“Instagram helped musicians to get better at business, at making flawless performance videos (after uncountable takes)… I got lost inside the boxes of 15-60-second videos”
(Image credit: Amy Tran)
Mateus Asato, perhaps social media's biggest breakout guitar star, has removed his Instagram account and announced a break from music, due to the “overwhelming” pressures of social media and loss of inspiration due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement shared over the weekend via his now-deleted account – which he had temporarily renamed @brb – the 27-year-old virtuoso admitted he hasn't “played guitar for 3 weeks.”
“I honestly don't remember staying away from my source of creation for so long,” he said. “This feels very weird because I don't even feel the excitement of grabbing my guitar to enjoy the goodness and blessings that music creates on us artistically.”
He continued, “I honestly didn't want to blame [it] on the pandemic but I got in a point where my inspiration simply disappeared.”
Addressing his break from Instagram in a follow-up story, the guitarist wrote, “I am [concluding] my relationship with social media in general. IG is a place where I will be forever thankful in terms of my career (I’ve met my biggest heroes and had the coolest opportunities through IG) – but I’m sincerely overwhelmed.
“Instagram helped musicians to get better at business, at making flawless-performance videos (after uncountable takes),” he continued. “I got lost inside the boxes of the 15s-60s videos.
“I have a big feeling that we are losing the essence of [musical] interaction, establishing patterns based on the same 4 bars chord progressions to start the vibe. Anyways. Sorry if this offends any community related to music. It’s time for a break. I’ll be back soon, hopefully.”
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(Image credit: Mateus Asato / Instagram)
(Image credit: Mateus Asato / Instagram)
In recent years, Asato established himself as the face of the Instagram guitar sphere, amassing over one-million followers and leading Forbes to proclaim he was "changing the guitar forever".
Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.
