to be a waiter’.
Constantly cosplaying. If you could cosplay as any superhero, who’d it be?
I don’t know, that’s nerd shit.
Okay, musical artist?
Probably David Bowie, he’s the most fun one. I did once dress up in drag as Freddie Mercury in drag from the video for I Want To Break Free.
Very meta.
Yes, I even stuffed my own bra.
What’s the thing you’re most proud of with BAD Coffee?
It’s hard to answer. Obviously I love my team and I’m proud of my boys and girls. The whole thing’s been a learning process. If I were to step away from it in ten years I’d be like ‘fucking hell that was cool but when you’re in it it’s so hard to recognise that. It’s really cliche to say, but I’m really proud of the community we’ve built up. Although we’ve got an attention seeking brand, we’re not very attention seeking in real life. There’s something nice about it. I love it when people buy a drink, leave and come back to say it was delicious so then buy a bag of beans. I know it’s a small thing, but it means a lot.
It’s not a small thing, especially where people are so busy and distracted in day-to-day life, the fact that they come back for that is great.
Yeah I’m proud of that. ]
Do you think it’d be easier if you were a man?
Sometimes.
Which part? Not the roasting surely?
The penis. No I don’t know, someone once asked me what it’s like being a woman in this industry. It’s tricky, because I don’t know the other side of it. It’s hard enough for me to get over my own shit. Sometimes I see blokes in the industry going out together for drinks and I think, I want to go and have a drink. Then I think, is it because I’m a woman or because I’m socially awkward? I don’t fucking know. So sometimes I do think maybe it’d be easier as a man but I don’t know for sure because I’m not.
If I’m going to Warrington right now, where are the top 3 places I have to go?
First of all, the museum is fucking cool.
The museum?
The only one. There’s a seal that got washed up on the river Mersey. It got taxidermied by someone who’d never seen a seal before so it looks like it’s on its way to a walrus of something. Eyes bulging, really bloated.
Second thing you’ve got to see is the Pink Eye. It was quite a tall building in Warrington for a while. It’s painted pink with a teardrop eye with a whole website call whythepinkeye.com.
I’m quite intrigued.
The last place I would recommend, Old Hall in Sankey Valley Park. It’s an old mansion in the park so loads of ghost stories have been made up about it. Derek Acorah went there and said it wasn’t haunted. It’s not about the old hall, it’s all about the maze in the garden that is sometimes maintained. I’ve got another one!
Nope top three only.
Can I take one out and replace it with IKEA?
I’m not having that.
But it was the first IKEA!
Outside of Sweden?
In the UK! It’s go the highest footfall to lowest spend in any IKEA in the world and when I was 16 I went on a first date there.
I don’t think you realise how funny that is. When did you leave for London?
2010.
What’s your favourite instrument to play?
I don’t know how to play anything, I just like playing with things. That’s what happens with roasting, I like figuring stuff out. So guitar because I can play it to an okay level.
When was the last time you gigged?
Not last summer the summer before
Do you want to do it again?
Yeah. It’s tricky, we have a band sort of but during covid, one of our members moved to Cyprus to start a family. He’s got twins so that’s a lot. Mattias is actually now in a band that’s big in Japan called PG Lost. Then Serra started another band called Los Bitchos who are actually fucking huge. I feel like things didn’t fall apart, they just got put on a hiatus. We were still recording during covid off and on and we did make an album. Then coming out of covid, we couldn’t play gigs and the whole thing got put on hold. We finally released it like a year ago, maybe a big longer? Andy’s my really good friend and we’re both still up for gigging.
Yeah so Mattias and Serra, leave your successful bands and come back to Mandi and Andy.
Yes we’re still down to play! Serra, you can come back and play drums for us!
What’s the band name?
PURS.