With melodic pop trap beats and an inspiring story, blind music producer and recording artist Mattmac has established himself as one to watch on the national music scene.
Mattmac’s debut album 20/20 is making waves with 180,000+ streams across all platforms. The thoughtful, honest lyrics, heavy melodic trap beats and poppy vocals in the release allow listeners a glimpse into the mind of a creative genius who paints authentic auditory landscapes that depict struggle, healing, love and life on the rez from the eyes of one who does not see.
“Paradise”, the album’s eight-track debut single released in November, has become popular on the Canadian music circuit. It has garnered more than 50,000+ Spotify streams and charted top three on the NCI FM Indigenous Music Countdown hosted by SiriusXM. On the mediabase radio charts, it reached all the way to the top 50.
Blind since birth, Mattmac is from Garden Hill First Nation, Manitoba. He grew up surrounded by music both on the radio and in his community’s gospel choir. From an early age, he struggled with depression and found music beneficial in helping him cope. By age 13, he began to make beats, write lyrics, and subsequently taught himself to play both piano and guitar. Mattmac is grateful for the support of the Blind and Famous group, a USA-based collective of blind music artists who collaborate and encourage one another online. He attributes his competency in beat production software and equipment to their mentorship.
Mattmac’s music career was set in motion in 2016 when N’we Jinan, a travelling music studio program, visited his community and invited him to collaborate on a project. Inspiration from his personal story was the impetus for the song and video title “Help You See” that has been watched nearly 250,000 times on YouTube and Facebook. This experience brought with it welcome connections with international music artist Nelly Furtado with whom he performed at Indigenous Day Live and We Day Canada in 2017. Mattmac hopes to continue to use his platform to inspire others to know that with hard work they too can accomplish whatever they dream.
