deadmen are a production/composition duo based in Los Angeles. They have collectively been nominated for four Juno awards, won several Western Canadian Music Awards including most recently, Producer of the Year (2021). The deadmen-produced Begonia album, Powder Blue was short-listed for the Polaris Music Prize (2024).
In addition to their production work, deadmen (Matt Peters and Matt Schellenberg) have composed music for brands like Apple, Google, Tide, Vogue and Adidas, been commissioned to score for This American Life, NPR & CBC Radio, as well as scoring films like eOne’s Lovesick starring Jessica Paré & Jay Baruchel, and Matt Rankin’s Tabula Rasa featuring Grimes.
On any given day the two Matts are holed up in their studio in Silverlake, probably debating the virtues of a non-quantized electronic-drum performance.
Highlights Below, Selected Press here
Production Work
deadmen produced/written tracks have accumulated over 35 million streams
[royal canoe][begonia][deadmen][ian sweet][ashleigh ball]
The process of co-writing is part group-therapy, part creative-collaboration, but mostly an exercise in being vulnerable with other people. This is something that we feel particularly well suited for after years of playing in bands and spending the last decade producing and writing with artists.
-deadmen
Upcoming Releases:
Khazali - Feather Light (Early 2024)
Dan Mangan - Call Me Up High (single - Early 2024)
Janelle Kroll - Give it Your Best (single - Fall 2023)
Rachel Bobbitt - Whenever I Go (tbd)
IAN SWEET
deadmen produced and co-wrote Ian Sweet’s most streamed track “Sword”, currently with 2.4 million plays on Spotify.
Sword is the most streamed song on Ian Sweets ‘Show Me How Your Disappear’ which was featured in Pitchfork and rated 7.8
BEGONIA
deadmen have produced and co-written Begonia’s entire catalog. Her latest record, Powder Blue was shortlisted for the 2023 Polaris Prize, and her first LP, Fear was nominated for a Juno in 2021 and made the Polaris Long-list.
Begonia also collaborated on deadmen’s lead single “I Could Spend a Lifetime” which has 1.2 Million streams on Spotify. Two deadmen-produced Begonia songs were awarded the #1 Socan Award for reaching the top of the CBC Radio-Two National charts.
“Begonia has one of Canada’s most extraordinary voices, and thankfully she uses it to obliterate the misery from this world one live performance at a time.”
- Noisey/Vice
"...a complex, powerhouse synth-soul that hangs on one of Canada’s most extraordinary voices."
- Line Of Best Fit
Album-trailer for Polaris-Shortlisted album ‘Powder Blue.’ Video directed by Gwen Trutnau.
Album-trailer for the Juno Nominated album ‘Fear.” Directed by Gwen Trutnau
ROYAL CANOE
deadmen are two of the principal songwriters from Royal Canoe.
With Royal Canoe, deadmen spent the last decade touring the world and building up a worldwide fanbase. Royal Canoe toured with acts like Alt-J and Bombay Bicycle Club, was nominated for a Juno Award, played their sophomore record with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and won multiple Western Canadian Music Awards.
Perhaps the weirdest, most ambitious project they took on was performing a set of music of their greatest hits on instruments they built entirely from ice. This project was produced in collaboration with Luca Roncoroni, the Creative Director of the Swedish Ice Hotel.
Royal Canoe has Millions of streams worldwide, has been featured on Late Night with Carson Daly, and have played over 1000 shows in the last decade.
MOURAINE
deadmen produced and co-wrote Mouaraine’s album ‘Gold’
The track “Big Dawg” features Interscope Records’ WESTSIDE BOOGIE. deadmen + Mouarine along with his brother Moto wrote and produced this record in December 2021. The album would go on to be featured on CBCs q with Tom Power, and receive praise from press across North America.
“The sounds on In Search of Gold vary from weary 4-in-the-morning confessionals (FOMO) to heart-wrestling love songs (Love Me) to Yeezus-esque noise-scapes (Planet of the Apes). Winnipeg’s deadmen (Matt Peters and Matt Schellenberg) handle the majority of the production chores on the album and each track sparkles with their intriguing beats. The layered tracks evolve and mutate as the songs progress, mingling synths with samples and clattering percussion, inviting listeners to pay attention to the little details sprinkled across the songs”
-Edmonton Journal.
The official video for Big Dawg by Mouraine Feat. WESTSIDE BOOGIE. (prod. by deadmen)
The official Video for the title track of Mouarine’s album Gold - prod. deadmen
Ashleigh Ball
deadmen produced and co-wrote Ashleigh Ball’s album ‘Until the Magic is Gone"‘
The record went on to be Ashleigh Ball’s most streamed record. Her track ‘Love It’ was used in an Apple Commercial (more on that below) and her track “Lavender” peaked at #3 on the national Canadian CBC Radio 2 Charts.
“Hey Ocean! singer Ashleigh Ball may already be familiar to many Canadian audiences, but solo album Before All the Magic's Gone, released in June, still feels like a reintroduction. The brassy strut of "Lavender" and the synthpop thump of "Keep on Pretending" serve as a bright, bold mission statement for those who only know her from her previous work.”
-EXCLAIM!
The official video for Ashleigh Ball’s Lavender (prod. by deadmen)
The official Video for Ashleigh Ball’s Keep on Pretending (prod. deadmen)
Unreleased Tracks
Some of our favorite tracks we’ve produced that have not been released yet.
Commercials
Google (2024)
Tide (2024)
Apple
Adidas / Teen Vogue
London Drugs
Manitoba Association of Dentists
City of Winnipeg
Commercial Tracks
Action / Car Comercial
Playful / Soul
Introspective / Orchestral
Hip Hop
Film Scoring
Feature / Shorts:
Lovesick - Lovesick is a film starring Jessica Paré of Mad Men and Jay Baruchel of This is the End. We scored this film for eOne, directed by Tyson Caron. A more in-depth look at our work on this film is available here, including the full soundtrack featuring John K. Samson of The Weakerthans.
Music video for the title theme composed for the film
Original Sound Track
The 13 song soundtrack was released on vinyl and distributed worldwide via streaming. This track from the soundtrack went on to be nominated for a Canadian Screen Award (like the Canadian Oscars) for Best Orginal Song. The Toronto Star stated, “it’s the original score and songs full of wit and wisdom by Matt Schellenberg that give the film a satisfying cohesion."
Lovesick for this soundtrack: Winnipeg film score nominated for award
Royal Canoe's Matt Schellenberg Teams Up with John K. Samson on 'Lovesick' Soundtrack
Tabula Rasa - Tabula Rasa is a short film that premiered at Sundance Film Festival, directed by Matthew Rankin (The 20th Century) that we scored with our friend Alek Rzeszowski. It features a song we wrote for Grimes.
Negativipeg - is cult-classic documentary featuring the legendary Burton Cummings bottling incident in Winnipeg’s North End that we scored. It is directed by Matthew Rankin and premiered at TIFF.
Platypus - Platypus is a short film we scored for BRAVO Television directed by Trevor Kristjanson that explores a dark surreal world where human taxidermy is considered normal.
Television
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Sex Lives of College Girls
Ian Sweet’s ‘Sword’ which we produced was featured in Season One Episode One.
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Woke
‘Ashes Ashes’ featuring Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, a song we wrote and produced is featured in Season One Episode Three
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The L Word: Generation Q
‘Love It’ by Ashleigh Ball, a song we co-wrote and produced was featured in Season 2 Episode 5
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The Lake
“Fussin” which we co-wrote and produced is featured in it’s entirety in Season One Episode 8
Documentary
Know I’m Here - Know I’m Here is a documentary we scored for MTS Stories from Home directed by Handcraft Creative
Writing on the Wall - A documentary short we scored about the ghost signs in the exchange district in Winnipeg, Manitoba for ‘MTS Stories from Home’.
Tennis Story - Tennis Story is a documentary we scored for BRAVO Television directed by Tyson Caron
Radio
This American Life:
This American Life is hosted by Ira Glass and is an Internationally Syndicated show produced by WBEZ Chicago. The show asked us to compose music to help underscore their stories.
CBC Radio Up to Speed:
Up To Speed is hosted by Faith Fundal and locally broadcast out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The show asked us to compose new music for a rebranding of their sonic identity.
CBC Now or Never:
Now or Never is a weekly national broadcast on CBC. The show asked us to create their theme music as well as some instrumentals to accompany a variety of emotions for the different stories they feature.
CBC Information Radio:
Information Radio is hosted by Marcy Markusa and locally broadcast out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. New theme and 10 Stings composed for their show in Spring 2019.
See This CBC News article about the theme.