As he gears up for a 12 months that features touring with one among Nashville’s largest stars, Vincent Mason is able to set up himself as an knowledgeable craftsman of what he describes as “casual love songs.”
Mason, who celebrated his twenty fifth birthday final Monday, plumbs the depths of previous heartbreak on “There I Go,” his riveting debut album. However the Georgia-born musician can also be keen to place his previous behind him and embrace the second, and for good cause: His wealthy, soulful voice has already endeared him to scores of nation followers, each younger and previous.
“Every country song seems to be, like, you meet a girl at the bar and then you marry ’em. How many times can you marry the girl you met at the bar?” Mason quipped to HuffPost in an interview. “My songs are kind of like, ‘Hey, I met you at the bar, and I’m leaving tonight.’ I’ve leveled a lot with sadness, but I’m really happy right now on my own. Positive emotions are a bit harder to put words to in my experience, [but] there’s a lot of optimism.”
“There I Go,” launched Nov. 7, will get off to a rollicking begin with the title monitor, which positions Mason as his technology’s reply to Brad Paisley or Travis Tritt. His strengths as a singer-songwriter, nevertheless, grow to be much more obvious on songs like “Damned If I Do,” “Sit With It,” “Painkiller,” and “Hell is a Dance Floor,” every of which additionally displays his love of rock musicians like John Mayer and Tom Petty.
“A lot of alt-rock bands that came out in the early 2000s would be considered country bands now, so that’s what we wanted to incorporate on the album,” Mason stated. “My producer, Jake Gear, turned me on to stuff like that. We were telling the band, ‘What if The Wallflowers wrote a country song?’ We were having so much fun finding timeless sounds. I want all of my music to be that way.”
Regardless of Mason’s vary of influences, he didn’t initially got down to grow to be an expert musician. Although he dabbled in singing in highschool, he had his sights set on being a sports activities or leisure lawyer when he enrolled on the College of Mississippi.
However then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, thrusting his school profession into uncertainty and prompting him to start taking part in music. After writing simply 5 unique songs, he relocated to Nashville.
“Looking back now, it seems insane, [but] I think COVID lent itself to resetting your life,” he recalled. “I’m pretty spiritual and I felt a push beyond myself to do it. I love to work hard, and I felt like that’s just what I was supposed to do.”
Mason went on to unveil his debut EP, “A Little Too Good,” in 2023. However it was his 2024 breakthrough, “Hell is a Dance Floor,” that acquired Nashville to take discover when it turned a viral smash. His wistful ballad, “Heart Like This,” quickly caught the eye of Mayer, who praised it as “songwriting 101” whereas that includes it on his SiriusXM channel that very same 12 months.
Erika Goldring by way of Getty Pictures
The discharge of “There I Go” seems to be poised to develop Mason’s fanbase even additional. This summer season, he joined musicians Jordan Davis and Parker McCollum on tour, and final month, he made his first look on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” the place he carried out “Hell is a Dance Floor.”
In January, he’ll embark on a 25-city headline tour throughout the U.S. and Canada, and is ready to carry out earlier than his largest audiences up to now with a five-night opening slot on nation celebrity Morgan Wallen’s stadium tour subsequent spring.
Whether or not one among Mason’s new songs will repeat the success of “Hell is a Dance Floor” stays to be seen. Nonetheless, he’s much less inquisitive about chasing such highs, and factors to McCollum as an artist whose trajectory he’d most prefer to emulate.
“He’s been an inspiration for me to write songs, and I ultimately want to end up like him and build what he’s built with his family and his fans,” he stated. “Just having a good heart will keep you in the business longer than anything else.”
Barry Brecheisen by way of Getty Pictures
