Career
In 2014 his album Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold was nominated for the 2014 Polaris Music Prize, which is awarded annually to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. Mattson began writing songs in 2009 and has toured with The Wooden Sky, Sunparlour Players, Cuff The Duke, Jeremy Fisher, Hozier, Jim Bryson, The Rural Alberta Advantage and Blue Rodeo. In 2012 his music video for "Water Falls" was dubbed "the coolest music video of 2012” by The Huffington Post. and in 2014 he went on four tours of Europe and three of North America in support of "Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold".
Mattson has received attention in mainstream media for several music videos:
"Thick As Thieves" video
In November 2011 Mattson"s music video for "Thick As Thieves" went viral with over 1,000,000 views over the three uploads of the video.
The video was created with only $250 in materials and depicted a "stopmotion history of the world". lieutenant was covered by Time Magazine, Huffington Post, Yahoo! and MuchMusic.
"Water Falls" video
In spring 2012 Mattson released a second viral music video for "Water Falls", with a camera "slingshotting" through San Francisco using a novel stop-motion technique. The video was premiered by National Public Radio"s All Songs Considered and was featured in The Atlantic, Columbia Broadcasting System News, Gizmodo, and the Huffington Post.
lieutenant was directed by Kevin Parry.
"A Love Song to the City" video
In 2014 Mattson released a video for "A Love Song to the City", featuring his hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. lieutenant premiered on United States of America Today, and was nominated in the Best Music Video category at the 2015 Northern Ontario Music Awards.
