Michael Mangia is a Pianist/Singer/Songwriter who places dimension and illumination on pieces of existance, living through his stories and sonic puzzles. Mangia grew up in Hollywood where he began cultivating his writing from the underlying sense of sordid lives and facades in L.A. Sometimes compared, Mangia has been called the David Lynch of the music scene. The Invisible Wall, his 3rd album is akin to a diverse range of artists such as Tori Amos, Jon Brion, Portishead, Travis and Rufus Wainwright.
Currently living in a loft in downtown Los Angeles, Mangia created a living space where he also built a high tech. recording studio. “The best part of having your studio/home be the roof you live and work under is the musical liberty that it provides you. If I can’t sleep, I can get up and just create. I have freedom to break the sound barrier with my piano and the police won't show up! That’s allowed me to experiment and consequently inspired the uniqueness of The Invisible Wall.”
Michael Mangia/Bio
Michael Mangia is not your typical artist. And The Invisible Wall is not your typical CD. Set for release October 4, 2005 on Loft Box Records, the latest album from Hollywood-based singer-songwriter-pianist Mangia, while filled with compellingly beautiful melodies on the surface, actually buries some deep dark themes. In many ways, Michael Mangia is the David Lynch of pop music.
The Invisible Wall is the story of a painter, taking listeners through his canvas, which is filled with the lives of addicted porn stars and their admirers, children’s sci-fi fantasy books, an Italian mobster/father’s death, the façade-filled world of Hollywood and the effects of television on society. The album is all tied together through the haunting themes that lurk beneath the beauty of Mangia’s piano-driven melodies.
The new album was produced and mixed by Mangia over a 2_-year period in his own high-tech loft studio in downtown Los Angeles (which was featured in an article in Keyboard Magazine). “Having my home also be my workspace allowed me to play around with sound techniques, in a Beatles-esque way, with whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. As I continued to write, the songs pieced themselves together into what would become The Invisible Wall.” Mangia has employed the talents of guest musicians on this remarkably eclectic CD – veterans who have played with a wide range of artists, including Jimmy Paxson (Stevie Nicks), Zac Rae (Alanis Morissette) and Ed Maxwell (Gary Jules, Devics).
But Mangia’s favorite song on the album is actually not even officially listed. There is a new hidden bonus track at the end of the CD entitled “Life Support on Xmas” that – for Mangia – sums up all the themes on this album. “It really captures the meaning and the feel of this record more than any other single song. I wanted it to be like a special gift for listeners. I placed it on the CD nearly four minutes after the album has supposedly ended, because it’s a song that is very much about the peace that follows the silence.”
Influenced by artists as diverse as Tori Amos, Ben Folds, Portishead, Travis and Rufus Wainwright, Michael Mangia is unique. And now, with the release of The Invisible Wall, Mangia is preparing to bring his hauntingly gorgeous melodies and deeply moving, sometimes disturbing, sonic paintings to the world. What is “The Invisible Wall?” For Mangia, “It’s the barrier that separates the good from the sordid, light from dark, even reality from fantasy.” Get ready – Michael Mangia is about to take you on an unforgettable musical trip through The Invisible Wall.
Song Descriptions Part 1
Arbitraries:
“This song started taking shapes from images. It took me back to my period as a kid in the 80’s and the hypnotizing and addicting effect that television had on me. T.V. places you in the spectator’s chair and soon life is creating you instead of you creating life.”
Barbie Doll:
“A pretty self-explanatory song. It was inspired by Hollywood’s queen of billboards and self-promotion, Angelyne.”
Drunk:
“This song came from simple love that goes sour. That repetitiveness that comes from loving for the moment. The kind that causes hangovers. Sick, sick love.”
Someone Who:
“This song is about the loss of identity and, as such, really connects itself to whatever mask it’s put on. The masquerade ball of getting lost in a big city’s surroundings and personalities. Sensing that loss of what you originally came to the table with. But no matter how far you shove integrity away, you always get a glimpse of its original form.”
Ticker Tape Parade:
“This is the sister song to ‘Someone Who’ and ‘Barbie Doll.’ The fame and fall of an old-school actress who is now looking back at her life and the ideas she had of herself. A lot of kids these days go into this business with the ideas of fame, notoriety and monetary success but haven’t dug under the surface enough to put attention in the right areas. Life is a cosmic exchange and karma can be a bitch to live with if you’re always looking for the ‘give me’ you haven’t yet deserved…”
“I had a tough time writing the bridge in this song. It seemed that whatever lyrics would form just didn’t give the right communication and cohesion. So on a day that I was out shopping at a toy store for my niece’s 2nd birthday, I brought a little recorder in my backpack and spent an hour taping every talking doll’s voice and created a chorus of dolls. Sometimes, lyrics can get in the way or convey the wrong imagery, so when I put in the chorus of dolls, it really sealed the whole meaning of the song.”
Song Descriptions Part 2
Like Gone:
“The songs deal with teenage suicidal thoughts. A couple years ago, I was reading about these two teenaged brothers who had lost their parents to a plane crash. A loss so big in a developing stage. Being a teenager can be the most difficult time of a life’s span. You’re trying to figure out who you really are - against what’s been ingrained in you through your parents, friends, media, and apparencies of life. Then, take away the people who were the stable influences and you don’t know how to balance on your feet again. Life can be juggling. It took me some time to write this as I didn’t want it to just be about victimhood, but of the struggle to somehow reach solid ground again. The nice sunny drums and overall sonic texture against the sadness of the story made for good contrast.”
No Sign of Life:
“Humor stems from the serious. Look how when someone trips or falls, something in us makes us laugh. Well, in the case of this song, the male protagonist keeps making the mistake of falling in love with lesbians. No matter whom he seems to fall for, they either are - or become - lesbian. The situations have left him feeling alienated from life.”
Wet Dream:
“This song is about domestic relationships through dreaming. Getting off at your lover for her/his infidelity in your dream and then waking up to that. Sometimes dreams can be whispers of life, sometimes a way to fulfill a fantasy. We’ve all had dreams or thoughts that then, after having them, we can’t shut them off or imagine why we even had the capacity to have them in the first place.”
The Invisible Wall:
“The album’s title track is the concept around which the album is built. All the other songs and stories are the ‘paintings’ into which the artist crawls and gets lost in the lives of his own creation. Sort of like the motif, ‘Life is art, Art is life.’ The story within a story.”
“The song has a lot to do with dealing with leaving the small town suburbs that originally entrapped the artist in his boredom. It’s amusing to find out what people who don’t have much to do and a lot of time on their hands can start to create. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes horrendous. This song really glues the album together in the sense that it’s the foundation and heart of all the rest of the songs.”
Song Descriptions Part 3
Rise & Shine:
“The story of a mobster’s son who’s recounting both his childhood and his father’s death. He refuses for his father to be remembered by the people he killed, but by the man he was to him. This really is father and son connecting through the cosmos. There’s a spaciousness and chilling quality to the verses and an openness to the chorus. This song really is about coming to terms with your own bloodline.”
Star*boy:
“In the vision of this song, I saw the porn industry as an astral body. And this particular star was naked and unsatisfied. Just sort of going through the motions but locking up his emotions. Exposed on the outside, but hiding the inside. He has lost his sense of freedom, but doesn’t know any way out. His twinkle has lost its shine and he’s hearing the voices inside his own head starting to judge himself harshly. Ultimately, he wants to return to his native shimmering state.”
Judas Valentine:
“This is about that road trip where you finally get over that ex that’s been the torment of your life. It’s about the calm release that happens when you finally say to yourself that you are okay with letting it go. After that tug-of-war over on-again/off-again relationships. It’s the “Goodbye, girl - I won’t blame you anymore, but this is officially the end of the destination” song.”
In Your Room (Peruvian Dreams):
“This song is about shaking hands with Death. I believe Lucifer sits on everybody’s shoulder and has conversations. But this is also the story of two best friends. This song largely has to do with an intimate association I had with my best friend while dealing with someone very close to her die. I grieved in a way I couldn’t show, but could express in this song. It has an austere and grim dreamy heart to it. Sometimes my hairs rise when I play this song live.”