Jonah Matranga is essentially unique. His music is somewhere between Prince, Tom Petty, The Clash, and Beyoncé, but it doesn’t really fit into any genre. He has influenced singers and bands in several genres over the last 20 years, from Dashboard Confessional to Deftones. He’s toured with artists ranging from The Weakerthans to Sepultura. He’s turned up on hip-hop records from Fort Minor and Lupe Fiasco, done a split with Frank Turner, and been on releases by Thursday, Kimya Dawson, Deftones, and many more.
Jonah has fronted innovative hard rock bands (Far, Gratitude) made all sorts of indie albums (onelinedrawing, New End Original, Camorra). He was making a living doing sliding-scale and crowdfunding and crowd-sourced patronage way before it was cool. He’s made records with budgets ranging from $300 to $300,000. He just wrote a memoir about doing all that while raising his daughter. He crowdfunded that, too.
Jonah has played as many house shows as he has huge festivals, and he brings the same thing regardless of where he’s playing — a devoted fanbase, accomplished, ambitious songwriting, an abundance of wit and honesty, and an interest in making something new every time.
