Mattiel is the whole package, but by no means does her brand feel packaged. Musically, the Atlanta artist blends ’60s rock ‘n’ roll and a bit of jangle pop with a bit of blues and soul — at first listen, you might mistake her subtly dusty songs for previously unearthed vintage recordings. Aesthetically, she nods to the same era — yet is somehow forward-thinking, too.
In her videos, there’s crisp color-blocking in sharp brights, plus striking (and sometimes dryly funny) oddball touches, like standing upright on a horse’s back, or battling an onslaught tomatoes, cake, eggs, paint, feathers, flour, and other messy projectiles. The details are different for every clip, but the expertly cohesive presentation remains.
This comes courtesy of Mattiel’s background: She works in design and visual communication for the tech company MailChimp, along with collaborators Jason Travis and, more recently, Troy Stains. (And as for the equestrian connection: She grew up on a farm, where she learned to ride around six or seven years old).
“[Troy and Jason] both have an extensive background in photography and filmmaking, and I have a background in set design [and] art direction, so we’re able to get a lot accomplished together,” Mattiel explains. “I also love editing the footage for the final cut, so we pass the footage around and work on it together. By now we all understand each other’s process and fortunately have a similar sense of humor, composition, and visual messaging.
Mattiel’s smooth transitioning of her own ideas to a group served her well in the creation of the album, too. The approach to writing and recording was fully old-school via Atlanta’s InCrowd, a collective of session players helmed by songwriters Jonah Swilley and Randy Michael. Mattiel, of course, supplied the vocals, and also wrote the lyrics.
WhileMattiel can certainly stand alone, when paired with these visually stunning videos, those compelling tunes are boosted to mind-blowing levels. To learn more about the creation process, we asked Mattiel for the rundown of each — here’s her notes, starting with the earliest released.
Mattiel is the whole package, but by no means does her brand feel packaged. Musically, the Atlanta artist blends ’60s rock ‘n’ roll and a bit of jangle pop with a bit of blues and soul — at first listen, you might mistake her subtly dusty songs for previously unearthed vintage recordings. Aesthetically, she nods to the same era — yet is somehow forward-thinking, too.
In her videos, there’s crisp color-blocking in sharp brights, plus striking (and sometimes dryly funny) oddball touches, like standing upright on a horse’s back, or battling an onslaught tomatoes, cake, eggs, paint, feathers, flour, and other messy projectiles. The details are different for every clip, but the expertly cohesive presentation remains.
This comes courtesy of Mattiel’s background: She works in design and visual communication for the tech company MailChimp, along with collaborators Jason Travis and, more recently, Troy Stains. (And as for the equestrian connection: She grew up on a farm, where she learned to ride around six or seven years old).
“[Troy and Jason] both have an extensive background in photography and filmmaking, and I have a background in set design [and] art direction, so we’re able to get a lot accomplished together,” Mattiel explains. “I also love editing the footage for the final cut, so we pass the footage around and work on it together. By now we all understand each other’s process and fortunately have a similar sense of humor, composition, and visual messaging.”
Mattiel’s smooth transitioning of her own ideas to a group served her well in the creation of the album, too. The approach to writing and recording was fully old-school via Atlanta’s InCrowd, a collective of session players helmed by songwriters Jonah Swilley and Randy Michael. Mattiel, of course, supplied the vocals, and also wrote the lyrics.
WhileMattiel can certainly stand alone, when paired with these visually stunning videos, those compelling tunes are boosted to mind-blowing levels. To learn more about the creation process, we asked Mattiel for the rundown of each — here’s her notes, starting with the earliest released.
“Whites of Their Eyes”
For “Whites of Their Eyes,” we had a very small budget and only a month to plan everything out. We didn’t have a crew – it was only Jason and I who worked on it – apart from the song being co-written by Jonah Swilley and produced by himself and Randy Michael. This video production was the first time I was able to work on my own product from an art director’s standpoint.
I chose a bright red suit for the desert scenes, I rented a horse, bought fireworks, and planned several shots. Half of it was filmed in California, and the other half was filmed in Georgia. Jason has a great eye for cinematography so I leave that up to him. It was a lot of fun to make that video with a friend who understands my stylistic choices and takes my opinions seriously. Jason is immensely talented.
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