Mason Jennings connects with The Current's Local Show host Diane about his 2022 record "Real Heart," and Painted Shield—his new project with Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard which also has their sophomore record in the works for next year.

Interview Transcript

Edited for clarity and length.

DIANE: Mason Jennings, I've literally been a fan of yours since you've been starting to play music. Fourteen LPS, four EPs, two live albums, you've been a tireless working musician and prolific songwriter for 20-plus years, and you played music with some of the best and brightest talent in Minnesota and beyond. And this February you are going to release a brand new LP. Can you give listeners and fans some insight into the new record and how you've evolved as a musician?

MASON JENNINGS: Sure, thank you. The record is called "Real Heart". It's been about four years between the records, which is, I think, my longest space between two records. So I've been working hard on a bunch of songs, and it's produced by Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam and Regan Hagar. They run the label Loose Groove Records, the record's coming out on Loose Groove, and yeah, I'm really excited about it.

Wonderful, that's awesome. Your first single off the record is called "On The Brink". And which is as highlighted in the music video you talk about the abuse of religious and cult leaders from all different backgrounds. What compelled you to write about this subject? I noticed you have a line that says, "I've never noticed how much they target me."

[laughs] I think that's, a song that's probably like, many years in the making just because it definitely pulls from a bunch of different areas where it has to do with cults, but it also has to do with some people in the music business. Like, sure, as soon as you go into the public eye, for me, people have just started targeting me whether it be people coming to me saying like, "I know the voice of God, and I'm the one that has the answer for you." Or when they're big producers of stuff where they'd be like, "I'm a spiritual person." But then they also do this really shady stuff behind the scenes. And I was just watching this whole thing unfold, and it's kind of a confusing landscape to navigate. So that song has been kind of been bouncing around in my head. And I was surprised actually, that Stone wanted to use that as the first single. But I think it's cool, because it's kind of a different side for me. Like, a lot of my records, a lot of my songs are more just like optimistic. And this one's kind of just more like calling people out on bad behavior and just sort of like encouraging people to sort of discern and find their own center. So I mean, I'm stoked that it's the first single, but it's kind of a departure for me a little bit.

Yeah, I've had a chance to listen to most of your new record. And as someone who's been a follower of yours since the early 2000s, again, there's a comfort to your voice and you're playing and you're performing; and I also appreciate how real it gets when it comes to discussing topics such as mental health and facing inner demons. Can you touch a bit on what that journey has been like over the past year or so for you, especially in such a tumultuous time as COVID?

Yeah, it's been rough. I mean, it's sort of like obviously for everybody it's been rough for for the music business in general. It's kind of like a major blow, but to look on the positive of it, it's sort of made me think--I feel grateful for all the stuff that's come out of it. Like, I'm in a band now called Painted Shield and all of our work is done virtually. It's Matt Chamberlain on drums and this woman Brittany Davis on piano and Stone Gossard on guitar. So things like that have been really cool for mental health as far as like, you know, I can make these records virtually. But it's been a challenge. I mean, it's hard not to feel pretty dark. I think a lot of people are. And I guess on one side of it, music has been a place that I keep going for some kind of comfort, like you said, and hope. And so, you know, it's both. It's been hard for musicians but also music is the place that I end up going whether it be creating my own music or listening to others. It's definitely a place I go for comfort and hope.

Me too. I can totally relate to that. Yeah, I also appreciate a lot of the artistic elements in this record. There are plenty of just beautiful sonic textures and fine instrumentation. I I've always been kind of someone who's bowed down to your guitar playing especially. Can you give us some insights into what inspires you creatively and artistically within your music production?

Oh, cool. Yeah, this one is interesting because I actually set out to make more of a record that was no guitar; and it was kind of listening to a lot of Kraftwerk and like just different like kind of electronic music. So when I made made this record, I put some vocals and guitar down, but I put them separately down. So I was thinking of muting the guitar. And then when Stone heard the guitar, he was like, "Man, you gotta leave all the guitar in here because this is almost like a love letter to the acoustic guitar." And I was always happy to do because I mean, for me when I'm just hanging out, like I play guitar every day. I just, I'm in love with the guitar. So it's kind of like it almost went in the back door where like, just naturally I was just playing these acoustic guitars, and I think I just didn't have any real preconceived notion -- I thought maybe it would just be pulled off and electronics would be put in there. But instead, it went the complete opposite way. Because it was so natural, all the guitar stayed. And then we ended up using very little drums. And it was just a lot of like upright bass and some horns, and really cool Mellotron and some percussion and stuff. So it was just sort of like, the production we went for was just the guitar and voices center, and then everything else just kind of went off from it in the same vein as like a Nick Drake production or Cat Stevens or something like that. So, I ended up being really happy with the production, but it was kind of a cool, like, it went in a giant circle to get there. We headed to electric land and then we came back to like, really warm, really sort of acoustic production.

Yeah, it's beautiful. I'm a big fan. This side project Painted Shield, tell me more about that. Have you ever done a side project before? And the fact that it's virtual. That is so cool. I'm interested to hear more of your thoughts about this side project.

Yeah, it was the first time I've ever done that before. And it started about seven years ago. Stone Gossard and I started playing together just through emails, like he would put a guitar track down and then I would write some vocals. We did a 7-inch like that. And then about three years ago, maybe, I was thinking like, "Hey that was really cool what Stone and I did. I should reach out to him again." So I reached out to him again and we started working again on some stuff, but it went even way better than it did the first time. And I think I just matured as an artist, and I was sort of in a different spot. And then he was like, "You know, Matt Chamberlain is this amazing drummer," and Matt Chamberlain, for people that don't know, is like, when you call him you're like "Who are you working with this week?" And he'll be like, "Oh, you know, just Lorde and Lana Del Rey, Stevie Nicks and Bruce Springsteen." And I'm like, "What the hell. That is so crazy." So he's just like a top session drummer, but he also writes music too. So Stone was like, let's get Matt Chamberlain involved. And then Brittany Davis is an amazing singer and keyboard player, but she also plays a lot of synth bass. So we ended up being this kind of band where it's like synth bass and like Matt Chamberlain on drums and Matt plays keyboards too and then electric guitar; and then I'm the singer so I come up with the lyrics and the melodies, and it's been so fun. So we did one record--we started before the pandemic, but then we got to finish it when the pandemic just started. So then we put that out last November and then we just finished the second record too. And I think it's probably gonna be a double record and that's gonna come out I think next April. So the singles for that record will start coming out probably in January or February. And it's real heavy synth and like analog synth and it sounds massive. So it's kind of nice to have Painted Shield coming out in the next year that's a really huge major synth record, and then this solo record, which is just such a warm intimate acoustic record. So it's kind of nice to have both.

Can we expect any live performances then coming up -- especially Painted Shield? That sounds awesome.

Yeah, we're gonna hopefully do some stuff. I don't know. I think though those shows are probably gonna be late next summer or the fall. For sure we're gonna try to do something in the Twin Cities. They're located like in Seattle and LA so I'm sure we'll do shows in like Seattle, LA and the Twin Cities and hopefully Europe and other places too.

Anything else you'd like to say about your upcoming record or just new projects? Once again, I feel so grateful to have you on air with us. Lots of followers here on The Current of your music.

I'm just super grateful for The Current. It's been incredibly supportive for me and I'm so grateful because you know, when you travel around not many cities have a radio station like that. There's like two or three cities that have great radio and The Current is kind of the the leading station in the country for this kind of music. So super supportive. Yeah, I'm just really grateful for y'all.

External Link

Mason Jennings - official site

Credits

Host - Diane
Guest - Mason Jennings
Technical Director - Eric Romani
Producer - Jesse Wiza