Manika Invites You To Her ‘Vegas Party’

When Manika last chatted with us she was an 18-year-old singing sensation appearing on the “Shop Til You Rock” mall tour.  By that time Manika had already won several awards, including the “Outstanding Performance Award” three years in a row at the National Performing Arts Festival in New York.  Plus, as if a music career doesn’t keep most people busy 24/7, her first children’s novel, “The Exciting Adventures Of Boo” was published when she was only 15.

Manika’s latest project is all about bringing her music to her fans.  On Oct. 6 she appeared in-concert in Las Vegas and the performance was streamed to nearly 650 movie theaters nationwide.

While we had her on the phone, Manika discussed how this “new angle of touring” enabled her music to reach more people than when she appeared on One Direction’s 2012 tour.

How does one go from touring malls to “Vegas Party?”

Since the “Shop Til You Rock Tour” I was asked to open for One Direction on their North American tour.  That was an amazing experience.  I also grew a huge fanbase from that, which is great.  After that, I had my first three singles released, up until now. They both got in the 30s on the Billboard chart.  The peak one was 29. 

I took a break from touring and moved back to Las Vegas, my hometown, [and] devoted a year to songwriting and co-producing. Then I ventured out into this new angle of touring which I found to be more effective than even the One Direction tour.  On the One Direction tour, at most, the biggest arena I performed in had 20,000-plus people.  Now, with this touring where [my concert] is streamed to movie theaters across the country, one performance was streamed to 650 movie theaters and reached between 100,000 to 200,000 people.

And it was a complete performance and not just a couple of songs.

Yes.  I did it as part of a high-end fashion competition finale and I was the headline performer.  I did a few different songs in there.  It was my debut performance of “Vegas Party,” my new single.  Everything’s live but it’s on a movie screen instead of at a venue.

How long was the performance?

It was 90 minutes to two hours long.

Were you performing on a sound stage or in a venue?

I was in a venue.  To give it that feel that you’re at a live concert, there was an audience there but the main focus was streaming it to every one across the country.  The audience was [made up of] people who were invited [to attend].

Were there sound requirements for the theaters hosting the stream?

They did a lot of sound checks.  I had to have the background music in certain formats.  It was kind of complicated but we were able to rehearse so everything went smoothly.  Everything has to be streamed to the sound truck, first and then back to me. At first I was getting a delay in my ear because it streamed to the sound truck first, which streamed it to the movie theaters and then back to the house sound and then to my ears.

How many people were in the audience at the performance?

About 1,000 people.

Do you see this as another way for getting your music heard or do you see it as the main tool?

I found it [to be] successful.  … I’m working with Global Beauty Masters.  They have their new television series coming to Discovery this December.  I’m going to be featured on [the series] with my music.  I’m also working with them to do another live stream but we don’t have the details. 

How is “Vegas Party” doing on radio?

It’s doing good.  It’s still in the early stages of radio. … So far we’ve gotten really good feedback and it’s been added to quite a few stations.  The music video is out.

Rather than doing a typical music video I did a lyric video with a lot of graphics.  For instance, there are lyrics tattooed across my body or I’m pouring drinks and the liquid forms into the letters of the lyrics.  Fun stuff like that.  It was released three weeks ago and has 600,000 views so far.  I guess they’re liking it so far.

When we last spoke you were co-managed by Frank DiLeo who had managed Madonna and Michael Jackson and has since passed away.  Who is managing you now?

I’m still with the independent record label, Wamaframa Entertainment.  They’re managing me.  My dad is helping to manage me, too.

Has there been any talk with the Chamber of Commerce or other parties to make “Vegas Party” part of an ad campaign for Las Vegas?

We have been talking with some people about that.  I was born and raised here.  I lived in Los Angeles for a few years.  I see, every day, people’s obsession with Las Vegas.  People fly here from around the world for that “Fantasy Island” experience and let loose – go to the day clubs, the night clubs.  I wanted to capture that Vegas experience in my song.

It’s great to live here. … Obviously, I’m busy with my music.  I don’t have time to party every night like I say in my song.  But when I do want to go out and have fun and party, this is the perfect place to do it.  When I just want to work on my music, the thing I love about Vegas is that everything is open late.  Sometimes when I get out of the studio it’s 2 a.m.  When I was in Los Angeles getting out of the studio at that time, I had Mel’s Drive-In to eat at.  But here all the restaurants are open 24 hours.  Shopping is open all night.  I’m a night owl, so it works out good.

You called the video a “lyrics video” but with all the various shots it looks as busy as many music videos.  How much time did it take to shoot?

Shooting it took one day.  But it was a really long day.  I also did the photo shoot for the single cover while we were shooting the lyrics video, probably eight different looks.  It was like a 20-hour day doing both of those at once.

The graphics took quite a while.  There are a lot of tattooed lyrics and the problem with that was … they kept making it look flat, so it didn’t look like it was tattooed on my body.  It looked like it was just text in front of me.  Finally this one artist was able to make the letters curve to my body so it actually looked like it was tattooed on me.

Do you think shooting the lyric video was harder or easier than shooting the video with Lil Twist?

The actual day was a long day but it wasn’t too difficult because [the crew] was lighting me, correctly.  In some of the other videos I’ve done, you’re worried about lighting 20 people at once.  It was all with a green screen and a white screen.

The post-production was definitely more difficult than doing a normal music video because of all the graphics.

How involved were you with post-production?

I can’t do graphics myself.  The editor was based in Texas.  It was a lot of sending huge files back and forth.

You said you took time off from touring in order to focus on songwriting.  How has songwriting changed since you first appeared on the scene?

When I first started songwriting I was 17 and now I’m 22.  When I was 17 I wasn’t going out and partying in Vegas so I wasn’t writing about that.  The cool thing right now is that you can do anything you want as long as its clicking and people like it.  For “Vegas Party” I did a mixture of high-energy rap, EDM and pop.  Before, that wouldn’t work on the radio, but now it does.  People are responding to it well.  So it’s constantly changing but in a good way and [allows] artists to be more creative.

What’s next in the grand plan?

Right now … it’s getting “Vegas Party” on Top 40 radio and continuing to promote it.  Probably two more singles and then an album.  I have way more than enough songs for an album.  I actually have more than 100 songs that I wrote and co-produced.  Of course, I can’t release 100 songs so I’ll shop [some of them] to other artists.

I also have more [Las Vegas] club performances and I’m going to be doing another live stream [to movie theaters].

If you could send a message to the 17-year-old Manika that spoke to us a few years ago, what advice would you give her?

I would just say … keep working at it.  I remember when I was touring at the malls, doing stuff like that, I was kind of like, “Will I ever be performing at big arenas?  Eventually you’re going to be touring arenas and doing what you want to do as long as you keep working at it.

Please visit Manika’s website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, YouTube channel and Instagram home for more information.