Christia
Mantzke was born and raised in Los Angeles County, California,
right across the street from the Tonight Show Studios. A week
after graduating high school, Christia left her family roots
in southern California and moved to New York City to pursue
her dreams in the world of music. Shortly after her arrival
there, she met well-known dance club producer Ivan Salinas and
their collaboration produced an instant club hit with a remake
of the 70's song "There Go I," featuring Christia's
powerhouse vocals. Although pleased with its' success, she knew
that club music was not her passion, and the material she was
writing didn't fit into that scene. After a few months of unrest,
Christia soon found her home- the New York rock circuit.
After playing
a few gigs at clubs around NYC
(Le Bar Bat, CBGB's, The Bitter End) things came to a halt when
Christia's sublet apartment fell through and she found herself
with no place to stay. After sleeping in various hotel lobbies
for a few weeks, she decided it would be best to move in with
her sister 3000 miles away back in Los Angeles. This was just
a temporary roadblock. Christia knew this would give her some
quality
time to concentrate on her writing. She got right
to work on a new demo that got into the hands
of a European record executive. Seeing great potential in this
young artist, he offered her a recording contract with EMI.
Her first single "I'm
not a Boy" was released in the fall of 2001 and
was an enormous success- charting in the top 20 in three countries.
Due to its popularity, it was placed on two "best of"
compilation CD's alongside such artists as Garbage, Alanis Morissette
and Kylie Minogue.
Even with
its success, EMI was slow with the process of releasing her
full length CD and was
not allowing Christia to be true to her artistic
vision. She began to tire of waiting and after nearly a year,
asked to be released form her contract
with EMI. In the fall of 2002, Christia got out of that contract
and began recording with the independent label, Immutable Records.
The result of this collaboration is The First, a remarkable
debut CD by a gifted new artist.
As Music Connection Magazine described it, she is "Not
only affective but infectious."
