ManaTapu

Mana Tapu
Mana Tapu performing at the Malta Street Art Festival in Valletta in July 2015
Background information
Origin	Malta, Europe
Genres	World music
Years active	2012–present
Members	Dario Vella C Pupachile Tete (aka Camacho Criminal) Ryan Abela James Saliba Luca Gurrieri
Past members	Francesco Darmanin Andrew McGrath Aaron Dimech Jogy Bo
Website	manatapu.com

Mana Tapu is a music group from Malta formed in 2012. The band's most recent line up consisted of Dario Vella C (vocals, lead guitar), Ryan Abela (drums), Pupa Chile (MC, vocals), Tete a.k.a. Camacho Criminal (MC, vocals), James Saliba (bass guitar), Luca Gurrieri (Saxophone), and Liksu (trumpet, keyboard).

Initially rooted in reggae and ska, Mana Tapu "also draws inspiration from a host of other sounds and genres that run the gamut from funk to blues", rock music to folk, popular music to polka, and even, hip-hop to punk rock. Collectively, the band speaks about 5 languages. With lyrics which range from English, to Maltese, to Spanish and French, the band cites its multicultural influences as a core element of the Mana Tapu sound.

Known to "generate massive audience reaction when they play live", Mana Tapu are "one of the most sought-after live acts on the island" of Malta. This live energy was captured in their music video for song music video for song Kanta r Rima, filmed during the band's "headlining show at the 2014 Sliema Street Art Festival".

Band name

The group's name is inspired by, and composed of two separate words, Mana and Tapu, which are found in Māori tradition and culture. 'Mana' is a word found in Austronesian languages translating to "power, effectiveness, prestige" often with supernatural and magical connotations. 'Tapu' is closely linked to the Māori concept of mana (respect / authority) and many view tapu as the mana derived from the gods. As the New Zealand Ministry of Justice puts it:

Mana and Tapu are concepts which have both been attributed single-worded definitions by contemporary writers. As concepts, especially Maori concepts they can not easily be translated into a single English definition. Both Mana and Tapu take on a whole range of related meanings depending on their association and the context in which they are being used.

History

Prior to Mana Tapu's formation, founding members Dario Vella C, and Francesco Darmanin had played in a band called I'n'I. It was in the summer months of 2010, at a reggae bar in St-Julians called "Juuls", that Dario and Francesco would meet Jogy and Pupa Chile, and begin playing music together under the 'Mana Tapu' name. The foursome met Tete in Summer 2011, at a jam session at bar / venue "Ta Fra Ben", in a Maltese town called Buġibba. In October 2012, the band would meet Andrew McGrath, ex drummer for Montreal punk rock group Humanifesto, and ask him to join the group. This was only ten days prior to the band's final show at the 'Rookies' Battle of the Bands in Buġibba, which was the first of two battles that Mana Tapu would win in a period of 6 months, after enlisting the new drummer.

Francesco decided to leave the band in 2016 and was briefly replaced by Aaron Dimech, before James Saliba took over on bass in April 2019. In the summer of 2017, after years of helping write and compose the songs which were eventually released on the band's first full-lenght album Tuatara, drummer Andrew McGrath announced his departure from the group, citing years of persistent issues and conflict with then singer / guitarist Jogy Bo. The band enlisted Ryan Abela to take over on drums, recorded and released Tuatara, and embarked on a European tour in 2019 playing shows across Italy, Germany, Austria, and Czech Republic. Upon returning from this tour, the band made the difficult decision to part ways with Jogy Bo, due to persistent conflict and numerous unreconcilable differences.

Conflict and Copyright Disputes

In 22 July 2019, the remaining five band members — Dario Vella Catalano, Christian "Pupachile" Vasquez, Antonio/Tete, Ryan Abela and James Saliba — published a statement announcing that they were "parting ways with Jorge Bo Smid" because of "personal issues, misconduct." stating that the dispute had already become a fight over control of the band's digital assets and identity.

Where Mana Tapu's 2019 statement regarding the reasons for parting ways with Jogy Bo had been relatively restrained, citing only "personal issues" and "misconduct", the band released a statement 5 years later, in June of 2024, which gave a dramatically more serious account of the circumstances which lead to his dismissal. The June 2024 statement alleged "misconduct, violence, theft and misappropriation of band funds."

Adding more context to the rupture announced by the band in their 2019 statement, it became clear that on 10 July 2019 — twelve days before the band publicly announced his dismissal — Jogy had filed an EU trademark application for MANATAPU. The timing of this application was rather striking as it suggested the internal rupture had already been underway before the public announcement, setting the stage for the copyright disputes which followed, and which entangled many unrelated third parties in the process. The EU mark was eventually registered in 2021 for certain goods/services.

Two competing narratives emerged:

The band's position: that Mana Tapu is a collective band founded in 2012, and that he was expelled for misconduct, subsequently attempted to appropriate the band's identity and disrupt its activities through the commandeering of social media and digital media accounts and filing disruptive copyright complaints and later trademark claims.

Jogy's position: Regarding himself as the foundational creative force behind Mana Tapu, claiming proprietary rights to the name. His own site now describes Mana Tapu as a project "founded by Jorge Bo Smid" and characterises his 2019 dismissal as a deprivation of his intellectual and creative rights.

In 2024 - the dispute resurfaced publicly when Earth Garden's Facebook and Instagram accounts were temporarily taken down, following a trademark complaint by Jogy Bo relating to the festival’s promotion of Mana Tapu. Jogy described the complaint as legitimate enforcement of his registered trademark rights, while Mana Tapu and Earth Garden characterised it as unfounded. Both sides subsequently made public statements and reported taking legal or police action in connection with the dispute.

Discography

• Timpana (2013)
• TuaTara (2018)

See also

• Music of Malta

External links

• Mana Tapu Official website
• Review of Timpana EP