ManifestiV
BIO . PRESS . MEMBERS

duo photo by Erin Shea Devany

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Lillith: vibraphone, vocals, art
Paragraph: guitar, vocals, music

Biography                                     return to top

ManifestiV founded as an experimental industrial duo in Vallejo, California early 2014 by two morticians that met years prior in Dallas, Texas. Paragraph, guitarist & programmer, joined forces with Lillith, vibraphonist & visual artist. They used their instruments in new ways, scoring the imminent end of human civilization with downtuned guitars & electronic vibraphone hand-built by Lillith, aiming to guide humanity off Earth to explore & build other worlds while possible.

After a live debut at SXSW that same year, Einer Sie Gern, ManifestiV's self-made debut LP recorded in their Vallejo home, spurred extensive DIY touring after its San Francisco release at the tail end of 2014. For years to follow, the duo only stopped US tours for Burning Man & travels to Southeast Asia, Central America & Europe before recording God is a Martian with Nate Nauseda at Prairie Sun in Cotati, California. The EP was mixed after OctouR (spanning 7 months / 45 shows) by CJ Bills near Austin & released late 2018 back in Dallas at Curtain Club, months before it closed.

ManifestiV based in Dallas for 2019, back full circle where they had met on the same decade's other side. After releasing the GiaM counterpart 3vE in the Spring, the band spent summer expanding live personnel with a stellar rhythm section, dear friends borrowed from fellow Dallas band Secret Of Boris, ¶'s other industrial & more hard rock act: bassist / longtime co-¶ axe-man Kevin Porter, and drummer / producer Ryan A.

The newly modular quad format of ManifestiV makes each performance even more of a wild card than the last. The band experimented with modular personnel configurations & testing new material performing throughout Texas at the turn of the decade. Writing & releasing Horsemen at the band's east Texas farm early 2021, the band performed shows with varying member amounts (between duo, trio and quad) behind it while collaborating with Lcn1 on writing a new album for release on GIVE/TAKE directly thereafter. 2022 saw the release firstly of remixes from the new Lcn1 collab, but past albums as well, on The Bitter Truth out on Earth Day. After their native duo's midsummer swoop of their native California with Seattle darkwave artist Nuda, Paragraph & Lillith (surrounding a return to Burning Man 2022) wrapped the new album with the boys for its 2/3/23 release on GIVE/TAKE.

That new album Legacy soundtracks an empty future humanity leaves behind by sticking to its current course of neglecting its connections to nature surrounding it. After its adventurously eponymous Legacy Tour's two legs hitting the southern tip of Texas as the quad & the northern tip of California as the duo in 2023, ManifestiV dedicated 2024's focus to creating & writing its follow-up at their farm & remotely with collaborators. As the apocalypse forecasted closes in around the band, they only emerge from the studio to test new material (based on how life would speculatively thrive post-humanity) on stages in a regional radius.

Paragraph provides a glimpse of MV's newest music's mood: "All I'll say right now is that it embraces, as opposed to evades, the end of humanity. We're flipping the doom & gloom approach to the apocalypse, and instead, we're making it more about how now is, more and more obviously by each passing day and rising degree, all we have. We realized shaking a baby to force awareness of the end through fear wasn't coming through, yet oddly enough, sharing its awareness in a form of joy & dance had more resonance. The latter fits our 'whole deal' better: to unite humanity in just one thing, since it's so chronically divided everywhere... even if that one thing can only be its demise."

quad photo by Andrew Sherman

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Paragraph: guitar, vocals, music
Lillith: vibraphone, vocals, art
Ryan: drums for select Texan events
Kevin: bass for special Texan events

Press on ManifestiV -                                     return to top

“ManifestiV’s Legacy ...is immersed in dark & brooding soundscapes layered with intricate instrumentals & haunting vocals.”
  s. mayo - ReGen Magazine

“Somewhere between lullaby and awakening exists ManifestiV... soothing bells intertwine brilliantly with crunching guitars… all of which are crowned by haunting vocals.”
  r. ramos - Procession Magazine editor

“When the rhythms slow down, the menace increases.”
  c. pollard - ReGen Magazine

“The ManifestiV Traction mix of [fellow GIVE/TAKE artist EbE404’s] 'Slipping by One' expands a chugging guitar part and brings in [vibraphones AND] saxophones, turning the song into a neo-noir soundtrack.”
  Justin Roby - ReGen Magazine

"..their rhythmic distorted sounds paired with vibraphone along with their stage costumes is something to be experienced. ...they had a presence along with a look which was different and unique but relatable."
  Bryan Bardes - Audio Vein Entertainment

"they do have a unique sound: space-faring metal"
  Steven Gullotta - Brutal Resonance Webzine

"There’s... a darker side to Dallas’ performance scene, one that post-industrial band ManifestiV has grabbed by the horns."
  Erin Shea Devany - Dallas Observer (Dallas TX)

"This experimental industrial couple trades vocal duties while making music that sounds synth-backed and filled with crushed beats and fuzzy guitars."
  David Fletcher - Dallas Observer (Dallas TX)

"Vocals and guitar crunch from Paragraph contrast with the ring of Lillith's vibraphone [& voice] in a relaxing way."
  Juan Cornejo - Project Zer0 (Ft Worth TX)

"God is a Martian perfectly balances heavy grooves, guitar riffs and [vibes]/synth with smooth warm vocals... you would swear this was a 5-piece band at times. The title track closes out the EP with all the boxes checked as ManifestiV brings you home from their journey far, far away."
  Bradley Amos - Deep Dallas Radio (Dallas TX)

"Heavy distorted guitars chugging under the unique sound of a vibraphone with the electric undercurrent works so well, and every sound is crisp & focused, that it’s easy to get pulled into their mysterious world."
  Rob Bozzoli - Halfway Serious (Santa Cruz CA)

"Paragraph let loose... darting about the stage, thrashing around to the heavier parts of the tracks and even taking a mighty leap into the air at one point, all while shredding on his guitar. They have a strong industrial quality about their music, which often leaned towards more rock tendencies; though there were some nice slower, even melodic jams mixed in. The more experimental side of things came from Lillith, who played the vibraphone, which added a great touch to the songs; her luminous eyes visible from even far away, as they looked as if they were piercing through everyone watching."
  Jordan Buford - The Music Enthusiast (Dallas TX)

"...the pair have made an album which is both hard-hitting and addictive... powerful and anarchic but also blends in enough pop sensibility to make them appealing... wanders effortlessly over an industrial ambient soundscape which lends itself as much to originality as it does to bravado."
  Paul Scott-Bates - Louder Than War (Manchester UK)

"ManifestiV undoubtedly feeds off each other’s artistic talents. What caught my attention were the subtle movements Lillith does in between and during her harmonies, using her instrument as a canvas for so much more than a soundscape. To her left in sync, Paragraph magnetizes the set with his body, vocals, and piercing guitar."
  Jessica Navarro - Rooftop Playlist (Austin TX)

"This is what music is gonna be in a post-apocalyptic world... I would call it experimental, but I would say these guys don't act like they're experimenting with anything. They've got it down to a science."
  Matthew Blake - Whiskey Boy Radio (Dallas TX)

"If a heart can be naked and survive, this is the sound it would make."
  TJ Walkup - Omnific Pictures (Vallejo CA)

Members of ManifestiV -

photo by Shelton Enlow
Lillith: vibraphone, vocals, art
Lillith utilizes Deagan Keys, K&K Sound Systems, BOSS Effects, Vic Firth Mallets, Glasser Bows, Fender Amplifiers & Cables, Sennheiser Monitoring and Shure Microphones.                                         return to top



photo by Shelton Enlow
Paragraph: guitar, vocals, music
¶ utilizes Parker & Eastwood Guitars, Epiphone Basses, Fractal Audio Systems, Shure Microphones, Alesis & Mission Controllers, Logic Pro, Focusrite Hardware, Sennheiser & Jerry Harvey Monitoring, Dunlop Picks and Keith McMillan Instruments.                                         return to top



photo by Shelton Enlow
Ryan A: live drums, mixing
Ryan A utilizes Tama Hardware & Shells, Roland Digital Percussion, Saluda & Zildjian Cymbals, Pro-Mark Sticks, Evans & Remo Heads, and CTM Monitoring.                                         return to top



photo by Shelton Enlow
Kevin: live bass
Kevin utilizes LTD Bass Guitars, BOSS Effects, Dunlop Picks & Fender Amplification.                                 return to top