About

Guitarist, Drummer, DJ, Bassist, Vocalist, Producer

For the past 25 years, Mathis Hunter has been performing music and curating aural experiences throughout Atlanta and beyond. In the mid-nineties, you might have found him playing punk rock shows up and down Howell Mill Rd before he found a permanent seat on the couch at MJQ where he soaked up all the club bangers for later use as a DJ. The 2000’s saw him writing, recording, and releasing records in addition to touring the country with his bands, Noot d’ Noot and The Selmanaires. The 2010’s have seen Mathis take his DJing from a side hustle to the center of his operations. His current residencies include the Ritz Carlton Atlanta on Thursdays, and Bar Margot in the Four Seasons Atlanta on Fridays and Saturdays. A new studio album entitled “Mother Tongue” is due in March. Whether playing live music at a dive bar, or DJing in a 5 star hotel, there are few situations where Mathis can not find the proper musical frequency. In tune, on time, all the time, as the saying goes. This breadth of musical openness comes from a lifelong love of sitting by the stereo and listening and playing along to music for most waking hours of the day.

In his own words, “It may all begin with Prince’s Raspberry Beret single in 1985.  My babysitter really wanted to hear it, and I was fairly certain I knew how to use the turntable.  Well, I ended up breaking it, and fortunately instead of getting mad, my dad walked me through the whole process and showed me how to properly care for records.  Within another year, Raising Hell and Licensed to Ill were released and I was building my own record collection, which is still ever expanding. Another game changer back in the mid 80’s for me was asking my dad who this Jimi Hendrix guy was. He didn’t really have to say anything, he just got out his copy of Are You Experienced? and handed it to me. I can’t even begin to explain what it was like to see and hold that jacket for the first time as an 8 year old, the yellow background with the purple text and the fish eye photo was an obvious clash that was meant to disorient or elevate. I wasn’t sure how to feel.  And those clothes! Then the needle dropped! I listened to that record LOUD in the living room for weeks, I was completely hypnotized. I think my mom was concerned. The quest for new music that could give me that feeling has been on since then, 30 something years later! Whether I’m playing music or listening to it, my ears are open, always.”