The secret to Mack’s success may be his unique ability to see music.

“I view sounds as shapes and colors,” says the Manchester-based pianist, who has a rare trait called synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon where senses are intertwined. “When I’m creating music, everything is based on textures and colors and that’s how I build the songs and instrumentation. And when it’s time to release the music, the album covers are generally filled with the colors I was seeing.”

Mack, whose real name is Matthew Bagley, creates music filled with color. His 2019 debut album, “91 Two Forty,” introduced a unique blend of jazz, soul and hip-hop, and subsequent singles such as “Young Man” (which has garnered more than a million and a half downloads on Spotify) have made him a rising star. Not only has he performed at the recent Timbaland & the Hitmakers Celebration at the NorVa in Norfolk, but he was one of only two Richmond-area performers to grace the stage at the recent Richmond Jazz and Music Festival. He’s also been flirting with fashion, working with companies such as Rolling Blazers and Benson Watches, and recently scored his first brand deal with the shoe company Taft.

The Blackstone, Virginia native started playing piano when he was six, and found that he liked it all — jazz, soul, funk, gospel, hip-hop; his biggest influences, he says, are James Brown and Pharrell Williams. “My music is pretty much a synthesis of everything from each genre I really like. When I started to take it seriously, I was just trying to create the music that I wish existed.” Parents Raleigh and Sandra have been very supportive. His father, who played saxophone for years in touring R&B and funk bands (he’s now a pastor), set up a music studio for him in the family basement. “He made me this cozy space, and I was really inspired to create there.”

One pivotal moment happened when he was attending Radford University, where he studied media production and technology. The great jazz pianist Chick Corea came to town and he got the chance to play with him. “He was the one that really inspired me, and it was such a simple thing. After we played, he said, ‘Hey, you’re pretty good at this.’ It made me realize that, hey, maybe I can do it.”

Mack says that he wants to give that same encouragement to other young musicians by helping to build out Richmond’s musical infrastructure. “I feel like kids are told a lot of the time to go chase the dream, but they are never really told how to do it.”