MangoDog Interview

An interview w/ Floridian-Trinidadian Indie artist MangoDog 

Written by: Amari Newman

4/9/2026

Breaking out of the "Underground" is an extensive task for any artist, regardless of genre. Most "Next Up" blog-list-frequenters are normally not new at all. They often grind for years in their respective sound before receiving the press and accolades of a hot new artist. 

One example of this is Shaboozey, who I saw open (as an underground rapper) for Goth Money and Yung Gleesh in the basement of a DC Strip Club in 2015, winning the People's Choice Country Award for Brand New Artist nearly a decade later in 2024. Shaboozey is a unique mainstream success story, but there are a plethora of artists in the underground following this longterm blueprint.

MangoDog, a Florida-born and Trinidad-raised Indie artist, personifies this lengthy grind. He received a wave of internet attention in 2024 after clips of him performing on the streets of NYC went viral on Instagram and TikTok. The grungy feel of his impromptu performances (normally shot by his brother @mikeost) on subway platforms and busy sidewalks perfectly meshed with his synth-heavy DarkWave music. The reels were sent my way by Keondre (member of the Philly Electro-Punk band Fast Car Slow Car) and I booked Mango for a gig in January 2025. 

At the time, I thought he was a new artist from NYC's expansive DIY scene. However, MangoDog had been active for over a decade in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida, playing in a variety of local garage bands like Alexander & The Grapes, Alexander & The Venus, The Jackettes, and Oliver and Company. 

After hitting a creative wall, Mango moved to NYC in 2018 and took a break from music. He picked it back up during the 2020 COVID lockdowns and took on the MangoDog name. The one-man Goth-Punk project (he records and engineers all the music himself) is characterized by biting bass runs and guitar riffs, ethereal synths, and honest lyrics about the everyday struggles of a starving artist.  

I stayed in contact with Mango after our show together, and pulled up on him in Brooklyn at Maria Hernandez Park last July. We talked at length about his upbringing in both Trinidad and St. Petersburg, street performances, the NYC DIY scene, being a Black Indie artist, and early concepts for his upcoming project Silver Rose, which is set to drop this spring. Read the Full conversation below. 

*This interview has been edited for length + clarity

Amari: So you were born in Trinidad, right?

MangoDog: No, I was born in St. Petersburg, Florida, but I grew up in Trinidad.

A: Your family had you in Florida then moved back to Trinidad?

M: Yeah, my dad was a minister so they were doing mission work in Trinidad, they’re from there. As a kid, I would go back and forth. The first time I went to Trinidad, I was seven and spent like three years there and came back for about a year. Then I went back and forth every two years until I was 19. 

When did you start getting into music?

My mom put me on to music. When she was pregnant with me, she would play music on her stomach. It was a lot of contemporary Christian music. It's kind of corny, but I always respect where I came from. There was this band called The Newsboys and they had this song called “Shine” that had a guitar riff. After I was born, she'd play it in the car, and I would just be going crazy in the back seat to that guitar riff. 

She eventually got me lessons from this old dude named Mr. Leonard when we were in Trinidad. I started off on the piano keyboard, and my brother was on the guitar, and we’d practice chords. I would go home and practice with just three chords, and I found what I was always meant to do.

When did you put out your first song as MangoDog? 

The first song as MangoDog was back during the pandemic. When I moved to New York in 2018, I was in a bad place, pretty depressed and stuff. I stopped doing music and was just taking a break, and during the pandemic there was nothing to do, so I picked it back up with a new approach. I would always think I wasn't good enough. Like I got to practice more, or I'm doing something wrong. But during the pandemic, I was like you know what? Fuck all this, I’m just gonna enjoy music. I was listening to a lot of Coltrane, he’s super spiritual and metaphysical, and it taught me to look at music differently. I think about it more as energy, feeling, and melody.

Did you have any other names before MangoDog?

So I actually did for a while. When I was in Florida, after I took a break from the bands and right before I came to New York, there was a few months where I had a SP-404. Back then, SoundCloud was pretty popping. So I started making lo-fi beats and went by The Mighty Vero.

You also have a background in busking. When was that happening?

So that happened about two years ago. It started out of desperation honestly, a means to an end. Before that, with my MangoDog stuff, like every artist, I was trying to make the right moves and find connections. I would email bloggers, playlisters, labels and hear nothing back. I used websites like Submithub and they would always give me whack ass reviews and critiques.

 Then me and my friend DONT TRIP were pulling up to open mics, but the audience would be a bunch of artists waiting for their turn to perform. I remember we pulled up to one spot, and the crew who organized it was just putting themselves on. We signed up and they didn't even call our names. I was like 'Fuck this shit, I'm gonna get a PA.' I live in New York, there's mad people everywhere. I'd rather just perform out on the streets and give people the opportunity to see if they like it or not.

Do you feel like the street performances helped you with doing live shows?

Oh 100%. And I talk about this a lot because you never know what to expect on the streets. Sometimes there'll be nobody there, and sometimes I’ll start and people will see me turning up and they'll gather around. The number one thing it taught me was to bring the energy before anyone else does. So now when I play a show, whether it's a few people or a bunch of people, it's always going to be the same quality.

A few of your street performance clips went viral last year. What has getting that social media attention been like? Did anything change in your day to day life? 

Nothing's changed financially at all. But it gave me a lot more confidence. I’ve always struggled with low self-esteem, so being in the spotlight definitely helped build that back up. Because of the way I came up, I'm pretty humble. In my mind, I'm just like everyone else. I like making music and I'm trying to make some money. It has definitely shifted my reality though. It's crazy, I would be interning at these studios, and now I'm going back as one of the artists that somebody brought there.

When you’re recording music, are the lyrics something you're writing out in advance? Or do they come to you in the moment? 

Usually I'm in a flow state. I never really write my lyrics, and that's why it's 50-50. I feel like when it hits, it hits, but sometimes I'll be banging my head against the wall not gonna lie. Part of my struggle is that the people who are in the shits, they get it. But then I’ll hear feedback from industry people and they don't relate to the content. They’re used to hearing Indie music talking about different stuff, but for me, I don't relate to that. It drives me crazy man, to the point where I’m just empowered by my own voice. I don't even care about the critics and the feedback. I just make it for me now.

What's your association with Deathproof? Are you a part of it?

So I'm just associated with them. Shoutout to Deathproof, shoutout to Miyagi. That's [was] my manager. He found me through one of my boosted posts. The clip of me wylin’ at Market Hotel somehow hit him in LA, then he reached out to me on some calm music vibes because he makes music too. We were exchanging demos and he was like ‘Oh wait, do you have a manager?’ And that's how it happened. He connected me with a lot of the homies on DeathProof. Shoutout Nascar Aloe, he put me on some big shows with him. I have a lot of respect for Nascar because I came in as a nobody and opened for him, so I don’t take that for granted.

That’s a cool position to be in because you’re still a truly independent artist. Would you want to sign to a label?

To be honest, at my age, I don't want to ever sell out, but I just need bread… If the deal's right, you know? Like, I'm interested in a tour deal or something like that.

Can you elaborate on the brick by brick motto that you use on social media?

Oh yeah, that's my shit. Brick by brick man. My whole thing is I'm just doing this shit the long and hard way. My whole growth has come by one step at a time. And that's blood, sweat and tears. That's where all my rage comes from too. I'm like shit nobody's gonna help me but myself. Now stuff is growing and building. That's how the brick by brick came about. 

How did the Cure For Sadness video w/ Turin Films come about? What was the concept behind it?

I was going so hard in the streets that I kind of fucked myself. I was performing OD and picking up a bunch of side hustles, and woke up one day with a pain in my chest. It persisted for a few days, so I checked into the hospital. They were like, ‘Something's kind of weird [with your heart].’ I was like oh shit.

I got in my head, and I've always struggled with depression, so when the doctor asked me if I ever thought about hurting myself, I paused and was like yeah. You know everyone has those thoughts, but that put me even more in my head. They cleared me for the heart stuff, but the last time I saw the doctor she was like, ‘You checked out ok, but how's your sadness?’ And I was like what type of question is that? Then I was like, whoa... So that's how I came up with "Cure for Sadness." 

Then Jeremiah [Turin Films] and I would be kicking it and making videos. We didn't have no budget or nothing. That's how we came up with the twisted smiley face. I had a homie, shoutout Erica, she made the paper mache head, and I got a lot of homies to wear the mask [in the video] too. And Jeremiah shot it all in 35mm.

So you came out with the track Funeral on July 4th, and that's a pretty personal track. Would you want to talk about it a little bit?

Growing up in Trinidad, and traveling back and forth, there was a lot of good in that. It caused me to be more open-minded, but I feel like I struggle with detachment issues. I remember one of my best friends in Florida, his name is Jonathan, would send me mixtapes of Indie bands when I was in Trinidad because I couldn't get the music there. He got diagnosed with cancer, a brain tumor. We would talk on the phone once a month or so while he was going through chemo. I thought he was doing good, but one day I got the news that he passed away while I was in Trinidad. I couldn't go to the funeral, so I just had to get over it. But it's left this weird feeling, like people are here one day and the next minute they're gone. Flash forward to the pandemic, my granddad passed away. And because of the pandemic, I couldn't go to that funeral either. He was another person I really respected. My granddad, his name is Jerry, was a steel drum player. That's where I get the music bug. He passed away and once again I had that same feeling. So that's what I tapped into for that track. That was my way of having that closure.

You have an upcoming project correct? How many tracks is it going to be?

Hopefully seven tracks. I'm really excited about it man. It's called Silver Rose. I don't want to say too much to put myself in a corner, but you know how you have red roses? I feel like life can change a person, expectations are lost, and you just kind of change. It's so beautiful, but in a new way. Your whole mind gets messed up, but you can still embrace the beauty of it all.

That’s a tough name and concept.

Thanks man, and also I be rocking the wig sometimes, and it's silver so that lines up too. 

Are the tracks on Silver Rose an assortment of songs you’ve been sitting on? Or did you record them specifically for this project?

I honestly had no intention of putting out a project until I announced that I was working on one. I’m a firm believer that singles are the way to go, but now that I have an audience and not just releasing music to the void, it kind of makes sense. My manager was the one who suggested it. I already had a bunch of songs that I was working on, so it made sense to wait to put it out together. It's just hard waiting man. I be teasing OD and people are like drop this now!!

Will there be any features on Silver Rose?

I might have some co-writes and stuff, but no features. Once I'm done with this project, I have a lot of other tracks I'm working on that I want to feature artists on. It'd be dope to do another feature with DONT TRIP, or with some of the homies Clearjaw, Oddly Shrugs, and Donny Killjoy. Those are the three in my type of lane that I want to work with, and we're all homies. I would love to put out a mixtape with features that I produced, and another mixtape with rappers.

So you’ve been making music for over a decade, but you’re just now getting some attention. I feel like most of your supporters consider you a new artist even though you're an OG DIYer. So where do you see yourself in the general the New York music scene right now?

Man... I'm thankful because I'm in a pretty good place. A lot of DIY heads know me and it's all love and respect. I fuck with them heavy too. Some are OGs in the New York underground scene like Pink Tacos, they actually got me my first show in New York. And that was through the homie Crackhead Barney. I'm always pushing myself, I never want to get stagnant, and I also don't want to get stuck in the underground. I'm trying to push it to aboveground. I want a family and I want to see everybody I care about good. I still take underground shows out of love and respect for the culture, but I don't want to get stuck.

Yeah, you put your time in.

I put in hella time and energy. I paid my dues. I just never want to come off like I'm too good for this shit. Hell no! That's not the energy at all. 

Nah man, you're just knowing your self worth.

Exactly, for Black people and people of color doing alt shit, now is the time. I never think that I'm the only one doing this, I never want to be the only one doing this. When I was a kid, I used to feel bad about [my music tastes] because one time my dad came into my room and looked at my posters of rock bands and was like ‘Why is there a bunch of white men on your wall?' I was like 'yeah that’s kind of weird,' and took them down. So I’m looking forward to the day when there’s thousands of Black and POC artists that I can put my kids onto, you know? So in my mind, even if its similar sounds, I dont care. It’s not a competition. 

Those are all the questions I had man. Any shoutouts before we wrap up?

I mean shoutout to the homies, shoutout to Miyagi, the DeathProof crew, my mom and pops, DONT TRIP, ClearJaw. I could spend so much time shouting out everyone. If I miss anyone, know it's all love, and I appreciate the community forreal man. The community inspires me, so shoutout to every artist out here doing their thing and going hard.

And shoutout MangoDog

Tap in w/ MangoDog via his Website, Instagram, YouTube and Bandcamp