Far From Home

Jonah Matranga keeps coming back to perform in New York City, embracing all its glorious grit and grime.

Photo by Michael Stahl

It's nine a.m. in Brooklyn, and Jonah Matranga is sitting alone in the recording studio where he slept last night, the only light in the room blaring from the screen of his MacBook. The former front man of the Sacramento post-hardcore rock outfit Far has traveled quite a distance to play a show and record a quick EP, but by this point in his career, he's used to it.

A couple of shaky IKEA chairs, a dingy couch and a scratched wooden coffee table are all that can be seen in the dim laptop light. Books, a hard guitar case, manila folders, jackets, sweaters lie cluttered about. Still puffy-eyed, Matranga hasn't had his peppermint tea yet. He gets up and flicks on the more drastic ceiling light and the expanse of the room is revealed. Disorganized bookshelves, heaps of wires, an old organ; a keyboard further down, studio monitors, a windowed isolation booth.

"This is what me in New York City looks like," Matranga says.

It's not a new look for the bearded 43-year-old. Si…