It’s not often that a talented producer is equally gifted as an emcee. Artists like Kanye and Pharell have been able to break the mold with ease and by the looks of it, Indiana’s Mathaius Young is on track to do exactly the same.
Nine months ago, the 21-year-old started gaining national recognition with the release of a 12-track album titled “Take the Night Away.” Laced with a handful of features and a soundtrack driven by original productions, the project proved that Mathaius has a story to tell and is here to stay indefinitely.
Following a brief hiatus from releasing new material, Young recently returned with “Dreams of My Death: 2030,” a five-track EP inspired by recurring nightmares. By experimenting with new sounds and endless melody, the Ohio-bred artist was able create a stunningly unique and completely unexpected aura across the new project.
It’s been nine months since you dropped “Take The Night Away.” Can you pinpoint one major change in your life that took place during this break?
I took time to get on my feet and get my shit together. I was broke as fuck when I made “Take The Night Away.” I decided after I made that project that, I wasn’t gonna be broke anymore. I started working a regular job, and hen got fired. Just on some real life shit.
What inspired you to create a new project?
Being hungry to reach my dreams is what made me wanna make another project man. I don’t force music anymore, so it took me some time to get that drive back. But once I looked around me and realized motherfuckers are taking off left and right, I was like nah, I gotta get back on my shit and remember that this shit is the love of my life.
I started out with some tracks and would like ’em for a day and hate ’em after. Did that about 20 times, and hated every single song. Then one day I was like shit, autotune is fun to use, lemme just fuck around. Then, “Dreams of My Death” happened. That tape took one week.
Where’d the name “Dreams of My Death: 2030” come from?
It came from literally going to sleep and dreaming about dying. I remember having this one dream where I was looking in the mirror and my eyes were bloodshot red. I looked like I was strung out on drugs or something. It’s crazy, because right before I started the tape, I stopped showing my face. At the job I got fired from, they had me working 12-14 hour shifts and I remember getting off work, looking in the mirror and being like, “I LOOK LIKE SHIT!”
So, I think having that dream about looking the mirror made me just re-evaluate what the hell is important to me. So I made “Dreams of My Death.”
I hear more auto-tune on the new project than I’ve heard in your previous music. What caused this change? Do you find yourself experimenting with melodies more often?
I wanted to have fun with the music. My life had been so stressful prior to making the tape. I said to myself, “Why does this music shit have to be so serious?”
Now I love autotune. I’ve always had super cool ass melodies in my head, but I cant sing super good and autotune allows me to sing how I want to.
What is the hardest part about piecing together a cohesive album or EP?
There is no hard part, you just make music and put what sounds good before and after each other. That’s what I’m saying bro, this music shit ain’t shit. Have fun and everything will happen how it’s supposed to.
If anything was hard, it was trying to figure out what not to use for the tape. I wanted to keep it really short.
How would you describe “Dreams” to someone that was previously unfamiliar with your music and style?
Dreams is like trying something you really fuck with for the first time. Like 5 “first-times.”
You dropped a ton of freebies in-between your past two projects; how do you decide which songs make the cut for the album?
Every song that was made in that week of creating the tape made the tape, except the song “Numb” that I just released. Go check that out too!
Aside from production, there were no features on “Dreams.” Was this intentional?
I don’t like people featuring on my tracks unless I know they’re going to really kill it. So honestly, I just didn’t hear anyone on the tape but myself. Collaborating is definitely fun, it’s just gotta be the right time. Also, I feel like in the past I relied a lot on hooks from other people to kinda carry the song. I think I make pretty good hooks now so it’s like, I should just do this myself.
What’s your favorite part about working with Wondagurl?
Me and her haven’t worked in person so I wouldn’t know. That’s my best friend in this whole wide world though. Love you Ebony. She makes weird ass beats, and I love weird ass beats. She experiments a lot so it’s easy to come up with crazy ass ideas for songs on her beats.
What’s one thing people don’t know about Mathaius Young?
I’m actually an alien from Pluto. And Future has been alive since the beginning of time, he doesn’t age. Him and Pharrell are from Pluto as well.
If all goes as planned, where is Mathaius Young in one year from now?
At the top looking down at all these niggas, haha. Nah, one year from now I’ll be doing everything I said I was gonna do. I’ll most likely be in the studio.