Jonah Matranga

Jonah Matranga

Jonah Matranga is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Brookline, Massachusetts, born in 1969. He works under his own name and also under the alias onelinedrawing. His recordings sit across singer-songwriter, melodic hardcore and rock, and he is also associated with indie, acoustic, folk and emo.

Early life and background

Matranga grows up in and around Boston, Massachusetts, and leaves for California in 1987 to attend Pitzer College in Claremont, where he studies English. After college he moves to Sacramento and later relocates to the Bay Area in 1999 to stay near his daughter. He lives in San Francisco.

Bands and group work

In 1991, Matranga forms Far with Shaun Lopez, Chris Robyn and Malcolm Keefe. Keefe leaves in 1993 and John Gutenberger joins. Far releases four albums before disbanding in December 1998. Matranga later performs with New End Original, an anagram of onelinedrawing, and with Gratitude. Other listed projects include I Is Another, Missing: Cat, Mr. Softee and Pieces of Fuck.

Solo recording and onelinedrawing

After Far ends, Matranga begins recording as onelinedrawing, a name that first appears on a cassette released on Kevin Seconds’s Pop Rockit Records. Much of his solo work is self-published and later distributed through labels including Crank! and Corrupted Image. His full-length onelinedrawing albums include Visitor and The Volunteers, both released by Jade Tree Records. He retires the onelinedrawing name in 2004 and says future solo releases will use his own name.

His solo discography also includes early cassette releases such as Songs I Hope My Mom Will Like, Jonah’s One-Line Drawing and Sketchy EP #1 and #2, as well as the online Always New series. Later releases include Sketchy EP #3, There’s a Lot in Here in DVD and CD+DVD forms, The Three Sketchys and a joint EP with Frank Turner.

Collaborations and guest appearances

Matranga contributes backing vocals to Thursday’s War All The Time on “Steps Ascending”. He also appears with Deftones on a cover of “No Ordinary Love”, contributes to releases by Matt Nathanson and Lupe Fiasco, and features on two songs by Fort Minor. In 2005, he co-writes Taproot’s “Calling”, the first single from Blue-Sky Research. He also releases an EP with Frank Turner.

Style and approach

Matranga describes his own output in terms of years of activity, multiple band names, several full-length releases, EPs, splits, compilations and a large number of songs and shows. He says he values taking risks, dislikes the commodification of sincerity, and sees singing and guitar playing as part of a broader commitment to expression rather than technique alone.