Steve Mason is a Scottish musician, best known as the lead singer and one of the founding members of
The Beta Band. He has also been a member of
Black Affair
Black Affair is an electronic music duo formed by Jimmy Edgar and Steve Mason.
History
Around 2008 Edgar began collaborating with vocalist Steve Mason of Scotland's The Beta Band, and together they formed the electronic music duo Black Affair. ...
with
Jimmy Edgar
Jimmy Edgar is an American conceptual artist and sound designer from Detroit, Michigan. Influenced by minimalism, Yves Klein and Immaterialism, early in their career Jimmy released two hip-hop glitch albums under the names Michaux and Kristuit ...
.
History
Mason started his music career as the lead singer and one of the founding members of
The Beta Band. According to ''
Q'' magazine, after leaving the band Mason was so deep in debt at one point that he was forced to take a second job on a building site. The singer was also crippled by a depression that only recently lifted.
[Rob Fearn. '' Q''. June 2010. Albums review. p. 126]
During the Beta Band era, Steve appeared on TV shows including ''
The Adam & Joe Show'' (2001) and ''
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' is a British comedy panel game show with a pop music theme. It has aired on Sky Max since September 2021, having originally aired between November 1996 and January 2015 on BBC Two. The original series was first hoste ...
'' (2005).
Mason released solo material as King Biscuit Time, including two
EPs
EPS, EPs or Eps may refer to:
Commerce and finance
* Earnings per share
* Electronic Payment Services, in Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen, China
* Express Payment System, in the Philippines
Education
* Edmonton Public Schools, in Edmonton, Al ...
on
Regal Records and one album on No Style Records, an
imprint
Imprint or imprinting may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series
* "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror''
* ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film
...
of
Alan McGee's
Poptones
Poptones was a record label launched by Alan McGee after the demise of Creation Records in 1999. Its roster included The Hives, January, Arnold, Cherrystones, King Biscuit Time, Thee Unstrung, The Boxer Rebellion, Beachbuggy, Pure Reason Rev ...
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
. Mason has also worked under the name Black Affair, and has released one album under this pseudonym on
V2 Records
V2 Records (or V2 Music; V2 being an abbreviation for Virgin 2) is a record label that was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2007 and sold to IASin 2013. In the Benelux, V2 operates separately from PIAS, as the label bought itself out from ...
.
On 19 April 2009, ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' reported that Mason was working on a new album with the record producer,
Richard X.
This album, ''Boys Outside'', was released in March 2010 and is the first album under Mason's own name. The first single, "All Come Down", was released as a
download at the end of November 2009. ''Q'' gave the album a 4/5 rating. According to Rob Fearn, the album "relocates Mason in a grand tradition of indie boys doing idiosyncratic electronic pop, a line stretching back through
Hot Chip
Hot Chip are an English synthpop band formed in London in 1995. The group consists of multi-instrumentalists Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard, Al Doyle, Owen Clarke, and Felix Martin. They are occasionally joined by former member Rob Smoughton for ...
,
New Order,
Talk Talk
Talk Talk were an English band formed in 1981, led by Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar, piano), Lee Harris (drummer), Lee Harris (drums), and Paul Webb (bass). The group achieved early chart success with the synth-pop singles "Talk Talk (Talk Talk s ...
and
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...
". Fearn argued that the album, "totally different from what he did in King Biscuit Time and Black Affair", might be seen as a "welcome return to a stripped-down songcraft". It is "...not just a work that can finally measure up to
eta Band's''
The Three EPs'', but is a sign of a "bold new start",
according to the critic.
In 2013, Mason released ''Monkey Minds in the Devil's Time''. The album covers topics as diverse as his recent struggles with depression and loneliness, the suicide of
David Kelly (former weapons inspector in Iraq) and the
London riots
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. The Independent called it "his most rewarding release since the Beta Band".
Discography
The Beta Band
:''see
The Beta Band Discography''
King Biscuit Time
EPs
Singles
Albums
Black Affair
Singles
Albums
Steve Mason
Singles
Studio albums
References
External links
*
Steve Mason fansite at betaband.co.ukKing Biscuit Time's official site
*
*
Interview with Steve Mason at TLOBF after release of Boys OutsideSteve Mason: Out of the blackness – Interview in the Guardian 6 April 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Steve
Musicians from Edinburgh
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Double Six Records artists
People educated at Madras College