Artist description "Man, Myk's guitar playing is so White and LaTasha'ssinging is so Black, but somehow it really works!"

Music Style Pop/Rock w/Soul

Musical Influences Power Pop/Old Time Rock and Roll/Rockabilly/Western/70's R&B and Soul/Reggae/Drum n Bass

Similar Artists Janis Joplin/The Pixies

Artist History Myk was inspired to play guitar 13 years ago. The revelation came upon him when confined to an ICU hospital bed for 3 days, having had a fatal dose of painkillers pumped from his stomach. "The only thing on the tube worth watching was MTV. I had never seen and heard the guitar used in such an expressive way. I felt like there was a freedom to express sexuality in guitar playing that I never knew was there." The first band Myk was in was ‘Ugly and the Atrocities’. "The goal of the band was to piss off conservative people at school." After that band, he focused on recording his own songs on four track. "I called my solo projects ‘Mykee Hates Life’ because I felt I would always be an outsider and music was my only form of expression." After finishing school, he decided to follow his dreams. He moved to California and started Burnt Ramen Recording in the San Francisco bay area. The bands that came to the studio were primarily punks. "They weren’t very demanding as far as sound quality, so whatever I gave them sounded better than the boom box recordings they were used to." Myk played guitar and bass with several bands over the next few years, searching for the right chemistry to form his own band. George had been playing and touring on the East Coast on and off for 10 years, he moved to California and moved in with Myk. The two played for a while in the ambitious but doomed country western project. LaTasha (vocals) first saw Myk and George (drummer) playing at a dive bar in the lower Haight distric of San Francisco. She said Manta almost did not happen because, "the first time I saw Myk he had sideburns and was playing in this redneck band whose name (‘The Southern Restoration Society’) had racist overtones." She also exclaims, "They also had their gear set up on my favorite pool table!" Luckily Tasha ran into George on another night. He told her there was a vacant room available at the Burnt Ramen warehouse. Latasha comments on her first impression, "Before the repair and cleaning the place was a rat hole, it sucked; but I was broke, busted and disgusted at the time so I moved in and left my spoiled sorority girl lifestyle of pageants and partying behind to search for my true calling." Little did she know that the owner of the warehouse was the same ‘redneck’ Myk whom she had seen the week before. It turned out that Myk was not a redneck. He was very intelligent, liberal, and a musician who could play, write, and record any genre of music, including Mantas original pop-rock-soul. A friend once said, "Tasha has always known how to sing, but never knew she had what it takes to be a singer." But that was before Tasha and Myk first recorded together in the studio downstairs and her voiced was played back to her. "I felt like I was listening to someone else singing, someone really good. It was as if his guitar was playing my voice. I decided right then that this was not going to be a hobby but a way of life for me."Over the next week they recorded rough versions of ‘Nite Train’, ‘Ride’ and ‘Hurtin Love.’ Then they cut their teeth performing at Bay Area amateur nights. "People don’t know what to make of a black girl wearing a cowboy hat singing something besides smooth R&B or Jazz," says Myk. "They must have been shocked to see someone so attractive with so much raw talent, I look at her and wonder how that huge voice comes out of her skinny body. And she loves being on stage and performing."After rave responses at different clubs, they asked George(drums) and A.J.Kane(bass) to play on the first CD. George said, "It is easy to practice and record because we all live in the same house, but it is not so easy to maintain our sanity sometimes." There you have Manta. (Oh yeah, why Manta for the name of the band? Latasha has a insane fixation on manta rays she swears she was one in her past life and had a vision of being one again in this one.)

Group Members Myk : GuitarLaTasha : VocalsGeorge Matthews : DrumsAJKane : Bass

Instruments Guitars/Vocals/Drums/Bass/Hammond Organ

Albums "Manta"

Press Reviews "Manta is ‘rock & pop’ delivered by Tasha’s razoredge vocals . Listeners have compared hersinging style to Janis Joplin and Billie Holiday. The sound of the music has the upbeat pop appeal of bands like No Doubt...""Manta wasn’t like I expected. It’s the kind of music you grow into rather than out of. Sure there’s some pop sheen and flash, but it’s theemotions that come through. Betrayal, disgust,love and longing. What makes us human is ourvulnerability, something that modern music haslost touch with."

Location Richmond, CA - USA

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