Ray Barbee Meets the Mattson 2

Known for their expansive jazz and psych-rock instrumentals, sibling duo guitarist Jared Mattson and drummer Jonathan Mattson (aka the Mattson 2) emerged in the 2000s playing around the Pacific Coast of California. Influenced as much by the jazz tradition as ’60s experimental rock, surf rock, and ’70s fusion, the brothers debuted on record in 2009 with the EP Introducing the Mattson 2.
Raised in San Diego, brothers Jared and Jonathan Mattson first began playing music in elementary school, and by their teens were already accomplished players, performing often in local coffeehouses. After high school, they honed their skills studying at the University of California San Diego, where they graduated with bachelor’s degrees in jazz studies. Around 2009, the brothers formed the instrumental duo the Mattson 2, playing a broad stylistic mix of psych-infused jazz and rock.
Following the release of several EPs, they issued their full-length debut with 2011′s Feeling Hands. A collaboration with Chaz Bundick (aka Toro y Moi), Star Stuff, followed in 2017. As evidence of their genre-bending style, they issued A Love Supreme in 2018, a trippy reworking of saxophonist John Coltrane’s landmark 1965 album. Paradise, the duo’s equally ’60s-influenced set of dreamy original compositions, arrived in 2019. ~ Matt Collar