We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matheus (MASH) Granjeiro. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matheus (MASH) below.

Hi Matheus (MASH), thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I started my musical “journey” at the young age of nine. I started playing piano and was first classically trained. Later on, I was playing more and more instruments, such as the drums and the saxophone at my middle school and high school concert and jazz bands. It was only when I was 15 years old that I settled on the guitar. Now, I play mostly the acoustic guitar and sing. I also started singing later, when I was 21 years old. My dad has tremendous taste in music, so I was fortunate enough to grow up listening to artists such as The Eagles, Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, Kenny Rogers, Phil Collins, and the list goes on. I knew I wanted to pursue a career in music when my dad showed me the Eagles’ dvd “Hell Freezes Over”. I was 13 years old. It was there and then that not only they became my favorite band, I knew I wanted to write and perform music like they do.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I moved to Los Angeles in 2017 to study music at Musicians Institute. I now have a bachelors in Songwriting & Production. After school, I focused on playing live all around L.A. I’ve played at well known venues such as the Whisky a Go Go and The Viper Room. I’m currently working on my first full album. I’ve already released songs under my artist name “MASH” and also with my country rock band “Steep Gradient”. My sound is a mixture of folk and pop, with some elements of rock and country. The songs I currently have out are “Say There’s A Way”, “A Step Back”, “Heart Of Gold”, “I Just Want, To Feel Alright”, and more recently “We’ll Find A Way”, a song I released with my friend and fellow artist Joshua Hayes. I’m excited to release more music this year and keep playing live.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Ironically, I’m not great with expressing my feeling to someone. But, I am great when I put them into song and lyrics; suddenly they work. I am also very shy. So, all emotions and feelings I’ve bottled up or couldn’t express properly over my life, I put them into lyrics and songs. It is literally my therapy and a way for me to deal with past traumas, current issues, but also to express joy and good things. Many times I go over lyrics I’ve written and they help me understand how much something really affected me. From there, I can work on these things with professional help (therapists and psychologists). I truly hope my songs help others in what they are going through. All theses songs did come from specific memories or things I’ve been through, but regardless if they did come from these experiences, I hope it translates into what my audience is going through and helps them heal. I many times also write about experiences I see others going through and other’s stories.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My family is consisted of business owners and lawyers. I’m the first musician in both sides of my family’s history. I’ve struggled my entire scholar life. I would only stay “afloat” to pass classes. I have ADHD and struggled with it too. If you told my younger self I would have a bachelor’s degree in music, I would not have believed it. After high school, I was highly “advised” to go into law school. I had no interest in anything else, only music. Music is my true passion, what I constantly think of from the moment I wake up, up to the moment I go to sleep. It was tough to convince my parents to study music and to become a musician, and I don’t blame them for it. It truly can be a hard path to take, and I’m still learning about myself and this career. I believe I will never stop trying to find my own voice. I feel like it’s critical for every artist to always be open to new ideas and always look to better themselves. An advice I have for any artist in general is to trust your art. As cliche as it sounds, there is only one you. Avoid trying to be like someone who already exists, and trust your own voice. Of course keeping in mind that inspiration is fundamental.

Contact Info:

• Website: linktr.ee/mgranjeiro
• Instagram: instagram.com/mashofficialmusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mashofficialmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mashmusic7119/videos