north east regional extra | September 7 - 13, 2020
nemedia.com.au
1.
October 7 - 13, 2020
Creativeness flourishes even in lockdown ◆ HE’S JUST A TALENTED GUY: Musician Chris Mangan has mastered more than 20 instruments. PHOTO: Kieren Tilly
By BELINDA HARRISON RUTHERGLEN musician, producer and playwright, Chris Mangan, had big plans for 2020, the star of which was to be the Wangaratta Players performance of his play, Red Hot Mamas. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown put the kibosh on performances of any kind but Chris hasn’t remained idle -
using the time in lockdown to create and release singles with other musicians and brush up on his video production skills. Originally born and raised in Melbourne, Chris has always been a creative soul. “For as long as I can remember, I have always loved making up songs,” Chris said. “When I went to bed, in my mind I would write a new song almost every night. “I was probably just imitat-
ing what I heard on the radio that day, but it definitely taught me how songs were structured and how instruments related to each other. “My siblings are all much older than me and have vastly different tastes to each other, so the record collection at home was very broad; I think that’s why I love so many different genres. “My father wrote a couple of books and tried to teach him-
self a couple on instruments, but was more interested in performing magic and entertaining visitors with his ventriloquist dummy. “Unfortunately, he died when I was five years old but had I grown up with him, we would have been kindred spirits for sure.” At age 13, Chris began classical piano lessons and while he only learnt for a few years, it gave him excellent grounding
in scales and theory. It also whet his appetite to try other instruments including guitar, bass, drums, harmonica and mandolin. In the following years, Chris mastered over a dozen and the tally now stands at more than 20 string and brass instruments, keyboards and two particularly unusual ones in the theremin and nose whistle. “Because I could play so many instruments, I joined dif-
ferent types of bands, which gave me a great knowledge of musical genres and how to write songs to suit each style.” In his early 20s, Chris completed an Advanced Diploma in Sound Engineering which led to him working in recording studios and mixing for bands during their gigs and eventually became one of the house engineers at a 24 track studio in Fitzroy.
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