The Mattson 2 have been playing together since they were conceived–as it should be for twins–and they’ve been playing their brand of jazz for nearly as long. The idea that Ray Barbee, guitarist extraordinaire, should team up with the Mattsons gestated much more recently. Both the twins and Barbee share a lot of commonalities: clean, fluid musicianship, a love of jazz in all its forms, and recording for Galaxia. It seemed inevitable that sooner or later they would collaborate on something special.

So, how did they meet? Barbee would be playing a show with his own band and every now and then the Mattsons would also happen to play the same gig–so a mutual appreciation soon developed. As the twins started recording the songs that would become Introducing the Mattson 2, they kicked around the idea to have Barbee play on a track for the record. That initial recording went so well that the three began to write and practice with a whole album in mind. This is the result.