Gent Mason

Having only been signed to London based label Aesop a matter of months ago, fellow resident of the capital Gent Mason is quickly establishing himself as a promising new talent hot on the heels of his predecessor, SOHN. Blending a similar mix of hazy, dense instrumentals with quietly self-assured vocals which characterises the sound of many of those who sit under the progressive R&B umbrella, Gent’s tracks capture a moody intensity which marks him out from his contemporaries.

Mason originally thought about making his living mixing for other artists, but a stint spent working with producing icon Jimmy Douglas convinced him otherwise, and shortly afterwards he released his first double A-side Eden/Head. Wanting to find out more about just how you go about getting the endorsement of one of America’s most talented musicians, we caught up with him to talk about where he goes to find inspiration, what it is he likes best about London, and why he thinks that genres are dead.

How did you first start making music?

It’s all self taught really, I mean I learnt to play piano and bass guitar when I was younger, but over the years I just taught myself to use Logic in my spare time and took it from there. I think it’s important to make sure you get a good grounding in production. I’d been working on these tracks for quite a while, you know how it is, but I really made sure I focused on honing my production, experimenting with a few different sounds. Your tools have to be second nature so that they don’t get in the way of that original creative burst.

Tell us a little bit about how you go involved with Aesop.

I was put in touch with them by my manager, who also looks after SOHN. He heard some of my stuff, liked it, and that was it really.

How do you go about composing a track? Do you like to work on one until it’s completely finished, or do you prefer dipping in and out of different songs simultaneously?

It’s really rare that I’ll start something and work on it right through to the end. Most of the time, what I normally tend to do is try and keep things quite raw, so I’ll set out the key components of the track, and if I’m not happy with it after 45 minutes or so, I just throw it out the window and start again. I think most people fall into the habit of adding more and more stuff, agonising over the small details, trying to make it better – I prefer just to start with a bunch of ideas, test them all out, and in a short time I tend to have a better idea of whether it’s good or not. When I do come back to it, it could be anything up to a month later. I do the music first, then a vocal melody, then lyrics just at the end. Like I said, I try to get as much down as quickly as possible to make the most of that initial creative spark. I think that’s why people can hear that there’s a bit of distortion, the tracks are a bit rough around the edges – I don’t want to polish something so that it sounds too perfect.

We’ve heard a lot about wisdom being passed on to you by Jimmy Douglas. What did that entail? Where did he step in? What advice did he give?

I first met with him in his studios in Miami, and right away you could hear how good he is – technically I mean – he’s just amazing! You look at his history, starting at Atlantic Records in the 60s as a kid, doing sessions with Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway, and then obviously he was instrumental in developing the sound of 90s hip-hop. He’s got a really philosophical approach to mixing and production – work quickly and don’t fuss over stuff that most listeners won’t care about. He taught me that as the artist you only end up worrying about it because you get wrapped up in the ego of the thing. Do those small tweaks really matter to everyone else? I don’t think so. He taught me to keep things simple, and as far as possible just to lose yourself in the sound when making music. He passed on some really important insights, and coming from the man who was so instrumental in producing all of those tracks you really pay attention. Being self taught is quite liberating, but I also think it’s important to have a proper mentor – I learnt more with him in a couple of weeks than I did in the last three years working by myself. We still speak a lot, and he gives me feedback, even though he hasn’t had any direct input into the tracks you’ll have heard.

You’ve been compared to everyone from James Blake to Marvin Gaye. Where do you think your music sits in terms of genre? Do you think a discussion about genre is important?

No I don’t think it’s as important anymore. A few decades ago you had pop, or indie, or punk based on locations and cities – there just wasn’t the same connection between people – but now the internet has made everything so much more accessible. You get shades of R&B and hip-hop which have all these different elements. A lot of people are making really exciting music which is hard to label as one genre or another. I do think those labels are still helpful for people who are looking to discover new music, but the status quo has changed a lot. I think for me, I’d say my music is quite a progressive form of R&B. R&B has been taken beyond the polished pop and cheesy lyrics that it used to have, and now you’ve got people like James Blake, producing, singing and writing his own stuff. It has a new kind of authenticity.

Do you think there are still ‘tribes’ in music? It feels like Nottingham and Manchester have a big dance scene still.

I don’t know, I suppose so. Nowhere else in the UK has the same diversity as London so I guess that’s what makes it so mixed.

How would you describe your sound? It feels quite sombre at times.

I think the music I’ve made so far is quite sombre, yeah. The new stuff I’m working on is a bit more upbeat.

Who do you consider to be your contemporaries?

I think James Blake has some similarities – we’re both from London for starters, but SOHN is probably closer. I think we all have the same stripped back quality, a lot of which is to do with confidence. If you’re nervous about your tracks, you tend to add all these layers, thinking that more is better, but was it Keith Richards that said, you know “it’s not the notes that you play, it’s the notes that you don’t play”.

Who are you following closely at the moment then?

James Blake is still definitely one of my favourites. I really love, and have always loved, hip-hop and rap, especially the 90s stuff – so I’d have to say Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Kayne, those are the main ones.

And where did you look for inspiration for this double-side? Was “Eden” representing a conscious opposition between urban and rural?

It wasn’t conscious no. I didn’t set out to give it a London sound, but I guess if you live in an urban environment it impacts the music you make. I didn’t really think all that much about the name of the track, it just seemed appropriate. I guess you could say that London is a kind of Eden for some people. It becomes it’s own idyll. For me, when I’m outside of London I tend to lose focus a bit – everyone is trying to climb the ladder in someway or other – and it turns the city into a pressure cooker which pushes you to do better. London is probably half the reason the tracks got finished when they did.

What’s next?

I’ve been working on quite a lot of new material recently, and there are a few labels that are interested which is exciting. I just need to get this handful of tracks finished before I decide whether to release them as singles or turn them into a proper EP. I want to do more live stuff next year, and I’d really like to start producing for other people.

Eden/Head is out now on Aesop, and is available here.