Meet Matt Rhea | Lead Singer, Manganista

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matt Rhea and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
I don’t obsess over band stuff nearly as much anymore. It used to be all I would think about when I was younger. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was the prospect of turning something I really enjoyed doing into something bigger like a career. There are still times here and there when I need to go into lunatic mode for a few days. It’s usually when a wave of creativity hits and everything is clicking on a new song I’m writing, or maybe a video I’m putting together. Those waves can be pretty short-lived, so I’ve learned to just accept that I may not get a whole lot of sleep for a few days until I make it through to the other side. Otherwise, it’ll pass me by and/or I’ll get sick of the song before it’s even done because the inspiration is gone and now it’s being forced. I guess the difference now is that if the inspiration or idea is compelling enough, I’ll make a conscious decision to dedicate mental bandwidth towards it. If it’s not there, I’ll try to focus on other things in my life. There’s a great song on the latest Nada Surf record with a chorus that says “Today, I do what’s in front of me now”. I guess I’m trying to do more of that.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I had played drums in indie rock bands for years and was trying to write my own songs for the first time on the side. I thought it would be fun to have an outlet for these songs, but do something different than anything I had done before. Something similar to the energy of the bands I grew up listening to like Oingo Boingo, XTC, The Beat, etc. So some of my oldest friends (some of which go all the way to elementary school) and I started a band that eventually became Manganista. A lot of the bands we grew up listening to fused different styles/genres of music into their songs, but it never sounded gimmicky to me. They still maintained some sort of constant that made them always sound like themselves, even when they were tinkering around with influences from around the world. I liked that and it introduced me to so many other kinds of music that I ended up loving. I guess that’s what we sometimes try to do in Manganista that might set us apart from other rock bands that are playing things a little more straight. We’ll experiment with all kinds of music, but never fully commit to a style in a song. It might just be a subtle thing like a Zimbabwean Jit-influenced drum beat or maybe a Ska-ish sounding guitar rhythm. But at the end of the day, it’s still a rock song.

The band has never been a full time thing for us. We all do non-musical things for our full time jobs. At the same time, it seems like it has been more than just a casual hobby since we’ve dedicated so much time and energy towards it. We’re pretty goal oriented so that’s helped us accomplish a lot of cool things along the way like releasing records, playing with bands we never thought we’d get to play with, seeing people from time to time sing a long with us at shows, etc. Our latest release is one of the craziest things we’ve ever been involved in and is a good example of the band experimenting with different styles of music, but in a way we’ve never done before. We released a 7” last year that had two relatively straight forward rock songs on it. Our friend John Roy runs a record label called Escape Hatch Records so I asked him if he wanted to help distribute our record. Since the label focusses on mostly Jamaican influenced music like reggae, ska, etc., John suggested that we remix the songs and add some new tracks to create reggae and dub versions. Yada, yada, yada, in June we released a three record box set that includes a record with the original mixes, one with reggae versions and a third record with dub reggae versions. Our buddy Dave who did the original artwork for the first record, contributed two more paintings for the second and third record for continuity and to visually represent the gradual evolution of the songs. The box set also includes other goodies like a sticker, air freshener, pop rocks candy and mini robot figurines. I feel pretentious calling myself an artist so I almost never refer to myself that way, but the box set project is probably the closest thing to a work of art that I’ve ever been affiliated with. Definitely proud to be a part of that release.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m probably the worst friend to set up a week-long itinerary for someone, but here are some ideas…

– North Park Beer Co. and Pure Project if this friend likes beer
– The Casbah or maybe the Soda Bar if there’s a good band playing
– Balboa Park and possibly the Zoo
– Torrey Pines for a hike and the beach
– Petco Park for a Padres game
– Any taco shop that ends in “bertos”
– The La Mesa Village because it’s up the street from my house

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The guys in the band…

Ryan McMullen – Guitar
Dusty Norberg – Drums
Jason Thomas – Bass
Steve Anderson – Keyboards

Website: http://manganista.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manganistaband

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/manganistamusic

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@manganistamusic?si=Qyd2I190SLEcoc39

Other: https://linktr.ee/manganista