Words With: Willy Mason

 

Gigwise: So you’re about to start your UK tour.  How are you feeling?

 

Willy: Pretty excited.  I can’t wait.

 

Gigwise: Your music has been getting a pretty positive reaction in the UK.  Has that surprised you at all?

 

Yeah, I mean the amount of play it’s been getting is pretty crazy but I’m glad people can relate to it.  It makes me feel like I’ve got some friends out here.

 

Gigwise: You’re brother has drummed with you in the past…

 

Yeah, he just left actually.

 

Gigwise: Is he drumming on this tour?

 

No, he’s got to go back to school; he’s still at junior high school.

 

Gigwise: Now, the most important question of the interview.  (Willy Mason looks slightly worried at the rather ominous comment).  You’ve got a song on your album about your cats.  (‘Where The Humans Eat’; also the name of the album)  So, who’s looking after them while you’re touring?

 

(Laughs)  They’re actually my mum’s cats, so she’s trying to take care of them.  But they’re kinda fussy though.

 

Gigwise: How many do you have?

 

Two.

 

Gigwise: (Gigwise decides maybe a half hour interview on cats is not as interesting for the readers as it is for the writer)  What’s your favourite song to play live?

 

Um…it kinda changes all the time.  I really enjoy playing – especially for rowdy crowds, that don’t really know me and if they’re there to have a good time – ‘Gotta Keep Moving’ is always a really fun song.  And ‘Fear No Pain’ is a good feel-good one, when everyone’s in a good mood.  ‘Oxygen’ can be pretty great.  And there’s a new song called ‘Into Tomorrow’, it’s not on the album, but I play that a lot live, which goes well.

 

Gigwise: Everyone seems to be opinionated about Oxygen – People seem to have their own favourite line that they relate to.   What’s your favourite line?

 

My favourite line…umm…I can relate to all of them.  I like the one about being richer than industry.  (“We can be richer than industry, as long as we know there’s some things that we don’t really need.” – Gigwise likes it too.)  That’s the one that I can always [relate to].  The rest of them are a little more personal and emotional, they tend to go and change here and there, but that one’s pretty consistent.

 

Gigwise:  What were you thinking when you wrote it?

 

I was in high school and I was feeling a bit discouraged just watching what people were learning, not so much in their class room, but what they were learning through the media, and through culture, and the paths they were starting to follow.

 

Gigwise: You often cite John Lee Hooker and Johnny Cash as influences, so how do you think they influenced your sound?

 

 I think both of them – they’re appeal to me is the way they sing and write songs seems so natural to me, and so unapologetic.  It’s like: ‘this is who I am and you can take it or leave it’.  And I’ve learnt a lot from that.  There’s a John Lee Hooker song that almost seems to address that in the way, called ‘Trying To Survive’.  It talks about people hungering after different things, it talks about people trying to make more money but it never seems to satisfy.  The key line of the song (faintly hums) you can’t take nothing into this world, and you can’t take nothing away.  And to see life from that kind of perspective helped me to bring that kind of openness to my own singing and song writing.

 

Gigwise: What affect would you like your music to have on people?

 

I’d just like to make them feel comfortable following their own instincts; whatever that may be.  And to enjoy themselves without worrying about accomplishing goals laid out for them by other people.  Rather, they should go for what feels good.

 

Gigwise: On your website fans can email you; is that sort of interaction something you enjoy?

 

I do, yeah.  It’s tough to interact with people through email.  It’s hard to meet people that way.  I particularly enjoy meeting people on the road. It’s easier face-to-face; it comes about more naturally.  Plus, with the amount of letters I get it’s hard for me to be in front of the computer for that long.  It’s hard to keep up anything that starts, so apologies to anyone I haven’t written back to.

 

Gigwise: Where did you record the album?

 

In the town of Catskill, in New York. In an old house.

 

Gigwise: What sort of person do you think your album would appeal to?

 

It’s hard to say really. But I think it appeals to somebody who I guess is not too concerned about perfection but more concerned about honesty.  I’d like to think anyway.  That’s the sort of person I guess I am anyway, so I’d like to think that comes through in the music.

 

Gigwise: And fans of cats.

 

(Laughs) Yeah, and fans of cats.  Or people who are fed up of their cats.