1. When did you think about a career in music and what were your first steps into it?
I started my first band when I was 12. I wanted to write songs like Nirvana. When we got a little older we started renting out the town hall and putting on all-ages shows there. Then the band split up and I went solo. A local producer recorded a demo of me singing a song I'd written - he was going to show it to one of his artists to learn. But unexpectedly the demo got out and ended up on the BBC before anyone else had the chance to record it. I've been touring and putting out records ever since.
2. Best gigs you've been to?
My car broke down on the way to see The O'Jays and then Little Simz cancelled her US tour, so it was a rough year but then I got to see Prune at The Asbestos Farm in Hadley and they turned my eyes inside out and put lightning up my spine which tingled gloriously.
3. Fantasy wedding/birthday party band?
I'd like to see an intergalactic disco boogie troupe with a quartet of singers from the planet Motownius that flew in on a rotary Hammond powered by twin Stratocasters. We could all drink space syrup and loosen up our gravity fatigued hips together.
4. The record you would take to a desert island?
We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me) from The Mills Brothers is a favourite and appropriate tune. But if I really needed an album to be a long term mental life raft it would be Moorish Music from Mauritania by Khalifa Ould Eide and Dimi Mint Abba. I found this record through Miriam Elhajli, a fantastic singer and music conjurer making music in the US.
5. And the book you would take to a desert island?
The Gift by Hafiz (translated by Daniel Ladinsky); again, desert island makes me think of mental medicine and this is it, tops for me.
6. Top three films?
Death of a Salesman, Rashomon and 12 Angry Men. They all tell us about ourselves, things we need to know and understand.
7. Worst film you've seen?
There've been a lot of doozies but I don't seem to have left them much space in my noggin cause I can't remember for the life of me.
8. Favourite author?
Sofi Thanhauser is really, really healthy reading for the early 21st century.
9. Sport you most enjoy?
I love racing raindrops down the windshield. Usually the middle one forms an alliance with one of the others and wins with its newfound weight
10. Ideal holiday destination?
A tree on a mountain, with the sea nearby.
11. Pet hates?
I recently realised that most of the things that irked me when I was younger are things I am attracted to now. For example, people walking on their toes, Midwestern accents, and Telecaster guitars.
12. What's your favourite:
Dinner? Sweet potato, broccoli and cabbage.
Dessert? Chocolate.
Drink? Guinness.
13. Who is your best friend and how do you know each other?
Until recently my best friend was a mouse that shared a shack with me, but then we had a falling out and so I had to move out.
14. Is there a God?
God is
Not singular
But throughout
Hallelujah, Amen.
:: Willy Mason will perform the closing concert of the Open House Festival in the Walled Garden at Bangor Castle on Monday August 29. For tickets and full festival programme visit Openhousefestival.com.
