ATTLAS
Bio
Over the course of the past five years, ATTLAS has become one of mau5trap’s most celebrated artists. Canadian musician Jeff Hartford’s enthusiasm for music in all forms began at an early age as he hammered out melodies on toy pianos as a child. His abilities to translate music from hearing it to replicating it on a piano grew as he became older and eventually began to take lessons at age 9. Throughout his schooling, he played in bands and collected guitars, developing his keen ear for melodies and feeding his insatiable desire to learn. His family moved around frequently, but music continued to be a constant for the developing musician. “I’m not the first teenager to feel out of place and find records that spoke to me,” he says. “I was fortunate that music was this whole world to explore.”
He immersed himself not just in the instruments and the songwriting, but also in how technology could aid the composition process. While recording guitar, trumpet and clarinet, he fell down a production wormhole and opened up endless possibilities in his songwriting process. When he attended university to earn his bachelor of fine arts degree, Hartford developed an interest in the composition side of music and had a strong desire to write music for characters and orchestras in a long-form format. He began interning at a studio in Toronto, which then led him to intern for a composter in Los Angeles. “It was there that I started applying the studio techniques, arrangement and composition style I’d learned at these studios into more of the electronic space,” Hartford says. The electronic music he was creating evolved and improved, and Hartford began looking to genre pioneers like deadmau5 for inspiration. “If I was going to give [electronic music production] a real shot, my standard barrier of entry was going to be deadmau5 had to like it.” He began sending tracks to deadmau5’s mau5trap imprint, and after hearing the high-quality pieces he was producing, they agreed to sign him to the label.
In his early mau5trap days as ATTLAS, Hartford put out the “sonic bookends” of what he wanted his ATTLAS project to turn into. In 2015, he released three EPs through the label: Siren, Scene, and Sin. He found his own voice as an artist through works that bridged genres, like “Rasor,” an eight-minute piece that opened with an introspective orchestral introduction and later dropped into a glitchy, dark sonic experience.
In the years since his first mau5trap releases, ATTLAS has developed an enthusiastic fan base that awaits each release with bated breath. They particularly embraced his two hour-long Storyline mixes in 2016, which incorporate dialogue into music. Hartford realized he was regularly listening to DJ sets while he was simply cooking or doing other day-to-day activities and was much more immersed in them than he would be in a nightclub setting. “When you have a captive audience, you can craft narrative a little differently,” he says. His captivated fans welcomed the unique format of his Storyline mixes and were thrilled to receive a third installment at the end of last year. “The third Storyline is my own reflection on what kind of man I want to be,” he says. “It’s quite personal. We’re all trying to be versions of ourselves we can be proud of at the end of the day.”
In addition to the third Storyline installment, ATTLAS debuted his first album in 2019 – a body of work that was in progress for months. The album “synthesized all the experiences and wandering paths that ATTLAS walks,” according to Hartford, bringing together heavier sounds and the emotive melodies he’s built his musical brand on. “[The album was me] trying to learn who I am and tell my story through music, which has given me so much and has been a home for me: a place to create, a shelter from the storm, and a launch pad into the greatest adventure of my life.”
2020 proved to be a difficult year for everyone, after releasing his first album at the end of 2019, Hartford’s inaugural ‘Lavender God Tour’ named from the album had to be cancelled. Rather than focusing on the missed opportunities, Jeff has took this year to dive even deeper into his musical abilities. After a few one off releases and several remixes, including a captivating melodic single “The Night Air Was Cool” and a two track EP on Lane8’s label, This Never Happened, Jeff released his second album at the top of November. The latest album, which is titled ‘Out Here With You’, encompasses the shift in the music industry and the way we’re digesting music without live touring. Rawer and more intimate than ever before, ‘Out Here With You’ is Jeff’s way of showing his fans and the world that we are not alone during this troubling time and that we’re all trying to navigate the state of the current world together.
2021 has truly shown Jeff that hard work pays off. After a successful 2020 filled with new music, Hartford received a Juno Nomination for Best Electronic Album for his inaugural album, Lavender God. Riding off the high of this great honor, Jeff has gotten back on the road touring and is excited to drop his 3rd album later this year on Mau5trap. Be sure to keep an eye on this one, for this is just the beginning for ATTLAS.