The recent release of “An Anxious Host” (printed on a limited vinyl edition of 300 copies by Students of Decay) was just the pretext for this interesting talk with Josh Mason. During our talk, I can’t but praise his descriptive abilities that he surprisingly extended both to his music and his words for his own musical releases. An awesome combo of aural stimuli and emotional depths as well as a strong connection to Florida, the place where he was raised and lived, also distinguishes the mentioned releases, which were aptly described as follows (I’m not sure if the words came from Josh or not!): “this record is thoroughly shot through with the humidity, warmth, and “end of the line”-ness of the state of Florida. Seasick swells and sunken melodies; swampy, sputtering loops; sonic flotsam pooling together and flowing out, beckoning the listener to come have a soak”. Enjoy the listening of “An Anxious Host” to double-check the veracity of such a good description and enjoy its author’s words down here.
Chain D.L.K.: Hi Josh! How are you doing?
Josh Mason: I am doing alright! I could complain, but I won’t.
Chain D.L.K.: The first release of yours I ever listened to was a lovely cameo with Nathan McLaughlin on the French label Eilean, one of the reassuring imprints for ambient music lovers. Then I found out you did other collaborations with Nathan. Just a personal curiosity as I enjoyed that output… are you going to reprise that collaboration?
Josh Mason: Happy to hear the material resonates – I do hope so! Nathan is a dear friend and ever since I released music of his many years ago, I have thought very highly of his person, his work, and his methods. It’s tough these days, between families, global pandemics, and living on opposite sides of the country, it requires more work than it used to to find the time, but I would be surprised if we didn’t cook up something at some point.
Chain D.L.K.: The sparkle for this talk came after I enjoyed your recent “An Anxious Host”, but generally before focusing on it, I like my interlocutor to introduce to our readers by himself! How would you describe yourself and what you do to them?
Josh Mason: I am a long-hair creative type, born and raised in the 80’s on the space coast of Florida. I am the son of two engineers, one of whom I pestered endlessly as a child to teach me how to play Yes songs on the bass, and instead was forced to learn to just play guitar properly instead.
These days I focus on what I call “personal music” – sound that is directly reactive to my experiences, location, etc. I make it for myself first, with whatever tools I have at my disposal at the time, and that anyone else is interested at all is a bonus!
Chain D.L.K.: How did you start getting into your music? Was there any specific listening that can be considered the first brick of the sonic structures you later built?
Josh Mason: Aside from my father playing guitar around the house, and listening to records with my family, what really got me started in music was the local hardcore/punk rock scene in Florida during the late 90’s. That was really set apart from things I’d see on TV or hear on the radio, etc. These were kids just like me who, by day, had shit jobs, went to school, were abused, had to act as caretakers, etc., but by night, something came alive in them, and everything they were forced to swallow during the day by the world was regurgitated with force into busted microphones and blown amps and I was hooked right away. To see a bunch of scrawny kids like the guys in bands like Hot Water Music, Reversal of Man, or Assck rip through what they created in the way that they did was an eye-opener for someone like me who had so much tucked away and until that time, had no real avenue for release.
Chain D.L.K.: I had a tour on your website, and as a music reviewer (more active in reviews years before, as now my “serious” profession is taking most of my time), I appreciated the good level of text description for each release. Did you write them?
Josh Mason: I did, yes. Mostly… there is one thing that Nathan wrote actually. And in fact, it’s probably a direct response to the way he talked about his music over the years. My work doesn’t have any words, so aside from whatever mood I am able to convey with the sounds, the titles, and the descriptions are my only way of talking about what I do. They are veiled on purpose, somewhat lyrical. For a while now I have been a proponent of the idea of providing someone with a map, or the directions, but not both. When I was younger, based on very vague or minimal descriptions, I used to order records out of the back of magazines by sending cash inside of birthday cards to a random PO box, hoping that one day I might get a record back from the stranger on the other end. I think this is probably my way of channeling that experience for a new audience.
Chain D.L.K.: One of my favorite descriptions, that can be really effective for potential buyers, is the one for “Coquina Dose”… “Everything humming, everything buzzing. It’s a new day in the same circuit.”. I hope it’s not AI-generated! 🙂 Jokes aside, as I saw this release mentioned many times, including in some liner notes on “An Anxious Host” and some good feedbacks by other music reviewers, would you say that release was a kind of turning point?
Josh Mason: Almost certainly… especially from a perspective of technological proficiency. That was the record where I felt like for the first time in a long time, I really had a grip on the tools and knew what to expect once I engaged with them. It was also a kitchen sink record as well, in that most things I make tend to focus on a very narrow skillset and equipment queue. This one involved many different tools and many different methodologies, and I was happy that I was able to meld them all together and make something that (I hope) feels cohesive and natural.
Chain D.L.K.: Who’s (or what’s) the ‘anxious host’ mentioned bot in the titles and – I guess – described by the sounds of the opening track?
Josh Mason: It’s very much me, by way of Vincent Van Gogh. I’m very fascinated by his life and his trials and tribulations, and I saw my own reflection in the man who was constantly running around trying to make sense of his various shortcomings, interests, and belief systems. Steven Naifeh and Greg Smith in their book “The Life” make reference to this, as if maddeningly preparing for a party, trying to make sure all the disparate things that make up a home (or a life) are in order and seem well prepared and displayed accordingly.
Chain D.L.K.: Reprising liner notes, something true that was said on there is the fact that the attention to detail and the level of sound editing is so good that listeners can think it can come from a snooty academic or technician… have you ever listened to your outputs and thought the same?
Josh Mason: While I am honored that anyone might think of my work as being that caliber, no, I can’t say that I consider it in those terms. What I do is closer to a punk rock ethos than anything else, in the sense that in no way am I trying to do “the right thing” or mix “correctly” or anything like that. I can’t remember now what the thing was that stuck with me at the time, but at some point, I got really frustrated by the notion of trying to do anything academically. Left-field abstract electronic music (or whatever you want to call it) has little to no rules, so why should I be held to the same standards as a five-piece pop/rock band? If anything, the decisions that I make, however “incorrect” they may be deemed by any mixing engineer or sound artists, make my music inherently mine, so I’m a little reluctant to cast that off.
Chain D.L.K.: Let’s get just a bit “academic”… (I hope not excessively snooty!)…The usage of fluffy sounds and clicks as percussive elements (as in “A grift is detailed”) as well as the rarefied atmospheres made me think of what got named ‘Staedtzisim” by ~scape records, referring to a style that was developed mostly in Berlin 15-20 years ago were the mentioned elements were kind of repeated. Did you know that bunch of releases? Would you file your style within any specific stage of electronic music?
Josh Mason: Yes, I do certainly admire and enjoy the ~scape material! (as well as what many of those guys have gone on to do). It feels strange to me to even think of my work as “electronic music” – I suppose it is in a way, but even things like “punk rock” or “ambient” feel limiting and strangely off-putting. I often feel as if we have these labels only because record stores just need a simple thing to write on the sectional cards behind each stack of genre-specific piles they made. This is why I have really been trying to lean into the “personal music” thing because it doesn’t box me into anything. I would feel just as comfortable making the kind of material you hear on An Anxious Host as I would making a one-man black metal record, or an acid house record because it would still be an authentic expression of whatever it was I was reacting to at the time I made it.
Chain D.L.K.: Something gets described. Something gets detailed. Just a kind of quote of some titles you used for a group of tracks in your delighting release… any details about those descriptions and those details? 11. Is there any more or less hidden narrative structure in “An Anxious Host”?
Josh Mason: The titling is meant to act as stage prompts, or as a summary of what is happening in the coming moments, inspiration I took from Cormac McCarthy. There is a kind of implied narrative if you follow the path set by the track listing. The main character enters, comes up with a plan, executes said plan, and then is left to deal with the consequences for better or worse. It’s equal parts a take on film noir pacing and cautionary tale (think Ebenezer Scrooge or Antonius Block) and I suppose it’s my way of talking about something without actually having to flesh out screenplays and novellas (I like words, I’m just bad at assembling them in a way that results in a linear story)
Chain D.L.K.: Just by chance I’m in the middle of the reading of “Rayuela” by Cortzar, which you mentioned for the fourth track of “An Anxious Host”… What’s the reason behind this quote?
Josh Mason: “Skull of Cortzar” is my way of saying “imagine this/a particular scene but through the eyes of this fantastic wordsmith and storyteller.” Really, it’s an adoration on my part, but I framed it in this perhaps bizarre way, as if his skull (mind) was a relic to be paraded around, or affixed to a pole, lighting the way, as in “Vasilisa the Beautiful” by Afanasyev.
Chain D.L.K.: I read about “Utility music”, a release where you documented by a CD and a book a yearlong study of a Doepfer A-100 Eurorack system. Is there any unveiled or untold finding that came after that release?
Josh Mason: The big takeaway from that experience was that compelling work can be realized by simple tools if one only takes the time to properly engage with them over time, vs. doing something off the cuff with tools that do all the work for you. You can tell a computer to generate something for you, but beyond that prompt, you haven’t really inserted yourself into the process, and because of this, you’ve given little of yourself to the audience. I wanted to make a work that was imbued with my time and to show that there is (or can be) great reward in not cutting corners.
Chain D.L.K.: What did you find on the other side of the coin of the confession of the medievalist? 🙂
Josh Mason: If the one side was the notion that the more we know about something, the less prepared we are to speak to it in any generalized sense, then on the other side is the notion that a simplistic generalized view is required to be able to say anything at all anymore. The sparseness and simplistic arrangement of this track reflects this (to varying degrees of success).
Chain D.L.K.: Would you relate “An Anxious Host” to any specific past release? If so, why?
Josh Mason: Probably not, and if anything, it’s the start of new things for me and this is the beginning of a new arc entirely in the context of my work, both in how I think about it and how it is created. Really looking forward to exploring it more in future releases.
Chain D.L.K.: Any work in progress that you want to anticipate with us?
Josh Mason: Ha, well, “in progress” with me is such a loose descriptor. Come to think of it, “in progress” should probably be the genre of music I make.
I do have some plans, but they are all in various stages of confusion and ennui. I’ve been asked to make another guitar record, which I am excited to do because it’s been quite some time since I’ve picked up a guitar and it has allowed me to actually design and build some devices for this express purpose, which I would then be able to make available to the public. I also don’t really feel the compulsion to work quickly anymore. The world operates on an exponential scale that I find exhausting, so I’m happy these days to just take my time up the hill.
Visit Josh Mason on the web:
https://joshmason.info/
https://j-w-m.bandcamp.com/