Interview

The Everyman

Brazil’s Mateus Asato — named one of Guitar World’s 20 greatest guitarists of the decade back in 2019 — is finally releasing his debut album. As expected, it’s a thing of beauty.

BY JOE BOSSO

HAMADA HIDEAKI

MATEUS ASATO IS the kind of guitarist we haven’t heard much of lately — a true original. He doesn’t do anything particularly outrageous or revolutionary — there’s no crazy gimmick (yet) that he’ll be known for — but in his own elegant and understated way, and it’s so casual and subtle that it could go over people’s heads at first, he’s well on his way to becoming one of the greatest guitarists of his generation.

The 31-year-old Brazilian guitarist’s debut album, simply titled Asato, is an unqualified thing of beauty, a thoroughly rewarding musical experience from start to finish. There are 15 cuts, none of which overstay the welcome (all but one are under four minutes), that emphasize moods and sensations over instrumental excess on exquisitely crafted songs that range from smooth pop (“Otsukare!”) to neo-soul (“Cryin’”) to aching ballads (“The Breakup Song”) and kaleidoscopic rock (“Hendrix”). But even when Asato pours on the gas and shreds (spoiler alert: he insists he’s no shredder), he’s quick to offer a self-aware wink, like he does on the prog-style mini epic “Rush.”

“It’s funny because before I named the song ‘Rush,’ I called it ‘The NAMM Song,’” he says. “It’s pretty proggy, so it’s like my extra dose of virtuoso. I wanted to add a lot of notes because, of course, it’s guitar music and you need to do that. Obviously, I would love to reach the maximum number of listeners with my songs, but with ‘Rush’ I knew I would reach the shredders. They might think the other songs are okay, but ‘Rush’ will appeal to them.”

Stylistically, he’s all over the map, which might confuse some listeners — we tend to want our artists to specialize in one thing, because it’s so much easier to process their music if we can put them in a box — but Asato can’t stand still. He closes the album with a slinky spellbinder, “Too Nerdy for Pop, Too Pop for Nerds,” that sums things up perfectly. “I do a little bit of everything, so people don’t know what to think of me,” he says. “I’m really okay with that.”