Is a festival full of progressive space rock, all-night atmospheric mood music, and plenty of arts and crafters your thing? If so, the Luna Light Arts and Music Festival should be on your to do list this weekend.
One of the bands performing this weekend is Manifested. This four piece is a progressive electronic funk rock band comprised of Michael Rabito, Chris Mario, Steve Slaughter, and Bharuaw Avhad. I had the privilege of interviewing Michael Rabito this week to discuss the band and the festival.
When asked about the origins of the name “Manifested,” Rabito revealed the inspiration was quite unprofound: “Me and my bass player Chris played in high school together,” said Rabito. “He was in a band called Upbeat Manifest, and I was in a slew of bands that all had the word ‘ed’. We just combined the two.” Of course, the name manifested itself into more than just a combination of old bands. “We are all about creating the world we want to be a part of,” Rabito said. “We want to make really pure, well-intentioned songs, and actions within that, and then you manifest that kind of frequency in the world, musically and socially.”
This motto certainly follows through in their music formulation. “The music has to be things we stumble into; something someone is really excited about,” said Rabito. “It is more of an idea than a song form. We’ll take samples and loop continuously…if we’re feeling it, we’ll expand it even more, or we’ll stay in the framework of the song.”
Another philosophy that influences the band’s music-making is living in the here-and-now: “The more you focus on the present moment and you stay super grounded in the now, the less you are going to react to things,” said Rabito. “It’s about spitting out what is coming out of a creative space that has nothing to do with muscle memory or what we have done before…it will be a direct line from our minds.”
Although Rabito and his fellow band mates knew each other since high school, they weren’t always playing music together. They went their separate ways for nearly ten years. It wasn’t until the summer of 2012 that Rabito underwent extreme meditation and realized that music was his calling: “I pretty much realized under the infinite present moment, where constant changing thought bombarding us with things that are not really in the moment, I realized music was right under that.” After calling Avhad with the intent of putting a group together, he discovered Mario was not playing with his old group anymore. Slaughter was then brought on the scene, and that is how Manifested manifested itself.
Despite releasing their debut album just last year, Manifested is ready to record some fresh material. This autumn they are hitting the studio to create a new EP, although the length of this new EP is still being debated. The plan is to debut a new song, titled “Gears”, during the festival. So Luna Light goers, be prepared!
Luna Light Music and Arts Festival takes place this weekend in Barto, Pennsylvania. If you haven’t yet purchased tickets, there is still time! Each ticket price is different depending on weekend passes and day passes. Day pass prices depend on which day. To view prices and details on passes, click on the ticket link below. Manifested will be playing Friday night from 11-12:30 a.m., and Saturday night before Lettuce at 9:30 p.m.
Ticket info: http://www.lunalightfestival.com/event-tickets/
Visit Manifested’s official website: http://www.manifestedband.com/
Luna Light Music and Art Festival Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/
Photo – Manifested
