Jonny Manak

Jonny Manak is a busy man. The professional skater is a prolific musician who not only performs in numerous bands on various instruments but also fronts his own pet project, Jonny Manak & The Depressives. JM&D is a wild combination of rock n' roll influences from the 50's, 60's and 70's. There are elements of surf rock, rockabilly, punk and 60's/70's garage rock littered throughout their songs. Imagine Chuck Berry and Dick Dale playing classic rock with members of The Ramones and you've got the right idea. The group started four years ago when Manak decided to go solo after having played guitar, bass or drums for The Cliftons, Clay Wheels, The Odd Numbers, The Forgotten, Fang and many others. He wrote and recorded his debut, Rebound Town, on his own, playing all instruments himself. The record proved to be a huge local and underground hit and received rave reviews from Razorcake, Rhapsody, Absolutepunk.net, Skratch and many others as well as airplay on college, satellite, internet and commercial radio. After that, JM&D released their second full-length album, 1.21 Jiggawatts. This time around, Manak recorded the album with his live band. The band is currently in the studio finishing up their third full length with the addition of an organ player. The band now consists of Jonny Manak on lead vocals and guitar, Kid Kris on bass, Craig Heitkam on drums and Curtis Meachum on organ and backing vocals. This is the strongest lineup to date! The group has performed nearly 300 shows in their four years together as a band. JM&D performed at the Refreshing Sounds Session in Amsterdam hosted by Heineken. They played a full set and had one of their songs remixed by three different local DJ's that same night as part of a competition. No stranger to skateboarding, Manak his own deck, courtesy of Beer Run Skateboards.



REVIEW ON RHAPSODY.COM
Iggy Pop may be a street walking cheetah with a head full of napalm, but Jonny Manak is a level 4 Druid of Elfin decent with 18 Hit Points, 20 Strength Points, 15 Dexterity Points, 17 Intelligence Points, -1 Wisdom Points and 19 Charisma Points. His weapon of choice is a +1 dancing sword and his Druid Spells include hypnosis, hilarity and Cockgrow Potion.



Ok, that was all a lie (except maybe for the last thing). In truth, Jonny Manak (his real name) has never rolled a multi-sided dice. But he is in fact a multi instrumentalist a "one man band" if you will. Manak's latest solo project started out of boredom from inside an empty garage with a four-track. It grew and grew (much like the effects of the aforementioned potion), to birth Jonny Manak and the Depressives -- an electrified punk 'n' roll sound that yielded the album Rebound Town, a good-times soundtrack that was recorded, mixed and mastered over two weekends in August of 2006 and was released on CD and Vinyl on Reach Around Records. Manak played Drums, bass, guitars and took on all singing duties. And if you find that self-indulgent or even "masturbatory," consider this:



Dues have been paid in full. Aside from the Depressives, he currently plays (and tours) in three bands: The Forgotten, The Cliftons and skaterock legends, Clay Wheels (hes a professional skater with his own signature board out on Sacrifice Skateboards). He has also played in FANG, The Resistoleros, The Odd Numbers, the Texas Thieves and about 35 other SF Bay Area bands over his career.



Manak has always played in the bands of other people and never let himself play the kind of Ritalin deprived, temper-tantrum, seizure-inducing rock that oozes out of him as easily as last nights beer.



His first taste of musicianship came at age eight when he joined the school band for the sole purpose of getting to bail class for an hour a day, and much like a young woman in the ghetto getting her first taste of the "glass phallus," he was hooked. After test-driving the violin at age eight, the clarinet at age nine, the bass clarinet at age ten, and the alto clarinet at age 11, trumpet at age 12, Manak made an important decision. That decision was, "Fuck clarinets." And so it came to pass that when he first picked up the guitar, bass and drums, the foundations for Rebound Town were born.



Have you ever been to Party Mountain? It's a magical, mystical mountain where Jonny writes all of his songs and demos them on his cassette 4 track. It's where all your dreams come true (except that one where Gary Oldman and Gary Coleman have their own cooking show on NPR). Party Mountain is much like the famed Hotel California, where "You can check in any time you like/But you can never leave." That is not to say that Manak's music sounds anything like the Eagles or any other feathered moustache dad-rock for that matter.



Jonny Manak and The Depressives completed their 2nd full length titled "1.21 Jiggawatts" in June of 07' that was released in the spring of 08' on Reach Around Records digitally. They recorded two Bowie covers, one for vinyl and the other track for CD. This time he brought the live band which at the time consisted of Kid Kris on Bass, Steve "golden goose" Campbell on Drums and Jonny Manak on Lead Guitar/Vox.
In 2010 with a new attitude, Jonny went into the studio with a new lineup to record their 3rd full length titled "I am not a bum. I'm a JERK!" taken from one of Manak's favorite movies, The Jerk. This supercharged lineup includes Craig Heitkam on Drums, Curtis Meacham on Hammond Organ and backing vocals, Kid Kris on Bass and Jonny on lead vocals and guitars. The album was recorded over a 6 month period at The Compound Studios with Joe Clements. It was released physically and digitally in October.
Jonny Manak loves 50's, 60's and 70's rock 'n' roll and garage punk. He's heavily influenced by The Sonics, The Kinks, Little Richard, The Real Kids, Chuck Berry, The Rezillos, Johnny Thunders, the Deadboys, Radio Birdman, Buzzcocks, The Jam, The Rolling Stones, The Standells, The Kids and the freedom to make the kind of music that will makes you feel like someone stuffed a hot breakfast burrito in your trousers and then slapped you across the mouth a couple times. But dont take my word for it. Im into battery acid and medical porn. Listen for yourself and forget everything Ive just penned.



-Eric Shea, Real Rhapsody