Onelinedrawing |
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Over the past few years, Jonah Matranga has won over the hearts of so many 16-year old kids just by standing on stages with a guitar and leaving his soul laid open to their curious prodding. And when I say kids, I mean the emo bunch, the teens in slipknot shirts, the skate kids, and the other happy-to-be-freaks. It’s hugely impressive given that he provides an alternative to the standard form of pop and manufactured crap, as well as the most accessible rock music the world is fed through the media, although also worrying that there are so few other performers out there who can be such a salvation. Sure Jonah can rock, and he has done so forcefully in the past, both with the seminal outfit Far who never quite reached the public heights they deserved, and later on with New End Original. That’s why these kids care in the first place, but Onelinedrawing has existed for years too, providing music at its most naked, and those who witness the live show become completely swept up in the emotions it generates. Audiences suddenly become connected so wholly through this one performer, and without any theatrics or bombast, you’re completely hooked into his world. Yet my one persistent thought is that even after all these years of winning over new fans, Jonah still appears to be chained to those emo/punk/rock audiences, and although it's keeping him in good business, I can’t quite comprehend what the rest of the music world is actually waiting for.
Perhaps Onelinedrawing has always needed to be seen to be believed, though. Sure the songs were always good, but it was typically the additional emotional quotient from the live performances that made them soar. So this time there have been attempts to recreate that feeling in the recordings for The Volunteers. On ‘Over It’ for example, the song closes with the sounds of a Onelinedrawing audience singing along in chorus, attempting to make you be a part of the record instead of just a customer. You can feel it in ‘Superhero’ too, when Jonah steps away from the mic, and suddenly you’re listening to the natural sound of a voice in a room, changing the whole perspective of the song. In a music culture where everything is processed and patched, it’s all too easy to lose sight of the natural, yet stripping away the gloss and presenting an honest sound makes such a huge difference to the result.
The bulk of The Volunteers is gentle and sincere, with quiet arrangements and tales of love, heartbreak, and the evils of the corporate world, but there are a few exceptions that sway away from the standard singer/songwriter movement. Instrumental ‘Portland’ has a music box style, perhaps more connected to the recent influences of Yann Tiersen on the music world. ‘We Had a Deal’ of course stands out because it rocks like a bugger, spouting energy and good feelings on every play. Then there is ‘Stay’, a new entry in the Onelinedrawing book, which perhaps owes a bit much to Interpol for the guitar sound. It sounds lovely for it, though, and is such a beautiful collection of notes, generating the captivating atmosphere of 4AM along with the floating thoughts of longing to go with it.
Given that The Volunteers has 11 songs, beautiful packaging, and then a further 12 MP3s of demo material that can be accessed from a computer, it’s impossible to complain from a consumer perspective. And with the market of 16-year old emo kids secured, it’s maybe time for Onelinedrawing to conquer the late-20s, early-30s songwriting brigade too, or at least expand into new markets that should be craving this strength of performance.
Steven McCarron
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