About
Thanks for visiting my little corner of the internet! I’m Mattie Konig, a UK-based musician, artist, game developer, trans woman, and creator of other weird and wonderful things. This site is where you can find information on my creative projects past, present and future, as well as upcoming live shows, contact details and other interesting bits. Enjoy!
Place of origin: South London, England, UK
Current location: Devon, England, UK
Favourite pronouns: she/her
Passion for creation: neverending.
Music
albums and eps
I’m a musician first and foremost, and I’ve been writing and recording original music since the early 2010s. Over that time I've developed a distinctive style that takes inspiration from a wide variety of genres, including progressive rock, electronic dance music, 20th century classical, plunderphonics, jazz fusion, industrial music, and many more. From 2016 onwards I have explored these idioms through a series of albums and EPs, independently released on my Bandcamp page and comprising both instrumental compositions and sung songs. The lyrics for the songs are just as syncretic as the music, covering themes ranging from intense personal reflection and motivational affirmations to historical/fictional narratives and gleeful celebrations of the weirder side of life. In many ways these albums are like diaries, snapshots of the person I was and the life I was living at the time of writing - and while I can't always claim communion with the younger me's that my discography has preserved, I wouldn't be the musician I am today if it wasn't for their hard work. Thanks, Past Matties!
| Album name | Release date | My reflections | My highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deadname Self Titled | March 18, 2016 | Where it all began - my only album to be recorded and released pre-transition. Inchoate and mostly instrumental prog, rudimentary but with glimpses of later developments. A survivor from another era of Self. | Une Rosbif À Paris, The Great Divide |
| Here Comes A Special Boy? | September 24, 2016 | The start of an identifiable Mattie Konig sound in earnest, with songs themed around the discovery and acceptance of my gender identity. New genres, new textures, new rhythms, new me. | When My Nights Were Better, New Sisters |
| Cerulean Impulses | April 14, 2017 | An outlier in my discography just a year in - dark and noisy, terrified and terrifying, a reflection of a single lonely semester at university at a time when worlds both personal and political were undergoing dramatic change. An early period nightmare. | Every Day A Plane Crash, Juvenilia |
| Light and Shade | April 11, 2018 | Colourful, maximalist, optimistic, carrying on from where HCASB? left off. My longest album to date and my first to consist entirely of sung songs, i.e. no instrumentals. Could almost be described as High Mattie (no not like that) | Bootlickin' Love, In the Land Beyond the Stars |
| Unlearning | January 27, 2019 | Tense and terse, angry with an industrial edge - a shot of the old Cerulean Impulses darkness. Almost punk, if not in sound then in spirit. My shortest album (as opposed to EP) to date. | Reform the Laurels, Unlearning |
| Dark Skies | October 30, 2019 | Seeing out the decade with experiments in more diverse genres, from Hi-NRG to drum and bass, and refining my production skills. | ...And Transformer Talks Back, Dark Skies |
| Downstreaming | August 1, 2020 | My lockdown epic, and the fulfilment of a long term personal goal to make an extended "side-long" composition. Jazzy and pastoral at times, heavy and abrasive at others, asking some important questions throughout. Journey to the Center of the Mattie. | Part III: Kinging, Part V: Wondering, Part VI: Anything |
| Five Queasy Pieces | March 29, 2021 | The very opposite of Downstreaming - the Mattie Konig sound stripped back to basics, with sparse production and a contemporary pop sheen. If Downstreaming was the climax of part one of my musical journey so far, 5QP was the epilogue. | Amour Eye, Ea-nasir's Yelp Reviews |
| Cleanup Duty | January 24, 2022 | A career highlight, both the summation of everything that came before and the start of a whole new era. A fresh clarity in the production and the lyrics, the latter moving away from internal torments towards a more worldly focus. Coming of age after an extended adolescence. | Cleanup Duty, Hedge Maze, Daguerreotype Eyes |
| Holy Motorway | December 15, 2023 | An attempt to make a bona-fide pop album, incorporating newfound influences from 90s dance music and 80s sophisti-pop, plus some of my most refined lyrics yet. Released as a demo compilation after nearly two years of troubled production - whether it truly counts as part of my canon is up to you... | Tolworth Tower (On The Horizon), It Happens Today, Do The Automation! |
| After All This | June 1, 2024 | My first album to consist entirely of instrumental pieces, an assortment of eclectic and sophisticated compositions with styles including funk, jazz fusion and ambient music. | After All This, A Givel of Madness, Upset Rhythm |
| Cattie! | October 4, 2024 | A concept album directly tackling a side of me only occasionally alluded to in past albums - my relationship to cartoons and the furry fandom, and how this relationship intersects with notions of sexuality, gender, neurodivergence and identity in general. Bright, bold and uninhibited new territory with a whole lot of heart. | Hi I'm Cattie!, Carnival Day, Turquoise |
live performance
I have over a decade of experience performing live as a solo artist - even longer if you count the secondary school talent show (we’ve all got to start somewhere). Early performances at local venues as part of my sixth form music course were a valuable introduction to the world of live music, and were followed in due course by appearances at local open mics and festivals, including the 2018 Women of the World festival in Exeter. Since 2022 I have been concentrating on taking my live performance discipline to a higher standard, including buying a keytar (!) and building custom MainStage programs to suit my performance requirements.
soundtrack work
I’ve contributed to the soundtracks of various creative projects both as a volunteer and as a commissioned composer:
| Project name | Project details | My contribution(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Open Fortress | A community-made modification for Team Fortress 2 that introduces new characters, game modes, weapons and locations to the base game. | 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 Widow Maker Software, 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. |
Gamedev
Game development is one of my other main creative passions, primarily encompassing the fields of level/environment design but also incorporating other related disciplines. I first took an interest in gamedev with early experiments in the likes of Game Maker and the Tomb Raider Level Editor, but since 2010 most of my endeavours have involved making custom maps in the Source engine (and Source 2 since 2020). Many of these maps have taken inspiration from fond memories of my upbringing in London and sustained interest in the capital up to the present day, but I’ve also tried my hand at science fiction scenes and abstract psychedelic environments. Perhaps one day these efforts will fully coalesce into a standalone game of their own...
team fortress 2 / open fortress
Much of my Source engine experience in the late 2010s and early 2020s involved making maps and other related assets as part of the fan community for Team Fortress 2, the first-person shooter game by Valve Software, and as part of the development team for Open Fortress, an unofficial TF2 modification that adds new features to the base game.
2018-2021: Led and directed the London Pack, a community project for Team Fortress 2 that introduced UK-themed models and textures for mappers. Responsibilities included general organisation, creating concept art, and designing a promotional page hosted on the TF2Maps.net community site.
2020-2023: Joined the development team for Open Fortress. Responsibilities included creating levels, composing music, redesigning the OF website, developing internal guidelines for style and narrative, and managing public relations.
2021: Created DM_Thames, an OF map set in the streets of 1970s London, acting as a showcase for the London Pack assets.
2021: Won first place in the TF2Maps.net “In and Out” mapping contest, with my entry set on a luxury cruise ship.
2022: Created DM_Mulholland, an OF map set in a 1970s Hollywood recording studio.
2022: Won first place in the TF2Maps.net “Globetrotter” mapping contest, with my entry set in a south London suburb.
2023: Entered TF2Maps.net “Hot and Cold” mapping contest, with my entry set in a Tudor stately home on a winter’s evening.
2023: Retirement from TF2/OF mapping.
team fortress © valve corporation
Other projects
Here's some other things that I've created or otherwise been involved in over the years:
doggerland
This multimedia speculative history project imagines a parallel world where Europe and Britain remain conected by a land bridge (the titular Doggerland), and examines the changes to history and culture that would result. The project began life in late 2019 as a digital and print zine, Memories of Doggerland: Ephemera of an Alternate Europe, in which I used digital collage to represent various found objects from the parallel world. I returned to the project in late 2023, reworking it as a performance art show as part of the Exeter Phoenix Scratch Night event. In the new show, Cleft In Twain: A Dispatch from Doggerland, I play a fictionalised version of myself who attempts to decode a mysterious transmission originating from the parallel world; this story is presented as a TED Talk-esque seminar, with video, audio and still imagery used to reinforce the narrative (and the descent of my fictionalised self into madness).
video editing
Although not as regular an endeavour as my music and gamedev work, I'm a dab hand at video editing when the situation calls for it:
2022 Doggerland test in the style of a 1990s TV station ident.
Music video style test for my 2023 song Tolworth Tower (On The Horizon).
CCTV-style clip from Cleft In Twain: A Dispatch from Doggerland.
Announcement trailer for my 2022 album Cleanup Duty.
Live dates
Upcoming dates
Watch this space...
Selected past dates
| Venue | Tour/event | Date |
|---|---|---|
| HMV Taunton, Orchard Shopping Centre | HMV Live and Local tour | Saturday April 20th, 2024 |
| HMV Exeter, Princesshay | HMV Live and Local tour | Saturday April 6th, 2024 |
| HMV Bath, Milsom Street | HMV Live and Local tour | Saturday March 30th, 2024 |
| Exeter Phoenix, Exeter | Come As You Are festival | Sunday November 12th, 2023 |
| Exeter Phoenix, Exeter | Cleft In Twain: A Dispatch from Doggerland | Tuesday October 10, 2023 |
Contact
Interested in collaborating with me on some kind of creative project? Want to commission me to contribute to a project of your own, use my existing music in a film or video, or book me to perform at your festival or show? If that sounds like you, drop me a line with this handy form: