Even in case you don’t realise it, you’ve in all probability heard Mateus Asato. The 31-year-old Brazilian guitarist has spent the final decade carving out a uniquely trendy path to stardom – embracing social media on the daybreak of the short-form video period, he’s earned tens of millions of followers, scores of well-known followers, and labored with everybody from Bruno Mars and Jessie J to John Petrucci and Joe Satriani to Elevation Worship.

However regardless of being “among the best guitar gamers round”, in response to a minimum of John Mayer, there was one thing lacking. You received’t discover Mateus Asato information in your native retailer or streaming companies – as a result of exterior of the splendidly expressive, technically jaw-dropping and melodically head-spinning guitar vignettes that propelled him to Instagram stardom, Asato hasn’t formally launched any of his personal music. It’s a particularly 2020s path to being a guitar hero, however now after a decade that’s all going to alter. As we log onto a name with Asato on a sunny Los Angeles morning, he’s trying a bit drained, his luxuriant lengthy hair trying extra tousled than normal… as you’d anticipate from a person who completed the classes for his debut album on the iconic EastWest Studios lower than 12 hours earlier than.

“I’ve been working on this world of guarantees for thus lengthy,” Asato says of his lengthy highway to placing out his personal music. “I’d be all the time telling individuals, ‘I’m releasing my report subsequent yr’. It’s been 10 years of a variety of doubts and questions… and a few id crises about who I’m by way of music.”

“The album is unquestionably a journey by all the perimeters of Mateus Asato”

Aspect Dish

Asato’s journey up to now has been an enchanting and distinctly trendy one. His otherworldly enjoying has made him essentially the most revered and influential guitar participant within the social media sphere, whereas additionally propelling him right into a profession as an A-list sideman.

Touring gigs with Tori Kelly, Jessie J and Bruno Mars took Asato all around the world… nevertheless it additionally occupied his time in a means that restricted his means to change into an artist in his personal proper. “As quickly as I left music school, I began as a sideman,” he explains. “And then you definately’re not considering as an artist. You don’t see the massive image. You’re simply doing a service for any individual.”

Asato had all the trimmings of an A-list guitar participant – tens of millions of followers, signature guitars, pedals and amp software program, affords to do clinics and guitar camps around the globe – however he wasn’t certain what his subsequent step can be. “It’s the duality of being a musician,” he says. “I feel everyone offers with that. There’s two issues: I’ve to pay my payments, and I’ve to attempt to observe what my coronary heart is attempting to inform me.”

Asato admits that for some time he wasn’t certain what his coronary heart was saying. His versatility and virtuosity was plain to see – a truth emphasised by the varied guitars hanging on the wall behind him as we chat, from a Floyd-loaded SuperStrat to a Charlie Christian-style jazz field – and he puzzled if possibly that meant he was greatest suited to being “only a sideman”. Then in 2016, he travelled to South Korea for a guitar clinic, and was confronted with the truth that the vignettes he posted on Instagram weren’t simply getting a lot of likes and shares – they have been having a profound emotional influence on individuals emotionally.

“I had no concept of the influence that these little Instagram movies have been having till I truly went to South Korea,” he displays. “There have been 500 individuals there simply to see this ‘Mateus Asato man’. That absolutely modified the sport for me: ‘Wait a minute, I play for an artist… but in addition there’s a giant potential for me to simply do my very own stuff’.”

“The one collab I’m doing is with myself!”

Strain Cooker

The highway to really doing his personal stuff, nevertheless, hasn’t been straightforward. It took a tough dialog with buddy and producer Matt Mainhard to assist him realise “it’s not okay to simply have an inventory of songs. We gotta have a theme. We gotta have some type of idea, or one thing that may let you know the place to go.” It was the spark that gave him a brand new degree of readability and focus – “I used to be waking up considering of the album, going to mattress, considering of the album” – and he put all his different initiatives to at least one aspect. Whereas prior to now he felt “obligated” to lastly launch music, now he felt one thing extra profound: “I’ve this factor that’s crucial, and I’ve to handle it and ship it to the world.”

What Asato and his close-knit group of pals and collaborators – together with drummer Anthony Uriarte and bassist Isaias Elpes – went into Sundown Boulevard’s legendary EastWest Studios to create is a summation of every little thing that’s led him right here. “The album is unquestionably a journey by all the perimeters of Mateus,” he explains. “The Mateus who’s a sideman, Mateus because the Instagram boy, after which the Mateus that acquired extra mature over time. Who developed a unique imaginative and prescient concerning music, concerning how I see guitar.”

Regardless of that wealth of expertise and rising confidence, Asato admits that it was unusual attending to grips with the stress of being the Primary Man within the studio. “Once I was simply doing a session for any individual, I’d not likely take note of lyrics, y’know?” he laughs. “ It was identical to, ‘Let me make sure that I play this factor proper and also you’re pleased with it’. However for this, my goodness, I needed to assume a lot about each little element. It was enjoyable, however very difficult.”

Listening to the best way that Asato’s solos explode from the fretboard, you’d presume that the largest problem can be nailing the guitar elements, however in truth it was fairly the alternative.

“The toughest half was to not concentrate on my guitar,” he reveals. “As a result of I realised, wait a minute, if the drums and the bass will not be proper, even when my guitar is correct, it’s gonna suck! In a few the songs, I needed to cease enjoying, and I used to be like, simply maintain my take and now I’m simply gonna take heed to the boys play.”

At one level, Asato needed his debut album to be considered one of collaborations, however ultimately he realised that wouldn’t be an genuine assertion of who he was as an artist. In any case, “that is the primary card I’m throwing on the desk to the world.” Moreover, the album has turned out to be collaborative – however not in the best way you’d anticipate. “The one collab I’m doing is with myself!” he exclaims. “There are a few solos that I recorded from 2016 to 2019, however in that point my enjoying has modified – and after I listened to it again, you possibly can inform that issues have been completely different… the vibrato, the tones, these little nuances. However I made a decision to simply go away the unique take and add new layers of me enjoying now, so it’s like I’m jamming with myself – that was cool!”

“Artwork is a fantastic means of expressing your self and every little thing sort of turns into subjective”

The Stunning Recreation

So how did the son of Japanese immigrants from the sleepy rural metropolis of Campo Grande find yourself changing into a generational guitar expertise? Effectively, as is commonly the case with Brazil, all of it begins with fútbol.

“Once I was 9 years outdated, soccer was the one factor that I needed to do,” Asato reveals. However seeing his older cousin enjoying guitar at some point piqued his curiosity: “You’re in that season that you just simply need to copy the older children – and he confirmed up with an acoustic and listening to some rock bands from Brazil.”

That’s an origin story that many guitar gamers can relate to, however no quantity of pure expertise makes you into the type of otherworldly guitar participant that Asato has change into – you additionally have to put in a degree of graft and energy that few are able to. And for Asato, his soccer obsession helped him on his journey.

“With soccer, it’s a sport, so there’s a first, second, third place. And simply by nature, I’m very aggressive myself,” he chuckles, his arms changing into extra animated. “It’s annoying generally, how even when I’m simply enjoying with my pals and my dad’s pals on Saturday afternoon… I need to win each match!”

The self-discipline, drive and work ethic that had been instilled in him to get higher at soccer, was now targeted on guitar. “Why does an expert crew exist?” he asks rhetorically. “As a result of they need to win a event, proper? I didn’t have to win any guitar tournaments, however I sort of used that [drive] to assist me to develop and develop as a guitarist.”

That mentioned, he did win one, beating out over 500 different entrants to win Brazil’s Double Imaginative and prescient guitar contest in 2010. This nationwide prize not solely helped Mateus land his place at LA’s prestigious Musician’s Institute, it additionally satisfied his household he may make a profession of guitar (“I don’t must be a health care provider anymore!”) however its influence on him personally was much more profound.

“After I received that guitar contest, I realised I by no means need to combine these issues once more in my life,” he admits. “As a result of on the similar time that I used to be very happy to win that factor, I understood that if I didn’t win, that might have in all probability despatched me down a really melancholic highway the place I’d have in all probability determined that I didn’t need to play guitar anymore. Overlook about this factor! Fortunately, God was type sufficient and gracious sufficient to provide me that award, as a result of it made me peaceable, however I do know now that it’s not about competitors.

“It was nice remedy for me to know that you just don’t must be the perfect. You simply have to know that artwork is a fantastic means of expressing your self and every little thing sort of turns into subjective and relative. I’m nonetheless aggressive, however I understood that that is means past the competitors. It’s about transmitting a message to the world.”

After greater than a decade of wrestling, Mateus Asato has lastly reached the purpose the place his message has been refined and crafted and is almost able to be beamed out to the world. It’s been an extended highway, however no matter occurs from right here, you get the sense that Asato is at peace and cozy with the artist he’s blossoming into.

“My hometown is within the countryside in Brazil,” he displays. “And naturally, I had goals, however I used to be by no means like, ‘Oh man, I need to be well-known. I need to play for lots of people.’ I needed to be an ideal guitar participant, I needed to be blissful after I performed guitar. And fortunately, that’s been one thing that I’ve been doing, with nice gratitude.”

Mateus Asato appeared on the duvet of the Guitar.com Journal Might/June 2025 difficulty.

Phrases: Josh Gardner
Images: Rachel Billings
Images Help: Charlie McKay
Styling: Ben Adams
Hair & Make-up: Rachel Hearle
Location: Dawsons Native Soho