15 questions with… Mason Maynard

After last month’s 15 Questions With Shane Codd, we have another young producer who is making it big in the world of dance music. Mason Maynard already has the backing of BBC stars and some top production legends plus a studio packed with the best hardware and software. And it all stems from a school lesson when he was asked to produce on a computer. “There was another way to make music…”

With the backing of BBC Radio 1 legends Annie Mac, Pete Tong and Danny Howard and producers like Solardo, Lee Foss, and Richy Ahmed, Manchester-born DJ and producer Mason Maynard is already – at just 21 years of age – one of the rising stars of dance music. He is, as he states, all about the kick, bass and vocal and while his style is mostly house driven with catchy vocals – just check out Make It Hot (featuring Gene Farris) – he has also produced more breaks-infused tracks like Memory. Here he explains what it takes to make a great Mason Maynard track and he also reveals his best five plugins and a growing (and expensive) obsession with all things hardware.

1 Tell us how you got into music Mason Maynard: “I’m a producer and DJ from Manchester and I’ve been interested in making music since around high school as I had a really good teacher who introduced me to a lot of different genres on top of all the different music I would hear at home. I’ve always had a deep bond with music and found it to be an escape for me in many instances, so I definitely feel as though I owe a lot to it.”

2 When did you get successful?

MM: “Personally I don’t feel I’ve ‘made it’ but I’m absolutely aware and grateful that my job is literally to make and play records round the world. I do have a lot of ambition and I know the level that I want to be doing this in the years to come. When I put a couple of tunes out in 2017, I’d say things started to move quickly and I was in the fortunate position where bills were being paid from being in the studio and touring.”

3 What is your production philosophy?