Mattie Konig
Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Mattie Konig, a twenty-something musician, game developer, artist, and all-round creator of cool stuff. Here's where you can find my latest projects, my past creative work, contact details, and more!PLACE OF ORIGIN: London, England, UKCURRENT LOCATION: West Country, England, UKPRONOUNS: She/HerPASSION FOR CREATION: Never-Ending
WHAT'S NEW
Mulholland
Released September 23, 2022An official map for Open Fortress over a year in the making, set in a groovy Hollywood Hills recording studio.
Cleanup Duty
Released January 14, 2022My first full-length album of original music in nearly three years. Pastoral keyboard passages, pounding electronic rhythms and layers of contemplative ambience ebb and flow in fascinating and unexpected ways, taking you on an immersive trans-genre journey from start to finish.
Music
I've been writing and recording my own music since 2012, exploring a wide variety of genres and instruments along the way. I'm mainly a keyboardist, but I also handle vocals, percussion, and guitars; from recording in Logic Pro X to releasing my songs on Bandcamp and Soundcloud, I remain in control every step of the way.I was a regular performer at Exeter's Loud and Queer performance art events; I also played at their Exeter Pride showcase slots in 2018 and 2019, and a solo set at the 2018 Women of the World festival. My 2016 album Here Comes A Special Boy? was featured on GoldFlakePaint's list of essential albums by transgender artists, and my music has recieved regular airplay on Culture as a Dare (an experimental radio showcase slot originally on Thames Estuary station [Ship Full of Bombs],(http://www.shipfullofbombs.co.uk/) and later on Scottish station Tak Tent Radio).
Studio albums
The bulk of my musical development has been through a series of albums/EPs of original music, released more or less continuously since 2016. The songs on these albums are eclectic in style, incorporating elements of progressive rock, experimental electronica, dance music, and numerous other genres. Their lyrics so far have mostly chronicled the various developments in my own life, although beginning with the release of Cleanup Duty I have begun to broaden my horizons and write songs that try and address the world outside my own headspace.
| Album name | Release date | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Deadname Self-Titled | March 18, 2016 | Released during a gap year after two years of formal music tuition at sixth-form college - long before beginning the gender transition that sculpted the person I am today - my debut album consisted of mainly instrumental pieces, with a rudimentary version of my eventual prog rock-electronica fusion style already starting to form. |
| Here Comes A Special Boy? | September 24, 2016 | This more confident sophomore release marked the start of a recognisable Mattie Konig sound, incorporating new genres and sounds as each song required; it was also my first album themed around an overall concept, with multiple songs focusing on discovering and accepting my gender identity. |
| Cerulean Impulses | April 14, 2017 | This dark and violent album was inspired by a single unsuccessful semester at university - an isolated and emotionally tumultous attempt at independence, in which the emergence of a disturbing new political paradigm coincided with the awkward formative stages of my transition. The noise music/industrial elements on this album were certainly successful reflection of my stressed and disturbed headspace at the time. (I got better though) |
| Light and Shade | April 11, 2018 | My longest album to date, both in total length and number of songs, Light and Shade reflected a more settled, optimistic mood, as well as a maximalist return to the genre-defying approach of Here Comes A Special Boy?. Notable in that, until the release of Cleanup Duty, this was my only album to feature entirely sung songs (i.e. no instrumentals). |
| Unlearning | January 27, 2019 | Perhaps the closest I've ever gotten to punk, this short and tense album saw the return of an industrial edge to my usual sound, with lyrics addressing all manner of frustrations and failings - albeit with more outright anger and venom than the terror and anguish of Cerulean Impulses. |
| Dark Skies | October 30, 2019 | This six-track EP of diverse songs saw out the decade with my most polished production yet, showcasing my progression in everything from refined manifestations of my prog roots to a shot at 1980s Hi-NRG pop. |
| Downstreaming | August 1, 2020 | Creating a "sidelong" extended composition had been my goal ever since I first started making music, and the first COVID-19 lockdown gave me the opportunity to focus on writing just that; the result was this 33-minute mutli-movement suite, tackling the most important questions of my musical journey so far, covering a wide range of styles in the process (albeit with a naturalistic core sound influenced by the organic tones of 1990s post-rock.) |
| Five Queasy Pieces | March 29, 2021 | From one of my biggest releases to my smallest, this five-track EP pared back my style to the basics, resulting in a suite of sparse and direct songs with minimalistic, contemporary production. |
| Cleanup Duty | January 14, 2022 | My latest studio album combines the best approaches of my past albums with forays into sweeping new territory, while lyrically the focus on internal torments has been cast aside in favour of a healthier, more worldly view of things. The result is one of my most coherent albums yet, and perhaps the one I'm most proud of too. |
Soundtracks
I've contributed to the soundtracks for several media projects, both as a volunteer and as a commissioned composer:
| Project name | Description | My contribution(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Open Fortress | A community-made Team Fortress 2 mod that introduces new characters, game modes, weapons and locations. | Various themes including Drawn and Quartered (background music for my Deathmatch map Thames), Waiting for Toast (music for the game installer) and Keep On Bein' Fabulous (music for my Duel map Mulholland.) |
| Amazing Treasure Valley | An open-world slice-of-life RPG created by Splendidland, currently in development. | Themes for numerous characters and locations in a variety of styles, from quirky chiptunes to smooth lounge muzak and upbeat shibuya-kei inspired pop. |
| Sorceress Story | A role-playing/platformer game created by Suzie Scott, currently in development. | Themes for various characters and locations, using authentic Nintendo 64-era instrument samples. |
| Penelope Parabellum | A virtual YouTuber (VTuber) known for English and Russian-language streams of various games. | Penelope's Room and Parabellum Street, two instrumental themes used for stream intermissions. |
Other stuff
A list of other musical projects I've created or been involved with over the years.- Mashups: In 2017 I started experimenting with mashups, and since then have released them as both individual tracks and longer EPs, culminating in 2019's 25-minute epic One of These Again. Although these mashups were often crudely assembled and sometimes had irreverent sample choices with little regard for context, the techniques I used to make them have helepd to inform my original compositions, and I still have a soft spot for some of the unexpected sample combinations I chanced upon. (Tavares and Tenpole Tudor, anyone?)- Jukebox AI: In the present day AI technology has advanced at a worryingly exponential rate, and I try and remain vigilant and pragmatic about the potentially destructive political and artistic effects it could have on society going forward. Back in 2020, however, the release of Jukebox - a relatively sophisticated music generation neural network, at a time when media synthesis was a niche field - piqued my interest, and I made a series of experiments to see how well it fared at various tasks. It's been a while since I last did any Jukebox experiments, and I strongly disavow the breathessly proselytising techbro culture that modern media synthesis has attracted, but the old experiments can still be viewed on my YouTube channel.
GAMEDEV
I grew up an avid video game enthusiast, so it's no surprise I eventually ended up trying my hand at making them too. While this initially manifested in the form of early experiments with the likes of Game Maker and the Tomb Raider Level Editor, from 2010 onwards I began making levels for various Source Engine games, and it remains the engine I'm most experienced in to this day. Much of my Source work has involved recreating various locations in London and the UK for fun, no doubt influenced by fond recollections of my upbringing in the capital; with the release of Source 2 and its far more powerful level editing tools, I have begun to diversify my repertoire and create more varied locations, both extant and fictional.My eventual goal is to use my Source/Source 2 prowess to create and release some kind of original project - perhaps a campaign set in the Half-Life universe, an original science fiction or horror story, an abstract psychedelic trip, a recreation of a real world space for virtual tourism, or even an interactive music video.
The London Pack
I was the leader of the London Pack, a community project for Team Fortress 2 (as well as Source Filmmaker, Open Fortress, and other related Source engine mods) with the goal of introducing a new collection of UK-themed map assets to the mapping community. From its conception in 2018 right up to its release in 2021 I oversaw its direction on multiple levels, from creating textures, concept art and promotional materials to directing the creation of models by other community members. I also created DM_Thames, an official map for Open Fortress set on the banks of the titular river, as a way to showcase the potential of the pack and its assets. The London Pack is one of the largest projects I've worked on in terms of scale and time spent, and it's been a useful learning experience for managing such projects (especially getting to grips with software like GitHub).
Detailing contests
TF2Maps.net runs yearly detailing contests where mappers are tasked with creating as good-looking a map as possible based around a specific theme. I have won first place in these contests two years running:- In 2021 the theme was "In & Out", requiring mappers to include at least one major interior area and one major exterior area in their map. My entry took the form of a modern-day cruise ship, "Quintessence of the Waves"; the main atrium and lido deck acted as the main interior and exterior areas respectively, with many other explorable rooms across the map. It was definitely a challenge to make, especially figuring out how to update TF2's iconic painterly aesthetic to the present day, but I had a lot of fun creating the various custom assets and researching the aesthetics and layouts of existing cruise ships in the modern world.- In 2022 the theme was "Globetrotter", requiring mappers to create a scene set outside the mainland United States (TF2's primary setting). My entry took the form of a leafy suburban street in south-west London, again drawing on memories of growing up in the area and adapting them to TF2's painterly aesthetic.
VISUAL ARTS
Digital collage
For much of the 2010s I amused myself by creating horrifying digital photo collages in Paint.NET. Sourced from images found on the web and assembled with little regard for such niceties as accurate facial anatomy, these surreal and satirical grotesques have also served a practical purpose in allowing me to experiment with different aspects of graphic design, even if a real advertising agency would be nuts to let me anywhere near their design departments.
In early 2020 I applied my collage skills more seriously in the form of Memories of Doggerland. This short zine reflects both my interest in alternate history scenarios and the political state of the current world, presenting a scrapbook of ephemera from a parallel universe where Doggerland (an area of land that connected Britain to the European continent in prehistoric times) survived to this day. Memories of Doggerland recieved a short print run in full colour, and I performed a lecture about the alternate Doggerland at the February 2020 edition of Loud and Queer.
Video
My artistic interests have always extended into the realm of the moving image, and no doubt one day I'll end up doing some kind of grand video-based project; in the meantime, smaller audiovisual accomplishments have kept my editing skills from going rusty. These have ranged from experiments in adapting my other creative works (including tests for an animated When My Nights Were Better music video and a news report from my fictional Doggerland) to YouTube Poop-inspired maximalist absurdism (including Eleven Hours in a Chimp Man, a fast-paced performance art video that brought the demented style of my collage works to life) to completely unprecedented endeavours (my The Universe is a Glitch music video, consisting entirely of AI-generated components - lyrics, audio, and visuals).
CONTACT
If you have any questions, are interested in collaborating with or commissioning me, or just want to get in touch, you can contact me through one of the following:
I'm most active on Discord, but if you want to chat there, send me a Twitter message or an email asking to add me first.If you want to directly support me, consider donating to my PayPal: