Jonah Matranga

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Jonah Matranga

Background information
Birth name Jonah Sonz Matranga
Born August 11, 1969 (1969-08-11) (age 38)
Origin Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
Genre(s) Melodic hardcore
singer-songwriter
Occupation(s) Musician
Instrument(s) Vocals
guitar
drum machine
Years active 1991 - present
Label(s) Equal Vision Records
Jade Tree
Epic
Atlantic
Associated acts Lupe Fiasco, Far,
New End Original,
Gratitude,
Fort Minor
Website jonahmatranga.com

Jonah Rzadzinski Matranga (born Jonah Sonz Matranga, August 11, 1969, Brookline, Massachusetts) is a singer, songwriter, guitarist and novice snake handler who has released a variety of solo material under his own name and onelinedrawing, and has previously been part of the bands Far and New End Original (an anagram of "onelinedrawing"). His most recent band-related project was Gratitude, who put out their debut album in March 2005, but fell apart the following November. He now continues to work, under his own name and for Ted Turner as a solo artist with a new album in the works.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Jonah Rzadzinski Matranga grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. He left in 1987 to attend Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he majored in English and began making music by himself. After graduation, he moved up to Sacramento to form Far in 1991.

They made four albums, including the classic Water and Solutions, before disbanding in December 1998. During this time, Jonah married in April 1994, and his daughter was born that August. He divorced two years later. In 1999, he moved to the Bay Area to be closer to friends in the Castro area. He currently lives in San Francisco, working on some solo work and staying at home with his daughter.

[edit] Solo career and New End Original

After the demise of Far, Jonah began to perform with a tape recorder and touring under the name onelinedrawing, which was the name of a cassette he released on Kevin Seconds's Pop Rockit Records. He released two EPs that year (Sketchy EPs #1 and #2) of bedroom demos.

In 2000, he formed and fronted New End Original, a band that primarily formed full-band versions of onelinedrawing songs. With the lineup completed by Texas Is The Reason alumni Scott Winegard (bass) and Norman Arenas (guitar), and drummer Charlie Walker (ex-Chamberlain), they released one album Thriller and a single for Lukewarm.

Much of his solo material has also been self-published, though often subsequently distributed through labels such as Crank! and Corrupted Image. However, his two full-length onelinedrawing albums, Visitor (2002) and The Volunteers (2004) were released by Jade Tree Records.

Matranga retired the onelinedrawing moniker in 2004 and now intends to put all future solo releases under his name. In December of 2004, Jonah began offering custom-made recordings of songs by himself or others through his website, in order to offer a one-of-a-kind musical artpiece. Information about this and his many other ideas can be found on ([1]) Matranga's website, where he can also be contacted personally.

In 2005, Matranga put out Sketchy EP #3, as well as a DVD, There's a Lot in Here, both of which are available on a sliding scale ("pay what you can") from ([2]) Matranga's personally-maintained online store. The DVD There's a Lot in Here was re-released with a bonus CD on February 21, 2006, through Equal Vision Records.

[edit] Guest appearances

Jonah has contributed backup vocals to War All the Time (by Thursday) on the track Steps Ascending, and to the Deftones's acoustic remix version of Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) and a cover of Sade's song No Ordinary Love, both of which the Deftones released as b-sides (also, several Deftones members contributed to Far's cover of Jawbox's Savory).

He has also contributed to previous Matt Nathanson releases, a song called Swamp for Tweaker (a.k.a. Chris Vrenna, former member of Nine Inch Nails), which ended up a b-side for the album The Attraction to All Things Uncertain, and to the two Fort Minor songs: Red To Black and Where'd You Go, where he also appears in the video.

Matranga's name does not appear on the title card before and after the video, though he is credited on the album. He attributed his video anonymity (jokingly) to his name being too long and "music biz yuck". He often expresses his negative opinion of the music industry's business ethics.

In 2005 he co-wrote Calling for Taproot, the first single from their album Blue-Sky Research. He also appeared on Food & Liquor, the debut album for Lupe Fiasco, on the track entitled The Instrumental, which appeared on the Madden 07 soundtrack. Jonah sings a hook ("And he never lies, 'cause he never said anything at all") directly taken from the lyrics from 'Nestle', a song from the 'Water & Solutions' album by Far.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Solo releases

[edit] Band releases

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Jonah Matranga
as himself
as onelinedrawing
as part of Far
as part of New End Original
Lukewarm | Thriller
as part of Gratitude
Gratitude | Drive Away | This Is The Part