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 to Sacramento to form Far in 1991.
They made four albums, including Water & Solutions, before disbanding in December 1998. During this time, Matranga 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 Portland, making music and raising his daughter.
Solo career and New End Original
After the demise of Far, Matranga 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 in 1999 (Sketchy EP #1 and #2) of bedroom demos. He put out two further EPs in 2001 – Always New JanJun00 and Always New JulDec00.
In 2000, Matranga formed and fronted New End Original, a band that primarily performed 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-released, though often subsequently distributed through labels such as Crank! and Corrupted Image. However, Matranga's two full-length onelinedrawing albums, Visitor (2002) - a compliation of acoustic-based home recordings spanning a few years - and The Volunteers (2004) were released by Jade Tree Records.
The Volunteers possessed a more polished sound – courtesy of mixer Dave Sardy, who had previously worked with Matranga on Far's Water & Solutions.
Matranga retired the onelinedrawing moniker in 2004 and intended to put all future solo releases under his name. In December 2004, Matranga began offering custom-made recordings of songs by himself or others through his website, in order to offer a one-of-a-kind musical art piece.
In 2005, Matranga put out Sketchy EP #3, as well as a DVD, There's a Lot in Here, both of which were available on a sliding scale ("pay what you can") from Matranga's 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's song "Crush on Everyone" was featured in the soundtrack to the 2008 John Humber film Dakota Skye, and "Got My List" was sung by the movie's protagonists.
Guest appearances
Matranga has contributed backup vocals to War All the Time (by Thursday) on the track "Steps Ascending", to the Deftones's acoustic remix version of "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)", and to a cover of Sade's song "No Ordinary Love", both of which the Deftones released as b-sides. Several Deftones members contributed to Far's cover of the Jawbox song "Savory".
Matranga 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 two Fort Minor songs for the album The Rising Tied: "Red to Black" with Kenna; and the single "Where'd You Go" with Holly Brook, where he also appears in the video. "Where'd You Go" reached the #4 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
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, Matranga 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 also appeared on the Madden NFL 07 soundtrack. Jonah sings a hook ("And he never lied, '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.
Matranga 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.
Matranga returned to the onelinedrawing name in 2012 for Audio Antihero label's Some.Alternate.Universe compilation for the FSID charity. He contributed "Friendship Tango". Matranga sang backing vocals for Zebulon-Raleigh, North Carolina–based songwriter Nick Driver's independent release Poets' Corner Volume One track titled "Universal Love" in late 2012.
In August 2021, UK stoner/post-rock band Sons of Alpha Centauri released their album Push featuring Matranga as guest vocalist on all nine tracks. This was a notable departure from the band's formerly instrumental sound.
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