Teenage singer songwriter Mason Whittle is becoming a familiar face on the Huddersfield gigging circuit … and now he’s just released a 6-track EP on music streaming giant Spotify.

The 16-year-old didn’t even take up the guitar until he was 13 but the last three years have been phenomenal.

He taught himself to play guitar, began singing, then started song writing and is now studying to help him achieve his ambition to make a career out of music.

Mason began by busking but was given his first break to perform at the Northern Sole café in Slaithwaite and has never looked back.

The first song he learned was Love Of My Life by Queen and Mason can now perform dozens of cover versions ranging from the Beatles through to George Ezra.

Mason, of Linthwaite, left Colne Valley High School last summer and is now studying a two-year BTEC Diploma in Music Performance at Leeds City College which ranges from playing in a band to learning production and mixing skills in the recording studio.

He’s often gigging around the Colne Valley and is becoming a favourite among the visiting ale trailers. Several from Manchester saw him performing at the Railway pub in Marsden at the start of March so he treated them to some Oasis and Stone Roses before topping it off with Angels by Robbie Williams which sent them into singalong heaven.

Mason’s EP is called Colour Schemes and features six tracks  – Titanic, I Want You To Be Mine, Night Ends, Yet, Kites and The Love For You.

Mason reveals that I Want You To Be Mine was inspired by the Meatloaf classic Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad.

He said: “I first came up with this song while practising Keith Urban’s live version of Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad. I was trying to figure out the guitar part he played and went to the 10th fret with the capo and gave it a go. I then started to drift away from the song because I’d started to strum faster and off from the Meatloaf song and gradually came up with the song.”

This is how Mason does much of his song writing. He starts with a song he knows and it then changes into something completely different.

Night Ends – the most listened to track of the EP on Spotify – was inspired by American Idol runner-up Alejandro Aranda, known by his stage name Scarypoolparty, especially his song called 10 Years.

Mason said: “I just like his style of guitar playing which I find really different so I tried it and it led to this song.”

It’s a finger style way of playing which involves plucking the strings as well as strumming.

Another song on the EP, Kites, is about growing up and Mason leaving his childhood years behind him, urging people to relish those years as they’re so fleeting in terms of the rest of your life.

The Love For You was inspired by Perfect by Ed Sheeran and Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton but some can hear shades of Nightingale by Clifford T Ward in it.

The EP was recorded at Vibrations Studios in Crosland Moor.

Mason said: “I tend to play the guitar first and then do the vocals after and we recorded it over several sessions.

“I want the sound to be just right so I keep going back over the recordings so they sound as good in the car as they do listening to them on headphones.”

Mason is booked for quite a few private parties this month but will be playing Junction One pub on Scar Lane in Golcar on Saturday, March 25 at 7pm.

On Saturday, April 22, he’ll be back at the Railway in Marsden from 3pm to 6pm. The next day, Sunday, April 23, he’ll be at The Little Bridge bar in Slaithwaite from 4pm and on Friday, April 28 he’ll be at the Fourth Fiend Taphouse in Meltham from 7.30pm.

Mason lives with Mark, mum Lisa and 21-year-old sister Emily.

To listen to the EP on Spotify go to https://open.spotify.com/track/2U3ksCm00gTirCgblQhaKp

Mason is on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and here are the links
https://www.facebook.com/MasonWhittle06 https://youtube.com/channel/UCcEwngmYdCQLGGy4X_BC3uw https://instagram.com/masons_music1?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Contact Mason through his Facebook page or email masonluke06@icloud.com

  • Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.