Scottish rock act Mason Hill burst onto the scene with their debut album Against The Wall hitting the Top 20 back in March 2021, following it up with 2022’s Live In Glasgow. The band, however, has remained dormant since September 2023, following co-founder and lead vocalist Scott Taylor leaving the band for health reasons.That now changes, with new singer Tom Ward in place and the announcement of two new live shows this November, one in London the other in Glasgow, and both are sold out.
Mason Hill guitarist and co-founder member James Bird enthused about the new fire that’s been brought into the band, commenting: “A new voice. A new chapter. We’re not just back, we are coming back with a fresh sound. We welcome Tom to the fold. I’m so excited about the writing partnership we’ve developed and can’t wait to unleash all the things we’ve been working on.
“It feels like a brand-new start,” he said. “We’ve taken all the things we’ve learned and done to this point and stepped them up. I can genuinely say that this isn’t just a better version of Mason Hill, it’s the best version.”
Tom Ward himself commented: “Joining Mason Hill has been transformational for me – 12 months of hard graft, anticipation and gearing up to tear up the stage. Together we’ve been creating an album which is raw, powerful and pure Mason Hill.”
This line up feels like a huge step forward for the Glasgow-based band, and with good reason. While the core of Mason Hill is the same as the band that made Against The Wall – Bird plus guitarist Marc Montgomery, bassist Matt Ward and drummer Craig McFetridge – their new music marks the introduction of new singer Ward, whose voice brings different dimensions to Mason Hill and is said to be able to switch from emotive whisper to arena-rattling power.
“We’re still Mason Hill, but in some ways, it feels like we’re a brand-new band,” said Bird of their new configuration. “With Tom in the line-up, we’ve got a new energy.”
“Coming into this band at this point has been a dream,” added Ward. “We hit it off from the start, and we discovered we’ve brought new things out in each other as writers. The new songs we’ve written so far are just amazing.”
Mason Hill has been no strangers to adversity over their 10-year existence. They’ve endured false starts, botched record deals and a six-year gap between 2015’s eponymous debut EP and the release of Against The Wall. Even the latter landed during the height of the covid pandemic, meaning the band weren’t initially able to tour in support of it. The departure of former singer Scott Taylor at the end of 2023 was just the latest obstacle they had to overcome.
“There have been times over the years when we weren’t even sure we’d be able to keep on being a band,” said Bird. “Even just before Tom came in, we were so close to saying, ‘Well, we tried, but let’s call it a day.’ But there’s a stubbornness and determination and passion in us that has kept us going.”
It was Gumtree, of all places, that proved to be their salvation after Ward, who has been singing in bands since he was 14, spotted an advert the band had placed there in the spring of 2024. He reached out, emails were exchanged, and the band and he began sending bits of music back and forth to see what it might sound like.
“Obviously all I‘d heard to that point was the first album,” said Ward. “So, I started writing choruses and verses to some of the new stuff they’d done, and I was thinking, ‘Yeah, this is exactly where I sit, this is what I love doing.’”
“The new music was obviously still Mason Hill, but we didn’t want it to be a copy of the first album,” said Bird. “When Tom put his voice to some of the demos we’d sent, that was when we knew this could work.”
“It feels like a turning point,” said Ward of this new chapter, of which he’s a key part. “We’re super-hungry for it.”
“All the good stuff and the bad stuff, I’m glad it happened in a sense,” added Bird. “Because without it we wouldn’t be in this place we’re in right now, talking about new songs, which I couldn’t be more excited about. We’re so ready to get back out there. This is who we are now. This is Mason Hill.“
MASON HILL LIVE DATES
27th November – London, Camden Assembly
29th November – Glasgow, The Cathouse
