Mason’s musical influence can be traced back to his younger years growing up with his family. Mason was young and impressionable, and music had always been a part of the family. From the styles of Conway Twitty to Randy Travis that his father listened to; from the Beatles to the Eagles while his mother cleaned house; and from Metallica to the Chili Peppers blaring in his brothers room, Mason heard a lot and learned even more.
Mason started playing drums well before the age of 10 through the school bands where he grew up in early in Sioux Falls and later in the Black Hills of South Dakota. After high school Mason decided that he wanted to pick up a guitar in hopes to become a songwriter someday. He joined Matt Shuck (a Berklee College graduate) for two years playing together as a guitar duo known as Matt & Mason, and later Part Time Dawg - a trio with Doug Benton on percussion, guitar and sax.
While Mason was away at college studying computer science, he began to miss the performance life style he and Matt had experienced so much in the summers. He decided to try some Open Mic jams with Erik Miller and his campus club Friday Night Live (FNL), which are still held several times each semester at DSU. Erik Miller would become one of Mason’s most valuable connections to getting more and more local area gigs. The Open Mic jams continue to be one of the most successful on campus events at the school while Erik Miller continues putting them on!
Later Mason would join forces again with Matt Shuck and Neils Christoffersen to form the power jam trio, UnionHead. The creative forces that were UnionHead are some of the most memorable live shows Mason ever experienced.
After the breakup of UnionHead, soon his musical career picked up as he began drumming for two local bands, Madiki, and Watermelon Daze with Erik Miller and friends. He started recording his solo CD and spent more than a year working on it. In October 2004 the album was finally complete! The CD, "Where I Belong," included a diverse collection of Mason's work from both his old and new songs.
Very shortly after the completion of Mason's first solo work, he took a job in San Francisco and moved off to California! There he continues to persue his music and is constantly taking on new musical challenges, most recently the piano!
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