Photo courtesy of Lora Moore

Within 48 hours of being invited onto a Toronto stage by Zach Bryan to perform “Heading South”, Lucas Mason had reached millions of people online and the attention of major record labels. There was one issue, however: he had no original music to showcase.

That attention was the push he needed. He immediately got to work on writing songs and found the pressure of needing to share something slowly dissipating. The first few songs he wrote brought forth a level of excitement he hadn’t anticipated, and after dozens of songs, he found his first single.

The practice of songwriting led him to understand what type of storyteller he wanted to be. He quickly learned that fiction did not bring out his best writing, and pivoted to subjective storytelling.

“When I started writing things about me, things got a little bit better because I could get more personal,” he said. “I could get the actual, real details to make the art feel more human than to try and pretend to be something else.”

Once he got a better understanding of the songwriting, he also understood who he wanted to write with. He found it difficult to portray an emotion through lyrics with co-writers or producers who had no connection to him, and turned to his brother Ethan instead. Alongside his contributions, Harry Hannah, Olivia Johnston, Chris Boerner, Dom Louis and Taylor Abram helped craft his self-titled debut album.

The 11-track album mirrors the 19-year-old artist's formative moments on his path into adulthood. He knew he had many stories to tell, and decided to explore themes of young love, loss, nature escapes, industry pressures, mental health and the importance of friends and family.

“It’s hard to have one specific story to tell because things have changed so much,” he said. “I feel like through that it has a similar message; the way things change as a young adult and the feelings that you can feel and the pressures you can feel. I love that you can see as a young adult this one big feeling of growing up.”

In addition to writing or co-writing every song, Mason decided to produce the album as well. The brothers turned their basement into their own studio and used their mom’s walk-in closet as the vocal booth. He learned the intricacy of microphones and realized he preferred the creative control of being outside of a studio. No time or budget restraints; just the exploration of trying something for the first time. And the second time. And sometimes the third time. But watching it all come together in the end was worth the challenges.

He credits Ethan for changing his look on songwriting. He transitioned from starting a song with an idea of a lyric to creating a melody first and adding lyrics second. A perfect example of that is the instrumental track on the album, “Hurricane Ridge”. Inspired by a family hiking trip, Ethan wrote the beginning riff and Lucas was immediately in awe of it.

“When we were hiking up one mountain, it started raining halfway through and became a storm at the very top,” he said. “That’s how it sounds at the end of the song; things get chaotic and burst into this one beautiful note at the end. It’s symbolic of that but it’s also symbolic of a journey of being a young person and chasing dreams. It gets really hard the closer you get to the top, but then you can get to this beautiful moment once you get there where everything stands still.”

He attempted to add lyrics to the riff, eventually writing “Thrift Store Dress” instead, and decided the melody was perfect as-is. The final version was tracked in a day, with Ethan on guitar, flute and bass, Lucas on harmonica, and his violin player who created an entire string section by layering takes.

“[Ethan] conveys this feeling without the lyrics actually being present,” he said. “By doing that, I was able to write other melodies that convey a feeling that I had to figure out how to put words to afterwards.”

In just two years, he was challenged to establish himself beyond a viral moment and continue to grow as an artist. Lucas Mason embraced his own storytelling, and in turn created a debut full-length album that could connect with anyone who listens.