Matthew Hayter

My name is Matthew Hayter. I grew up in Toronto, Canada, in the 1980s. I’m part of that cusp generation who can’t tell if they’re Gen X or Millennial. I played guitar and piano in my teens, found my way out of grunge and classic rock into the wider musical world, fell in love with electronic music through 90s rave culture, did some classical training for a while, got carried away by some jazz inflections and jam band vibes, folked things up quite a bit, and appreciated the weirder zones of anywhere I’ve found myself along the way.

Today I live in the beautiful lands of the Anishinaabek, Robinson-Superior Treaty area, Ontario, Canada, on the north shore of Lake Superior. Under the name Circul & Eas I currently make music inspired by a blend of dub-breakbeat, ambient, and folk, and I offer mixing, mastering, and teaching/coaching services with a specialization in that same genre landscape.

I really enjoy this work, both the artistic creations and the studio services. Helping people realize their own musical projects is really super rewarding. I’m good at the musical and technical aspects of it, if I do say so myself. But I’m also really good at the peripheral skills that go along with the job – like open and careful communication (which I’ve developed from teaching, facilitating, and community organizing), or a nerd-level attention to detail (which I built up from a PhD in social science and philosophy). All that extra experience really elevates what I have to offer in this work, even though it comes from different worlds. It means I have the technical precision, creative vision, and communicative inspiration that makes for a great mixing and mastering engineer. It means I come to the work with an excellent and balanced skillset to serve my clients.