His single from the album, ‘Holahday’ produced by Stadic, was released last week. Mason also recently released his own album, Crix and Milk.
“They are an investment,” he said, revealing plans to go to Martinique and do more work with them. The Masters and publishing were split 50/50. He said even though the band is not popular, the album sold well. The couple was stuck in St Vincent during the COVID-19 lockdown and he produced their album. Ownership of his work, he said, is more important than the trappings of fame.Īmong his recent projects is an album he did for a French Dutch band comprising a couple who plays acoustic guitars. I am not concerned with being a huge superstar I just want to own my art,” he said. I wrote, produced, mixed and mastered everything. “When you have all this pressure you become a diamond in the rough. Those early experiences developed in him an obsession to forge his own path and control all aspects of his career. In addition, he stepped on some toes in the early days which resulted in him being blacklisted. Making it as an artiste in St Vincent was not easy, Mason said, as the market was not a structured one which made it harder to penetrate. “He didn’t like me to skip classes,” he said. Vincentian producer Stadic, who was one of the school teachers at the time, was one of his mentors. He said things like commercials piques his interest and as he began delving into music production, the dots connected as he learned the technical aspects behind the creation of the music that attracted his attention.Īs he went down the rabbit hole of producing, Mason said he would skip classes at school to go to studios. Mason said since he was a child he had a weird imagination and it reflected in everything he did. “By the time COVID hit I was already on my own Viking type wandering out in the abyss type shit,” he said. As such, he said, his music wasn’t what the core crowds at shows wanted to hear so he decided to create his own platform and shows to perform for his fans as well as create his own merchandise. Growing up on Union Island in the Grenadines, near Carriacou, Mason’s musical tastes were heavily influenced by what he heard coming out of Grenada and Trinidad and not on the mainland. The music isn’t marketable at that level,” he explained. I love it, it is a vibe but it is a dead stop as well because we can’t come out of that zone. In St Vincent the bpm for most songs is 160, the music is gritty, and there is not a lot of musical intelligence. “My music was different, I wanted to be able to do other stuff so if a dancehall or hip hop artiste wanted to collaborate with me they didn’t have to go too far. The placement of his song in the Fenty Skin campaign is validation for the singer who has been determined to build his career in a different way from others in St Vincent. He said the same song, which ironically not one of his favourites, has also been shortlisted for other projects. In addition to an upfront payment, Mason, who is an independent artiste, gets 80 percent of the royalties from the song. So far there are three or four videos,” he said, noting that the terms of the contract allow them to use the song repeatedly. I went on and saw Lil Nas X doing the ad with the song in the background and I say oh shit this is for real and then a week passes by and another campaign comes out with the song in it. And then the campaign comes out and someone tagged me in something randomly on Instagram. “After a while, time was going by and I said nah I have to double-check this because I didn’t think it was real but I researched and it was legit. It was then he realised who the song was for but still he was in disbelief. He sent them his IP number and a couple of months later they contacted him with a contract for the official licensing.
He said a woman contacted him sometime after and said they were interested in using his song.