Mason
Mason
Mason are a pair of dutch artists that have taken a long-time friendship and turned it into a career that’s seen them reach the heights of electronic music’s global stage. Having met at Art school at the end of the millennium, they bonded over a shared love for house music, and started producing tracks together shortly afterwards. Since then they’ve risen to the top of the tree, with a new album – They Are Among Us – out recently and a groundbreaking live show touring Europe. We caught up with them to find out just what makes them tick and what goes into setting up on their stage show.
So, how are you and where are you? Slightly rough from the past ridiculous weekend, and back in the studio with some breath mints.
You’re touring your new album, They Are Among Us, at the moment, but it’s fair to say it’s a bit more than just a ‘live’ music set? Yeah it’s the two of us on stage with a whole bunch of electronic gear and instruments, as well as a big-ass baboon. All the music parts we play are also synchronized to the venue’s club light and visuals, so it’s indeed a bit more that just the average geek+laptop live show!
The synchronisation of the lights, images and music must be a complex business. Without getting too technical, how does it all fit together? We teamed up with a dutch company called Deepred.tv with which we build a hard- and software system to be able to synchronize every Ableton clip (the sequencer we work with on stage) to video but also to every lightbulb in the club. It takes a lot of time to set-up for each gig, but it’s so worth the effort.
There’s been a few attempts at getting image and music working together (Pioneer’s DVJ kit for instance) but it’s often proved quite difficult or confusing to clubbers. What’s the secret of your setup? The secret is that we sync everything to just Ableton clips, and not to complete songs. So for instance a hi-hat pattern has a certain strobe and something in video ‘attached’ to it. We can then on stage play that hi-hat whenever we want, and where we want and in whatever speed we want, and the light & video will go along smoothly. If we’d for instance would play a sample backwards, you would see the lights moving backwards etc. Here’s a video to give you the idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KWqn_FAHTc
Is it something you’ve thought about taking to bigger clubs more regularly or is it something that can only really be done on a large stage? The good thing about our show is that if the club has enough light set up and room for a big ass video screen we can play there. We bring our own tech guy who can make the show look awesome in every venue. For us it’s important to travel light so our whole setup including our baboon booth falls within airline luggage regulations.
How long does it all take to set up? About 4 hours programming by our tech team from home, and then about 4 hours programming at the venue.
How was the video and light sequences put together and how much input did you have into it? We worked together closely and tested everything numerous times in empty clubs (thank you Paradiso, Melkweg & Sugar Factory Amsterdam!!) Every time we add new music to our show the tech guys need to program new light and visuals, so it’s never finished I suppose.
Have you got any plans to bring it to the UK? We do…. to be continued !
Your album, They Are Among Us, took in some pretty legendary names. Kurtis Blow, Roisin Murphy from Moloko, UK rapper Sway and Sam Sparro. How did those collaborations come about? As we’d been doing club tracks for years, it felt like the right challenge to work on a softer album around pop. We’re both manic collectors of all kinds of pop music, present and past, and as we’ve been in bands and done all kinds of other music projects outside of dance music it came quite natural to us. We then made a wish list of artists we wanted to work with and basically started to send out our music. Luckily a lot were up for it, and we soon started to fly around to record vocalists. It’s super-inspiring to work with these extremely talented artists, and it really helped us to develop musically along the way.
How long did the album take to put together? More than two years. But we did other more club driven stuff on the side too, so it was never full-time. But it takes time to make an album that’s more of a story than just your last 10 Beatport releases, like you see a lot these days.
Who would be your dream artist to work with on a future album? Pff that’s a difficult one…. if we had to choose one…. ehmm. Prince? Beastie Boys?
You also have your label, Animal Language. Was it always part of the plan to start one up? It really is too much fun to run your own label. Finally we can just release whatever we want, whenever we want, and in whatever way we want. We give it a lot of love, and it’s becoming a creature of it’s own
You’ve had remixes and tracks from the likes of Tony Senghore, Disco of Doom and In Flagranti. How do you choose the artists you want to work with on the label? Because of the dj-ing (Iason) we listen to shitloads of music every week, and there’s always a new talent in there that pops out with an original sound. It’s always a matter of looking for originality, there’s way too much boring music out there.
What’s in store for the label in 2012? One of the Animal Language traditions are the so-called ‘Refurb’ versions. Every Animal Language release comes with a Refurb, which is a non-dance re-interpretation of the original. It can be anything, from polka to jazz to speed metal, as long as it’s not dance. It’s too much fun to make, and we’re looking at releasing a Refurb album soon! Here are some Refurb examples to get the idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKvd9wWEnrk
Going back to the start, how did you two first meet? We both did a 4 year course for composition at the Utrecht School of Arts late nineties . We were one of the few that were into house music too on that university, so we teamed up to do some house tracks in our spare time.
It’s not the most obvious pairing in electronic music – a classic violinist and a rock fan. How does it all work together into making your music? Ah it’s all music in the end, and it only helps to have a wide point of view on music. We get more inspired listening to some obscure 70′s psychedelic rock act than listening to the current tech-house top100. Iason: Regarding our collaboration it also helps that I have a dj background and Coen doesn’t, so I keep track of the dance floor friendliness, and Coen can keep thinking outside the box.
What did you both listen to growing up? Iason: hiphop, rock, and from ’95 onwards to every kind of house music.
Coen: Funk, hard rock and hiphop.
What was the first electronic music you listened to? Iason: For me it was a record I bought by mistake. I started dj-ing west coast hip-hop in ’95, and one day bought a Ice T vinyl on a record fair. It turned out to be techno remixes in stead of hip-hop. Next week I went back for more of that and didn’t really bother much with hip-hop from that point on.
Coen: My father is a music teacher, and always brought synthesizers home to play with. One day he brought a cassette with house music for us to listen to. It kind of scared me at first, but as soon as he bought a drum computer I was hooked.
Who inspires you in music and elsewhere these days? A lot of music from the past really. We’re the crate digging types.
What’s the best and worst thing about being Mason? The worst is we work hard, and the best is we play hard
If you had to give it all up tomorrow, how would you like to be remembered? As two guys that kept it original
For everything about Mason and their new music, tour, live show and plans, see the following links:
www.musicofmason.com
www.facebook.com/musicofmason
www.twitter.com/musicofmason
www.soundcloud.com/musicofmason
Video link to Mason Live - http://youtu.be/0KWqn_FAHTc
Mason ‘Le Big Bob’ (Animal Language) – Out Now – Buy it link - http://bit.ly/tmHsZZ
Le Big Bob Video - http://youtu.be/z9JzBmb1O5M.
Mason ‘They Are Among Us’ (Animal Language) – Out Now - https://www.beatport.com/release/they-are-among-us/346676
