Mattiel

Mattiel Brown, known mononymously as Mattiel, is an Atlanta, GA rock artist who fuses ‘60s garage blues, rockabilly, and modern pop rock with a commanding voice and smart, sometimes scathing lyrics to create a retrofuturist sound uniquely her own.

Mattiel grew up on her mother’s isolated farm in rural Georgia, but eventually made her way to the ATL, which is where her true musical journey began. In 2014, Mattiel had an allergic reaction when she stopped using a prescription steroid cream, which came with disastrous effects. As she told NME in June 2019, she experienced serious face-swelling and skin-cracking to the point where she was spending weeks soaking in oatmeal baths, hiding from the outside world. Thankfully, during this time, she was able to use music as an outlet.

Although music continued to be a therapeutic tool in her personal life, she didn’t even start thinking of it as a serious career option until 2017, when her idol, Jack White, appeared at one of her shows. She told NME:

Jack was watching me the entire time with his arms crossed. That moment convinced me that this wasn’t just a side project anymore. This wasn’t just something fun to do, it was a very influential thing and he was a good witness for that.

Even still, Mattiel released her early forays—2017’s Whites of Their Eyes and Mattiel—while she was still working primarily as a graphic designer, and even her January 2019 album Customer Copy was a side project. It wasn’t until March 2019, just three months before she released Satis Factory, that she finally quit her day job.

“I remember thinking all along, ‘Yeah, I would love to do that but it’s out of my wheelhouse, right?’,“ she told Heavenly Recordings. “I guess I just really had to break out of my skin.”