On October 30, 2024, Mason Ramsey sat with our Director of Social Media, Vanessa Chan, for an exclusive interview! With the release of his debut album, I’ll See You In My Dreams,  Mason sat down to chat about his latest project, life as a young artist & tour. With a month off from tour, his second leg of tour includes a pit stop in San Diego! Get your tickets now for before the show sells out! 

Hi Mason! How’s it going?

I’m good! Thanks for asking. I’m hanging out with some family and I’m just enjoying my little bit of time off the tour. We get back in a month or so. 

That’s great! It’s always nice to have some down time in between shows!

Absolutely. Yeah, it’s a good time to re-energize and everything. 

I’m Vanessa by the way! It’s very nice to chat with you. I’m with the San Diego State University’s radio station and you’re coming to San Diego in November, which is really exciting. I thought we would start this interview with you giving a little introduction about yourself and where you’re from. 

I’m Mason Ramsey and I’m from Southern Illinois. I’ll call it Illinois to be exact. I’m a country music artist and I’m based out of Nashville as of right now. I just put out my first album a month and a half ago, and I’m super excited to be on my All’s In Place Part 2 Tour. I’m visiting San Diego on the 17th of November! 

Now, you’re known for your viral moment yodeling in Walmart. However, you’ve accomplished so much since then! Do you ever find it challenging to balance being recognized for that early viral moment with all the other work you’ve done in music?

Honestly, I don’t find it challenging. I just see it as something that I love to do. I love to do music, which is why the whole Walmart thing happened. I love to sing. Some lady heard me and she stopped me and asked me if I’d sing her a song and I went to sing the Leslie Glue song and that’s how that video went viral. It’s crazy.

Little did you know how much would come out of it, right? 

Yeah, well I didn’t even know about the whole viral thing until like a week later. 

Oh really? Wow!

I wasn’t raised on the internet or anything. 

Also you were really young when that came out too.

I found out through my cousin actually. They saw the video before I did. 

I’m also just curious because you said that you love to sing. What initially inspired you to pursue this career and how long have you been singing for? 

So, I started singing at the age of three.  I was raised on heckling senior music, and I was able to sing before I was actually able to talk.My grandpa would always play heckling senior music everywhere we went, so it just kind of stuck with me, and I wanted to do it ever since. 

 I know you talked a little bit about your album before, but let’s kind of deep dive into that. How exciting is it to have your debut album out, and how does it feel to have this music out? 

Honestly, it’s a dream come true. I’ve wanted to put out an album for so long now, and now that I have one out, it’s honestly unbelievable. I’m just super excited to have my first album out. All the people around me that have helped me pursue a lifelong dream, I mean, they’re awesome. I’m just super excited that I got the opportunity to do that.

What was the creative process like? Have you always just created your own music, or is this something that’s new for you? 

So I started writing at the age of 11, and I just have been writing ever since. I’m always trying to get better at it. Obviously, you know, I was a kid when I started, so the things that I wrote about back then might have been a little bit of fun, like goofing off type stuff. Now I understand what I’m writing a little bit better and have a better idea about what I wanna write. I just feel like overall, it’s grown so much. 

You also have a Christmas album coming out at the end of the year! On the topic of making your own music, do you see yourself experimenting with different genres outside of country in the near-future?

That’s an interesting question! It’s definitely not an easy one to answer. I like to say my music is kind of a blend of a lot of things. I obviously have country roots, but I’m inspired by so many genres. Soul, rhythm and blues, older rock, the 80s. It’s difficult to put me into a box.

I also think that the best type of artists are ones that take influences from what they listen to. And you know, not everybody listens to one genre. 

Absolutely. Yeah, I definitely don’t listen to just one genre. I listen to Mars, I listen to Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Ricky Nelson, Donny Hathaway, I mean, Chuck Berry, art like that. So they’re kind of all over the place, but it’s mainly older music. 

Yeah, those are always the best type of music. They don’t make them like they used to, you know? 

Yeah, it’s like they did them so good the first time! Now I feel like we’re trying to go back to try and recreate what they’ve done, but it’s hard for some reason. Yeah, like, I don’t know why it’s so hard.

As we know, you’re no rookie when it comes to performing! You’ve performed at Coachella, on the Ellen Denegeres show, and are currently on tour! Is this your first headline tour? 

No, this would be, I think, my fourth kind of tour I’ve done. From 2019 and this year, so it’s really awesome to, you know, get out and do it again. I love to go to places that I’ve never been before. I know we’ve got a couple of new spots that I definitely haven’t visited. I don’t ever think that I’ve been to the Voodoo Room at the House of Blues. 

It’s my favorite venue in San Diego. I feel like you’re gonna love it. How has tour life been treating you so far? 

It’s been really good. I’ve had so much fun on tour so far. Me and my boys kind of have this routine at each stop on tour. We go out every morning and we’ll try to check out a local coffee shop. Then, you know, we have a load-in with the band and we’ll do a sound check. I mean, I don’t have a whole lot of time throughout the day to do a lot of crazy stuff. Sometimes I’ll go to a local sorority or something up in the area and meet people there but I don’t really have a whole lot of time.

It’s so cool how you try to check out the cities! 

Absolutely! You know I’ve always wanted to just visit new places and just go meet people and just hang out and have fun. 

It’s also nice because you’re building a connection with people who may not be able to come to the show or like have always wanted to see you and stuff like that.  You get to build this sort of foundation and relationship within each city. 

I just love connecting with people. At my shows, I would say it’s pretty electrifying when people come out to have a good time. I have a lot of energy on stage and I’m really getting proud of my stage presence. I just love drawing people into my music as well and just making them feel good.

You’re able to perform your music, to new faces, in new cities! On top of that, at such a young age! I mean, you had your first viral moment at 11 and now you’re 17. 

I know! Time goes by fast. 

When you’re performing on stage, is there anything you do in particular to take in every moment? 

A lot of times I’ll just take a step back and look out into the crowd of people. I really like to engage with the audience, and seeing people so excited makes me excited. It’s just really cool seeing people who come out to the shows. Even seeing people I had met earlier in the day right in the front when I step out on stage. It’s just so cool. It’s the little things. 

I couldn’t help but notice in 2019 you stopped making music, and made a comeback just last year. Any particular reason as to why you decided to take a break from music?

Well, I did a fall tour in 2019. Then, COVID hit, and everything took a turn. It wasn’t just hard on me, but it was hard on tons of artists. I also had to deal with my voice changing.  I wasn’t sure how people were going to react to it, so I kind of just stepped back and waited to see what would happen. And in the process of doing that, I worked at a restaurant a little bit with my cousin, and they would take me to write songs and stuff. In 2022, I tried to get back into the industry, and I started writing again with some ideas that I had during COVID. And I was just working from writing to putting my music out. And in 2023, I was testing the waters to see what would happen. And in 2024, I put out my song, “Blue Over You”, and it went viral. And I mean, it’s got like 20 million streams already on Spotify. Just everything that’s happened to me since then has just been a roller coaster of a ride. And I’ve enjoyed every minute that I’ve got to experience. It’s also such a lengthy process. Creating the song, putting it out, then waiting for the feedback.

You’ve gained so much support since your comeback! I also just have to mention the fact you were brought out as a special guest during Lana Del Rey’s performance at Hangout Fest! How crazy of a moment was that for you? 

So that was a pretty wild moment and I’ll tell you the story. I posted a video of my song “Blue Over You” on social media and she commented. She was saying how we should collaborate of course I said yes. A couple of months later, she invited invited me out for Hangout Fest. I only got to meet her because there was like a storm rolling through and she didn’t have time to rehearse so she made it up to me by inviting me out to Fenway Park two weeks later. My family and I went up to Fenway and I got there, I got to rehearse with her, and then we did the show. She’s just an amazing person truly. She’s very sweet, very humble and down to earth. If you were to talk to her, it’s almost as if you’ve known her for like ten years or that she’s known you for ten years. I would say she’s quite confident. She just has this aura. I don’t know how to describe it. I feel like it’s just like she’s so down to earth and she’s really cool. She’s such an icon and she’s been in the music industry for so long.

That’s amazing you’re getting recognition and appreciation from big artists like that! 

Yeah! I’ve had a couple of different artists this year reach out to me, with one of them being Benson Boone. August last year, Zack Bryan brought me out and we did “Revival” together and it was pretty awesome. It was really cool. My old manager actually helps work with Zack so they communicated and made that happen. 

With being in the industry for so long already, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve received as an artist?

Always stay humble and remember where you came from. Also, the music industry can be a little bit tricky sometimes. You just, you know, always trust your family, or someone that you know that you can always count on. In this industry, there’s a lot of people that say one thing and then they’ll do another. You just have to be simple to who you take care of, like. part of your management, your, you know, just part of your, your management team. So, I mean, those are the things that I would say that have helped me the most just to kind of look out for, you know, who you’re adding to your team and just remember to always keep your head on straight. 

Are there any upcoming projects or pieces you’re excited about and can share with us?

I’m always working on music, but nothing is official as of now. It’s up in the air, but it’s a big possibility that new projects are coming soon. 

That’s all I have but thank you so much Mason for making the time to chat! November 17th at the House of Blues Voodoo Room! Get your tickets now before they sell out!

Get tickets now to Mason Ramsey’s show at the House Of Blues Voodoo Room on November 17!
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