Biography

Mathis was born in 1976 in the Black Forest, Germany. Brought up with German folk songs sung to him by his grandma, he also had her initiating him at the guitar, which she learned to play herself from the American soldiers stationed there at the end of World War II. In 1982 his family moves to France. Mathis spends all of his childhood there, taking piano lessons and discovering the blues on the radio, the dark, bitter and rough version of the 30’s along with country and American folk. He works on his guitar technique and travels back and forth from Germany to Spain and France. In 1999, he plays blues with the Spoonfull trio, swing jazz with Claudio della Corte His encounter with English schoolmate Seamus Taylor is a turning point. They create ‘Mathis and the Mathematiks’ in 2003. On the roots of his blues references are grafted the experiences and colours which he picked up during his many travels. Deeply affected by American music, Mathis uses all his skills to accomplish, with the Mathematiks, his first commercial release: 5 The album melts electronic sounds and analogue effects with his basically acoustic and quite traditional style. During the last decade, Mathis will record 3 solo albums, and approach a multitude of new genres with Harmonica players like JJ Milteau and Guy Bélanger, singers like Carla Bruni, Oum, Pura Fe, Angie wells, Emily Loizeau, Perrine Mansuy, the trova project.