In the winter of 2002, nestled in the suburbs of San Francisco, Mano Dio Gracias sat down to write the songs to what would become the Sweet Plastic LP. Using Reason 2.0, a broken AKAI S20 sampler, a TASCAM fourtrack, and Protools FREE, the album was completed in the Spring of 2003. Created in the vein of Revolver or OK Computer ,the songs on The Sweet Plastic consist of samples of living things, spacey rock ballads with orchestral sweeps, dance hits, and acoustic memoirs of a life lived on empty. The classically trained Astral Navigator, played piano, rhodes, and bass guitar on the album.

In January 2004, Mano recruited Manny B and ScottyRockNRoll on drums and lead guitar respectively to fill out "The Wildlife" sound. Shortly thereafter, singer John O'brien brought The Sweet Plastic LP to the attention of Martin at the Make Out Room in San Francisco. The wildlife has since played in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley and continues to astound live audiences. Mano's vocal delivery is like listening to a cross between David Bowie and Paul McCartney. His stage presence lacks a civilized decorum as he wanders around the stage, possessed by the forces of chaos. The wildlife has played with intense rock n roll acts like Portland's Viva Voce and Chicago's Low Skies.

Production influences include: George Martin, the Neptunes, and Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound". Writing influences include: the Beatles, The Cure, Radiohead, Lou Reed, Sonic Youth and SADE. Mano is currently penning songs for the second album and recording demos using Digidesign's Protools LE, and his trusty fourtrack. The wildlife's next album promises to continue in the electronic space rock tradition while adding a dash of countrified harmonies and some RnB surprises. Mano also plans to sing some songs in other languages including Cockney, Spanglish and his parents' native Filipino dialect Tagalog.