Painting Sexy Black

“I’m trying to make music for girls right now.” And so Steve Mason steps into the ring with Aristotle, Wilde, Freud, and anyone who has ever attempted to discern the difference between men and women. We shouldn’t be surprised; as the creative dervish behind the mega-revered Beta Band, Mason is a musical innovator whose vision commands respect. And if he thinks the universal language holds the key to this particular riddle, who are we to argue. “I think I can use the music to move girls in whatever way. Physically, through dancing of course, but also emotionally, and hopefully make them laugh.”

So how is this different to what boys want? “These are obviously sweeping generalisations but it’s just how I’m feeling right now. I think boys want their music to appear a little more cerebral, and maybe think about it more. I think guys in general like to stand around for a while and try to decide if something’s cool or not before they’ll actually move around to it. I think girls are more likely to decide instantaneously whether the music is doing anything for them without any regard to any association or anything like that. I really find that quite refreshing, which is why with Black Affair, it’s just trying to make it loopy, with a lot of hooks and, well, danceable! I much prefer girl DJs to guy DJs. They’re so much more exciting to hear ‘cos you never know what they’re going to play next. It’s always a surprise, and almost always really fucking good.”

Mason continued to mine his own creativity post Beta in the guise of King Biscuit Time. Stunningly, however, he called time on that project last year, immediately prior to the release of a critically acclaimed LP, Black Gold. Whilst he is understandably reticent to discuss the rumours of depression that surrounded him at that time, there is a hint that Black Affair (nothing to do with newspaper tycoon Conrad) is an attempt to accentuate the positive in life. “Black Affair is nothing political; it just recalls an encounter between a man and a woman where no words are exchanged. No-one’s conscience is being pricked, it’s just a moment spent concentrating on the person right in front of you whereby the consequences are an irrelevancy at the time; it’s just about that specific moment. I’m not making any comparisons with anything I’ve done before. Black Affair is basically pop music and everything that entails. I don’t know what else to say. It’s more about fashion and the imagination, leaving things to the imagination rather than being a little more subtle and humorous and not 100% serious. Fun ultimately.”

With the Beta Band and King Biscuit Time, Mason revelled in a psychedelic genre hopping between electronica, folk and hip-hop. Black Affair demonstrates Mason’s love of syncopated percussion, but adds elements of pop, and, of all things, R n’ B to the mix. “If someone doesn’t like it [R n’ B], I’m not the one to change that other than to say they’re maybe missing out; there’s so much great stuff. For me, it’s the production that I really love about it. The songs themselves are just pop music, but with supermodern production. Without any shadow of a doubt, the most exciting production of the past ten years has happened in R n’ B.”

Mason emphasises the ‘fun’ element of his new project almost as a method of confronting his demons and asking them out to dance with him. He seems grateful that musical expression affords him a method of release. “Introspection is a massive part of who I am. I tend to dwell more on my relationships with women and that’s mainly what I write about. Every human is introspective, but it’s more obvious with artists - 90% of the time that’s what their work is about. Most people aren’t in a position whereby they have a medium like art in which to express themselves, and let it out. Putting these things in the public domain can be quite dramatic. Not specifically for me but for other people. Love and sex are the most important things and they infect everything else in my life.”