Biography

Since the early 2000's Chico Mann has been involved with projects across a wide swath of respected labels as well as earning the respect of musicians and fans alike. That passion for music was instilled early on. As the middle child of parents involved in different parts of the industry – a father who was a producer and label owner while his mother DJ'd at an NYC radio station and exhibited a passion for playing boleros on piano – he grew to actively listen and deconstruct music early on, to hear its parts make a beautiful whole. “It's funny to look back on it now because it seemed normal when I was little, but I got this other experience that I later realized wasn't a common one.” His mother impressed upon him to focus on the individual musical parts of a song, be it the horns, drums, or piano, something he credits with making him adept at producing, sound designing, and tweaking sound to achieve coloration and evoke feelings through aural output. Additionally, that early introduction to music as a child exposed him to a variety of styles to shape his musical lexicon. With that arsenal, he has had the ability to seamlessly genre hop with seemingly little effort showcasing his skills in the revered Afrobeat band Antibalas to dance-oriented tunes as a duo with Captain Planet. His latest project, Double Life, finds him convincingly exploring the realm of Afrobeat with psychedelic splashes in a cinematic fashion.