CHRIS MANAK

PRODUCER AND DJ

Montecito Heights, Los Angeles

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IT SEEMS APPROPRIATE that music was the binding agent that brought Chris and us together. You have to rewind back to the late ’90s, a few years before we began Poketo, to pinpoint the moment when our lives first converged. We were living in San Francisco; Ted was working at a music distribution company, his first job, one he will always remember as the worst place he’s ever worked. Beyond youthful optimism and energy, the one thing that kept Ted returning to work day in and day out was the talented people he worked beside. It was here Ted would meet Chris, the founder of Stones Throw Records, a new hip-hop record label that would go on to help establish the West Coast hip-hop scene, domestically and internationally, releasing a legendary catalog of records from the likes of Madlib, J Dilla, and Madvillain.

Chris and his fiancée, Erika, now live only a few miles from us as the crow flies, in a hilltop home graced with the sort of magnificent view of Los Angeles that makes one unconsciously utter “wow” at first glance. It’s a home filled with many distinguishable parallels to the uncategorizable music Chris performs as Peanut Butter Wolf: midcentury furnishings accented by thrift store kitsch, all anchored by the decorative rhythm of Erika’s art. There are quirky details, too: Mayan-inspired doorway carvings and scallop-shaped walls, each remnants of its previous owners’ eccentric visions. Instead of removing and renovating these vestiges of another time, Chris and Erika decided to embrace these details with their own possessions, a decorative remix across decades.

The home seems to have a palpable effect upon Chris. He’s normally a shy and quiet person, but in the privacy of his own home with Erika and their beloved dog nearby, he’s much more relaxed, verbose, and playful. Erika is a family therapist who uses art for healing, and she’s quietly the heart and soul of the home they’ve built together in these hills of Northeast Los Angeles. Her paintings play prominently upon their walls, and their kitchen table also operates as her studio, its length covered with numerous pieces at various stages of completion. Even when she’s absent, Erika’s presence is always felt within each room, as if at any moment she’ll come back to continue painting while Chris sits nearby sipping whiskey.

The couple is still settling into their home, and hope to create an additional space where friends and family can stay for longer visits. The garden, also inherited from its previous owners, hosts a parade of local wildlife. A coyote comes regularly to lounge comfortably in their yard; birds hide in a thicket of succulents and cacti. Across the way a detached garage studio houses thousands of obscure records collected over the decades, “friends” etched with their own stories and memories, each waiting to be retraced by a record needle. All together the house feels like its own commune, a compound of modest spaces.

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Over the years we’ve continued to collaborate with Chris creatively. We love how relationships like this can come full circle. But we’d be lying if we claimed we knew that chance encounter in San Francisco more than twenty years ago would lead to such a long-lasting and collaborative friendship.

When we asked Chris if there was a song that might represent the home he shared with Erika, he paused and replied, “I’ll have to think about that.” Hours later, while we were in his studio shooting portraits for this book and reminiscing about the time he met the daughter of Sly, of Sly and the Family Stone fame, Chris remembered the 1973 single, “If You Want Me to Stay.”

“I think we might have found the soundtrack of your home,” Ted said.

“Yes,” he replied with an approving nod. “One of them for sure.”

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BREAK IT DOWN

When we visited Chris and Erika’s home, we were expecting nothing less than a library of music. Chris has described his vast record collection as weighing a ton. It’s safe to say it’s probably several tons. With music being at the forefront of their lives, we asked them to pick a few tracks that are the soundtrack to their home. They have eclectic and different tastes from one another. It took them some time to come up with a list of songs they both agreed on. The soundtrack they chose is a diverse mix of styles, not unlike their home and themselves. We love that Erika added a layer of art to each track, illustrating each one; a true collaboration between the two of them, turning music into visuals.

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