Musicians - Jonah Matranga

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	Musicians - Jonah Matranga

Jonah Sonz Matranga (AKA Jonah Rzadzinski Matranga) (born August 11, 1969 in Massachusetts) is a singer, songwriter and guitarist who has released a variety of solo material under both 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.

Biography

Early life

Jonah 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 remain close to his daughter. He currently lives in San Francisco.

Solo Career

After Far's end, Jonah began to perform with an R2-D2 drum machine and touring under the name onelinedrawing, which had been the name of a cassette he had released on Kevin Seconds's Pop Rockit Records. He released two EPs that year (Sketchy EPs #1 and #2) of bedroom demos.

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 , 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 . The DVD There's a Lot in Here was re-released with a bonus CD on February 21, 2006, through Equal Vision Records.

Guest Appearances

Jonah has also contributed backup vocals to Thursday's album War All The Time, on the track "Steps Ascending", and with Deftones has contributed to a cover of "Savory", a Jawbox song. He has also contributed to previous Matt Nathanson releases and to two songs by Fort Minor, including the single "Where'd You Go" and also appears in the video. In 2005 he co-wrote Taproot's "Calling", the first single from their album Blue-Sky Research.

Freewrite Personal Statement As Of Jan2006, For Fun (by Jonah)

In numbers: 15 years, 4 band names, 6-full lengths, 5 EPs, several splits, several comps, 100+ songs, 1000+ shows. Sinead O'Connor meets Cheap Trick. Neil Young is a huge hero for the chances he's taken. Anyone that takes chances, be it Prince, Zeppelin, PE, Fugazi, Sinead, Miles... I love that, that is what inspires me. I am a mess of art-school ideals and populist sentiment, and I love that paradox. I'm okay with (and happy about) being considered influential in the context of post-hardcore, anti-macho rock, but I take no responsibility for McEmo as it generally manifests today. I deplore the commodification of sincerity, and big budgets to make people look/sound 'authentic'. If I go there, it's real, not a clever put-on. Gratitude was a nightmare in many ways, though I'm really proud of the songs and the shows. It taught me finally that while I love rock, I can't do it in a traditional way. I'm not good at it, and I don't like it. Nothing special about playing guitar, it's about what you put into it. I still love singing, and am overwhelmed regularly listening to music. I am an utter rock geek, an art idealist, and I absolutely believe in the transformative, transcendent power of rocking the fuck out. Rocking the fuck out is in no way tied to volume or mood, it's just letting go.

Discography

Solo Releases

Jonah Sonz Matranga - Songs I Hope My Mom Will Like (1994)
Jonah Matranga - onelindrawing (1998)
onelinedrawing - Sketchy EP #1 (1999)
onelinedrawing - Sketchy EP #2 (2000)
onelinedrawing/Sense Field - Split EP (2000)
onelinedrawing/Rival Schools - Rival Schools United by Onelinedrawing (2001)
onelinedrawing - Always New Jan-Jun 2000 (online 2000, CD 2001)
onelinedrawing - Always New Jul-Dec 2000 (online 2000, CD 2002)
onelinedrawing - Always New 2001 (online 2001 only)
onelinedrawing - Visitor (2002 Jade Tree)
onelinedrawing - The Volunteers (2004 Jade Tree)
Jonah Matranga - There's A Lot In Here (DVD) (2005)
Jonah Matranga - Sketchy EP #3 (2005)

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