Clear signal

The techniques of digital music production today are finicky.

Dizzingly so: a little surgical EQ to make your hi-hats less shrill, the subtle boost in the 30-Hz range to get your kick drum thumping just so, drawing out a reverb swell with a visual artist’s meticulousness.

If the artist is visually impaired, the challenge might seem next to impossible.

“It’s so tough. Spending hours on a little piece of audio, or, like, I want the delay on the word ‘home’ exactly — not the syllable after or before,” says Winnipeg-based musician Matthew Monias, whose stage name is Mattmac.

Assistive technology helps the artist, who produces and mixes much of the music he sings and raps on, though he explains it’s taken him years to get the hang of things and more than a little doggedness.

“If a blind guy who used to live in Garden Hill (First Nation), who’s living in Winnipeg, was able to do all this, then there’s no reason why (you) shouldn’t too,” he says, by way of encouraging other Manitoba musicians.

At 26 years old, Monias — who launches his fourth album, Smoke Signals, Sunday at Sidestage and shares the stage with Siibii and QuestionATL — has millions of streams and well over 100,000 followers across platforms.

He’s earned notable support from Virgin Radio, SiriusXM and major Spotify editorial playlists, and in 2023 was the CBC Searchlight Grand Prize winner, also picking up Album of the Year at the International Indigenous Hip-Hop Awards.

It’s one of the biggest recent success stories in Winnipeg music, though Monias is quick to share the credit.

Smoke Signals is made in collaboration with an Atlanta-based producer, also blind, whom Monias says was crucial to giving the album its authentic “trap” sound.

He acknowledges that while hip hop began in New York and soon spread to California, he’s most inspired by the explosion of Southern rap that began around the late 2000s.

This was associated with a shift from jazz, funk and disco samples toward a heavier digital sound: 808s, AutoTune and mechanically precise, rapid-fire hi-hats. Gone were the familiar snatches of the Police, James Brown and Chic, replaced by car-rattling bass and hints of European electronic dance music.

A prominent example of this is trap, a genre named for the drug-dealing “trap” houses of Atlanta and the American South. Its sound quickly spread online, largely via platforms such as Soundcloud, picking up new flavours and accents. A surprising infusion of pop punk and emo influences helped to soften trap, making it more introspective.

Mattmac’s sound comes closer to emo trap, with its catchy pop melodies, strong use of AutoTune and lyrical themes of love, loss and rez life.

Smoke Signal’s lead single is I Remember When, a nostalgic anthem a little in the vein of Post Malone’s Congratulations that also features QuestionATL behind the mic.

“Growing up in Garden Hill was really interesting. I listened to a lot of gospel and country from my mama. Mama didn’t really let me listen to trap; it was kind of my sister giving me CDs to listen to that helped me (discover it),” Monias says.

“(This song) comes from the pain and progression of before the accolades and everything else.”

If Monias’s sound blends southern influences with local references, his ambitions also seem pulled between the big city and an attachment to home. Having moved to Winnipeg in 2022 from Garden Hill, he expects to some day soon relocate, possibly to Toronto or even L.A.

“There will be times where I’ll come back to Winnipeg, go to my favourite dispensaries, see the old budtenders again, all these places. I represent for where I come from,” he says.

He hopes his trajectory can inspire others from similar backgrounds to open the same doors he did.

“If you truly want something, you’ll go and get it, and don’t lose that passion, don’t lose motivation. Just keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll get to where you want to be,” he says.

conrad.sweatman@winnipegfreepress.com