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The sound of Manifest is a sound not so easily described. Its original intents were to be a pure breaded rock band, but soon extended farther out into the music world. Hard rock, light rock, funk, blues, alternative, all with a definitive touch of jazz. Some major musical influences are Jimi Hendrix, Tool, Ray Brown, Nirvana, Tupac Shakur, The Beatles, Herbie Hancock, Pearl Jam, Smokey Robinson, Neil Young...the list goes on and on, each one making the list that much more diverse.
Manifest started as a 4-man Garage [basement] band located in Dayton, Ohio. During the summer of 2000, they finally found their permanent fourth member, drummer Chaney Morrow. But even before they recruited their third permanent member, bassist (Half), there were just two members...and the name Manifest hadn't been thought up yet.
Manifest roots go all the way back to Jaymz and Robb's freshman year. Both had wanted to be in bands for some time, but neither had been playing guitar for very long (Jaymz only a few months, and Robb didn't even own a guitar). Both had been influenced heavily by grunge greats (gods) Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Americ Generic was the name used to joke around with the karaoke-practicing-duo to begin with. As they gradually became better they dropped the mess around name and picked up Urban Decay. They came to find out later that Urban Decay was already a band, which was touring on the Lillith Fair, so of course they had to drop that name, and were nameless once again.
It was anything but easy to come up with a good name for the band. Finally Jaymz was inspired by some Rage Against the Machine lyrics, "Manifest Destiny" was the line. After doing some research on what it meant, Jaymz and Robb dropped Destiny and became Manifest.
Not too long after that, Half had agreed to buy a bass and learn to play. Surprisingly it didn't take him long to get the money together. He was a natural.
It seems that drummers and Manifest just didn't get along. They tried getting altogether around 5 or 6 different drummers. Its goes without saying that you can't have a band without a drummer. So after countless auditions Manifest decided on Chaney, a promising drummer with an uplifting attitude. With a stable line up, Manifest booked their first gigs.
Since then, a lot of things have changed. The main thing being that Manifest is now down to just three members excluding Robb. Manifest and Robb decided to split ways due to creative differences back in November '00. The band continued on while looking for a replacement singer/rhythm guitarist, but eventually making due by developing a good three-piece sound.
In early May 2001, the band entered one of the biggest annual band playoffs in the Midwest (48 bands), the Dayton Band Playoffs at Canal Street Tavern, after playing together for just a year, and advanced to the second round of competition in seventh place. They ended the second round show in a tie, which had only happened four other times in the 18-year history of the competition. In the tiebreaker show, they lost a close one 112-97. Shortly after, Manifest had won the Jags Battle of the Bands competition also in Dayton, beating many veteran bands, and taking home the top prize as well as the well-earned prestige.
The debut studio EP, Step One, is due out September 18, 2001.
With all that has been accomplished thus far, the band now sets its sights to getting signed by graduation time '02...
"Lead guitarist/vocalist James Auwarter has a vocal style similar to alternative/grunge icon Eddie Vedder, but has his own voice, a passionate, deep-throated, from the soul style."
"Bassist Ian Baggette is a combination of Les Claypool and Victor Wooten, slapping, popping, and walking his way through modern rock."
"Chaney Morrow holds the back-end down flawlessly, allowing both Baggette and Auwarter room to flex their string muscles."
- Sara Farr, Impact Weekly