Leslie Mandoki fled to Germany in the 1970s. In an interview, he reveals how integration can succeed.
Leslie Mandoki will be celebrating his 70th birthday next year, before that the 30th anniversary of his Mandoki Soulmates is coming up: time to look back on the past few years. In an interview with the news agency spot on news, the artist looks back on his remarkable career. The 69-year-old fought for his dreams and has been able to live them for many years now. It all started in his hometown of Budapest.
As a young musician he was exposed to persecution and censorship there. A particularly “forming personality” during this time was his father, as Mandoki says. “I was 16 years old when he lost his battle with cancer. On his deathbed he told me, ‘The worst thing is that I’ll never meet my grandchildren.’ I had to promise him that his grandchildren would never read censored newspapers. That gave birth to the idea that one can fight for a better world.”
His father told him: “The Iron Curtain is not for you. You have to find your way. Live your dreams and don’t dream your life.” Mandoki dreamed of freedom – and fled with musician friends first to Austria and finally to Germany. When applying for asylum, he was asked what his plans were. His answer: he wanted to play with stars like Ian Anderson (75) from Jethro Tull, Jack Bruce (1943-2014) from Cream and guitarist Al Di Meola (68). “The officer only saw a crazy Hungarian with long hair in front of him. He judged me to be a madman, an idealist and a dreamer,” Mandoki recalls.
Leslie Mandoki: “No one ever asked me how I managed the integration”
But his dreams have gradually come true – thanks in part to successful integration. “I’m probably one of the best-known asylum seekers in Germany. Nobody has ever asked me how I managed to integrate, what the key is,” says Mandoki. “I fell in love with Germany, with the mentality and the culture. I succeeded because I had a job just two weeks after my arrival: I played drums in the Swabian State Theater.” The artist service asked him if he could read music. “The next morning I had a job,” says Mandoki. “I was in a completely German environment, but didn’t speak a word of German. The integration developed quite naturally.”
So he knows: “It’s not alimony that’s important, but inclusion. The integration of new fellow citizens will only succeed if they can be accepted immediately – in the work environment. You have to convey to people that they are valuable.”
Genghis Khan was ‘brief slip’
In Munich, one of his first stops in Germany, he saved up for his first drum kit. “That’s when I met Udo Lindenberg. Klaus Doldinger helped me a lot,” Mandoki recalls. “It was crazy back then in Munich. Here were Deep Purple, Elton John, Queen, the Rolling Stones, Giorgio Moroder and so on. I was the new guy in town.” The rest is music history: Mandoki first gained notoriety with the group Dschinghis Khan, which he now describes as a “brief slip”. “But I was able to prove myself,” he admits.
With the founding of the Mandoki Soulmates, he finally fulfilled his greatest wish: “Even at the age of 16 I had the dream of fusing progressive rock with fusion jazz,” says Mandoki. In 1993 he finally succeeded in putting this project into practice with big stars. Over the years he has not only inspired Ian Anderson, Jack Bruce and Al Di Meola for the Soulmates, but also other stars such as Bobby Kimball (75) from Toto, John Helliwell (77) from Supertramp as well as Michael (1949-2007) and Randy Brecker (76). He didn’t have to convince the musicians from the Soulmates for long: “It always worked. The music just has such an appeal,” says Mandoki proudly.
Mandoki Soulmates: Canoe tours on Lake Starnberg
The Mandoki Soulmates can now look back on 30 years together. A time in which they not only made music together, but also became close friends. “Our children know each other well,” says Mandoki. “I have a hut with several canoes on my property on Lake Starnberg. We like to use them across the lake together.”
The anniversary year will start with a big open-air concert on August 19th in the heart of Budapest, Mandoki’s birthplace. For the musician, this has come full circle: “We rehearse in the club where I used to be banned from playing. We’re going back to the dark rehearsal rooms where the longing for freedom originated back then.” And: Budapest is a “melting pot”, similar to the Mandoki Soulmates.
Because the friends are a motley group. What unites them are “the common values and the love for music,” says Mandoki. “If people treated each other the way we Soulmates do, it would be a peaceful, intergenerational, sustainable and holistic place,” he says. “We unite all religions and nations. We had, for example, Jack Bruce, who was a staunch Marxist, and then again someone who escaped Communism. That was a wonderful discourse. We have vegans, we have staunch meat eaters, and we come together. That is respect, tolerance and learning from the opposite. Because the truth always has two sides.”
“We want to go back to humane and mindful coexistence”
In the anniversary year, the Soulmates want to be there especially for their audience. “We want to give back decades of love and be a support. We want to sing songs about what connects us and not about what divides us. We want to go back to human and mindful togetherness,” emphasizes Mandoki. “We are facing challenges that have not existed in recent decades. Shortly before the Soulmates were founded, the wall fell, the Iron Curtain has disappeared. Today it is more relevant than ever that we have to fight for our freedom and values again . We, as Soulmates, have always wanted to be a thorn in the side of society.”
The concert in Budapest is just the starting signal for the anniversary year. The Soulmates are currently working on a new album. Many concerts and activities are planned – not only in Europe but also in the USA. The upcoming album is titled “A Memory of My Future”, as Mandoki reveals. The original plan was to write a fully autobiographical long player, but one or the other political aspect will not be missing. The view is not only directed backwards. Because for Mandoki it is important: “Every song has a view ahead – just like my life.”