Name: Nsayi Matingou
Age: 24
Hometown: Portland
Lives In: Portland
Past Bands: Kusikia, Older Women
Current Bands: The Ghost Ease
Day Job: server, landscaper, and history researcher
Drum Kit Set up: bass drum, snare, rack, hi-hat, ride cymbal, and floor tom.
Twenty-four-year-old Nsayi Matingou plays drums for the Portland two-piece, psychedelic garage rock band, The Ghost Ease. She and the guitarist/vocalist Jem Marie sat down with me after a recent show at the art space, Boom Bap, and chatted about Classical music, FOC Fest, and how fun drums are.
Even though she’s only been playing drums for about four months, Matingou is surprisingly confident, loud, and—most importantly—she has style. She is having writer’s block, she says, with her main instrument, guitar, so now she’s concentrating on drums.
Matingou is slowly piecing together her own kit out of vintage parts. She uses a W.F.L. mahogany snare from the ‘30s or ‘40s, a Japanese-made Sorento kick drum from the same era, and a Gretsch sparkle floor tom from the ‘60s. She played a borrowed set for their show Friday night.
In 2011, Matingou co-organized FOC Fest (Females of Color) with Katherine Paul and Maya Kiko Stoner. The festival is dedicated, according to their Facebook page, “to highlighting bands located in the Northwest featuring one or more women of color.” This year, the two-day festival featured twelve bands, including The Ghost Ease.
You can catch The Ghost Ease perform at Kelly’s Olympian on November 25th and listen to tracks by the band on their Bandcamp.
Video taken at FOC Fest: “Full Supermoon (in Scorpio)”
Photos: Maya Kiko Stoner and Elisabeth Wilson
Words by Elisabeth Wilson
Video by Madelyn Villano.