Lonewolf and his Creative Niche for Directing and Editing
COURTESY OF HIGHSNOBIETY/BRYAN LUNA
Zac Matias, also known as Lonewolf, is a DIY director and editor. If you haven’t heard of Matias, he has worked on projects with Lil Uzi Vert, Meek Mill, Travis Scott, and Trippie Redd. If you have seen Drake and French Montana’s music video for “No Stylist”, that was the work of Lonewolf who edited the Spotify video.
Growing up, Matias and his brother would always film short skits on his brother’s old Sony movie camera. He then explored the world of Windows movie maker, learned video-making techniques from Youtube’s how-to videos, and continued making videos as a hobby. In 2009, he would make skating videos in addition to his skits which is really where he developed his love for videography. Soon his friends at school would ask him to shoot music videos for them and this further shaped Matias’s idea in pursuing a career in videography.
After graduating high school, Matias attended Purdue University for graphic design. After two semesters, he decided college was not for him and continued shooting videos with his friends to build his portfolio and skill. When he took his talents to artists in need of a director, he knew this was his calling.
In the beginning stages, he took the initiative to reach out to the manager of rapper, Freako, after listening to autoplay while he was working out. In the same hour of contacting Freako’s manager, he received a message back to drive out to Chicago from his home in Indiana. After working with Freako, Plu2o, Lucki’s producer, reached out to Matias for work after hearing about his success with Freako. From then on, his career skyrocketed directing and editing videos in the Chicago music scene. He started his career working with Chicago and Midwest artists including Rarri, Warhol.SS, and Yung Pinch to name a few.
INSTAGRAM @WHYLONEWOLF
Matias’s style mostly consists of a grunge, hypnotic aesthetic. He plays with stop motion animation, a mix of collage, and blends them with cinematic shows. Each music video is unique and varies depending on the song or musician. Matias also uses fine art mediums such as sketching over frames in the video or painting to bring the footage to life. A lot of his inspiration comes from Brother who directed music videos such as “Butterfly Effect '' by Travis Scott, “Party Monster” by The Weeknd, by watching movies, and Rick and Morty.
Matias recently moved from his hometown in Northwest Indiana to his own place in Chicago where all the action is. Matias had the opportunity to shoot videos in Atlanta with Hundo and mentions how different people are in Atlanta compared to Chicago in an interview. He believes that everyone in Atlanta is “trying to help each other” while Chicago has a more individualistic mindset.
He has a bunch of ideas coming in the near future and is eager to share. He wants his work to be impressionable so he doesn’t share too much before it is released. For aspiring directors and editors, it is important to stay on track because the payoff is worth it, you are exactly where you need to be, focus on what you think is important, do not live out another person’s dream, and most importantly, do not get in the way of yourself through overthinking and talking yourself out of it. From Matias to you, these are his words of wisdom.
Matias’s goal for the long run is to become a real director for movies and get into writing them as well in addition to music video directing and editing. He knows it is going to be a difficult ride, but he is ready for it.
