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Jonah Matranga
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Jonah Rzadzinski Matranga (born Jonah Sonz Matranga, August 11, 1969, Brookline, Massachusetts) is a singer, songwriter and guitarist 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.
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Encyclopedia
Jonah Rzadzinski Matranga (born Jonah Sonz Matranga, August 11, 1969, Brookline, Massachusetts) is a singer, songwriter and guitarist 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 and tour under his own name as a solo artist. Matranga is a vegetarian.
Biography
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. He currently lives in San Francisco, making music and raising his daughter.
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 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.
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 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 () 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 () 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.
Matranga has expressed interest in touring with his "Where'd You Go" collaborator Holly Brook.
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 the Jawbox song "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 Far album Water & Solutions. The track was produced by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and Fort Minor.
Jonah has also lent his vocals on Atlanta-based band [minus]'s (later changed to [minus driver]) song "Hesitant and Polite" which appeared on their album Structure of Simplicity.
Discography
Solo releases
Band releases
External links
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