Best known for shredding guitars in Speedy Ortiz, Devin McKnight struck out alone earlier this year, focusing his attentions on solo occupation Maneka.
Maneka‘s debut album, Is You Is, is McKnight‘s first solo album, a record the deals with themes of independence, self empowerment, urgency, and ownership. Self described as a “future-space alien-dream-post punk,” McKnight leaves behind years spent playing the role of guitarist to create his own project, writing every instrumental and vocal part on his own before sharing it with a collective of friends and collaborators.
Along with McKnight, Is You Is also features guest contributions from Fern Mayo’s Katie Capri, Sam Rosenberg of Two Inch Astronaut, and Jordyn Blakely, who plays in both Stove and Jackal Onasis.
Starting out with a few vocal lessons from close family, before embarking on the daunting journey of stepping up centre stage to the microphone, proved a challenge, Devin tells DIY. It’s one that paid off, mind.
“First and foremost, I wrote every instrument and sang as well,” he says. “I’m usually a band member guy who plays a role in writing but I’d never tell anyone what to play exactly. More specifically, singing is a very new adventure for me. I took a few vocal lessons from my Aunt Cheryl to get my confidence up. And then just started hacking away at it. I never had that role in a band, and it was the thing I was the least familiar with going into this so it definitely made me pretty nervous at first.”