Mantis & The Prayer's William Parmelee On Tying A Praying Mantis Egg Into His Garden

On whether the praying mantis is his spirit animal, William Parmelee (aka Mantis) laughs, "I don't know whether I would've chosen it, but it seems it's chosen me!" Parmelee has spoken before about a time when he looked in the mirror and his face became the face of a mantis and he reveals, "I've actually looked for it since and, like, I didn't have that same experience, so it was strange. But, to tell you the truth, I've always been fascinated with [praying mantises]... I remember looking at them when I was younger and just how still and different they were from any other insect." 

He landed in Melbourne via a couple of other countries and Parmelee clarifies, "Yes, so born in New York and then I went to London in 2004 and I was there for six years before I came here." And his fascination with praying manteses goes way back. "When I first started recording back in New York, I bought some mantis eggs; you can buy them from nurseries 'cause they're good for your garden... In nature they generally would lay their eggs, like, in the fork of a small tree or shrub, or sort of hidden in the underbrush. So I tried to mimic that and I tied the egg with some thread, just to keep it in place and they hatched! And I had these little baby mantises everywhere, 'cause there was, like, three or four hundred to every egg," he laughs.

"I remember looking at them when I was younger and just how still and different they were from any other insect." 

Parmelee transforms into Mantis for the band's live shows, which calls to mind Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. "I definitely get into character when I'm on stage and I remember there was a show that we did and, when I got off [stage], this girl came up to me and, she's like, 'You're like an evil David Bowie'," he chuckles. "I understood where she was coming from, I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, I like that association' [laughs]."

It sounds as if there are some theatrics involved in Mantis & The Prayer's live performances and Parmelee confirms, "'Cause, you know, the album's called Butterflies & Demons, we've been playing around with that - incorporating that into our act... I have a butterfly painted on my face and then I take fake blood and, usually toward the end of the set [spoiler alert], I'll turn my back on the audience and then have the fake blood so it's sort of coming off the butterfly - it's on my face. It's this beautiful butterfly that's contrasted with this blood, so it's this contrasting imagery... I think that's what the essence of Butterflies & Demons is, you know, it's like the yin and yang - butterflies, demons - the light and dark mix, or balance."     

The material on Butterflies & Demons is "a mixture of new and stuff that's sort of been with me for a while", says Parmelee. "I moved here from London in 2012 and I remember writing a few songs during that transition period before I had re-established the band here." Parmelee wrote all of the songs "except for Lady Of The Lake, which was a collaboration with the band".

Post-interview email from Mantis: "Forgot to mention that we are performing an invoking spell in the CBD soon and will be putting up a video clip which talks about it."