'TIGER' WILL MASON

ABOUT

                                                                                              Biography

“Tiger” Will  Mason has been on stage for over half  of his life.

He started teaching himself drums at 7; songs on the piano in his teens, and could play rhythm guitar, and various songs by the age of 20.  He moved from rural Niagara Peninsula to Toronto to pursue a career in the arts soon after. He acted in plays, played music on guitar and piano for his high school, to standing ovations, by the time he left home in 1983.

Playing a few coffee houses, and put-together bands for various functions, in 1986 he met several street musicians in the downtown core of Toronto, and they began playing and writing. Will had, by this time, done theater, television, toured Canada as an actor, and gained some respect in the native performing arts community. He participated in K.Y.T.E.S., a theater troupe that toured Canada in 1985, and had a TV documentary made about it; the documentary featured songs by Will and his sister CJ Mason, a bluegrass songwriter. In ’87, after participating as a production assistant in K.Y T.E.S.,, musicians he met busking on Yonge Street, formed ‘4 Way Street’, Canada’s only complete ‘tribute’ to the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Moving to Ottawa summer of ’87, they were booked for shows and tours by various agencies, including The Agency, playing big venues around Ontario, and opening for many major recording acts.  The band played until 95, with various members, then broke up until 2005, when a reunion sparked an interest in playing together for special events, which they still do, performing for private functions.  During that time, “Tiger” Will played for a few contests, and won under his former name Andy, which led him to CJOH-TV’s “Homegrown Café”, where he won Male Adult Performer of the Year in 1994, performing new songs on television. The show had an estimated 200,000-1 million viewers on any given Sunday night.

In ’98, he moved to British Columbia, and joined with an old friend and began performing around the Lower Mainland. This led to a CD recording of songs he had begun writing as far back as 1984.  The CD, called ‘Long Walk 49’, was first released in 2001 in BC, and then again in 08 in the U.S. The CD was picked up by Aboriginal Voices Radio across Canada, and enjoyed quite a bit of airplay for several years. In 08, he entered the Native-E Music Awards in Albuquerque, NM, and was nominated for 5 awards. He won, along with Star Nayea, the ‘Mainstream Song of the Year’ award for his song ‘Battle Raging’ which he performed live on the show.

He continued in B.C., playing venues, Aboriginal festivals, and opening for and with several artists like Joanne Shenandoah, Keith Secola; he and his band opened for the legendary Redbone, and jammed with the late Floyd ‘Red Crow’ Westerman, of “Dances With Wolves” fame, in the US.  He played several instruments on B.C. musician Joey Onley’s debut CD, ‘Radical Folk of the Great North’, which was produced by Joey, with help from Will, and David Roy Parsons. The former Andy Mason and David had a small production venture to produce their own, and Joey’s music.  He also played with several other artists, contributing to their studio work, for which he was never credited. It was not that important to him; it was a forum for him to improve his playing and experience. He also acted in television and film during that time, as an extra in TV series and theatrical movie releases, such as ‘The X-Files’; ‘Battlestar Galactica’; ‘Masters of Horror’; film ‘Out Cold’, and others.

In 2014 he had a bit part as an indigenous elder in CBC Miniseries’ “The Best Laid Plans”

He moved back to Eastern Ontario in ’09; he continues to write, perform, and act. He has played a few big Aboriginal festivals in Ottawa, winning ‘Canada’s Aboriginals got Talent’ in 2012.  This gained him an opening slot for fellow Six Nations player and Juno winner Murray Porter in 2013, with a band of friends specifically put together to perform his music. In 2014, he played his first big folk festival, the Kingsville Folk Music Festival, with Jane Siberry, Bruce Cockburn, Valdy, Jaron Freeman-Fox, Fish and Bird, Ken Whiteley, and many others.

He continues to play, hosting jams and sessions for others; playing in cover bands, and solo shows around Ottawa and Southern Ontario. He is still writing, and will have his sophomore CD out in the near future. He did a series of solo shows in B.C. in the fall of 2015, gaining more notoriety for his music and style, which encompasses many genres.

"Tiger" Will started acting in his preteens, and after doing small plays, was cast in theater productions and as a musician in Toronto, touring Canada, and putting music in plays. He is available to work as an actor in plays, film and television. At present he is an ACTRA member.

'Tiger' Will started on drums at parties in his grandfather's house at the tender age of 7.  He taught himself many instruments over the years; percussion, guitar, some piano, harmonica, mandolin, some banjo, bass and of course his first instrument, drums. He is about to attempt to learn violin/fiddle. He has played ukelele, bouzouki, and charango for fun, as well as the phin(pronounced  'peen').

'Tiger' Will was once called one of the best voices in recent years to come out of Ottawa.  He started singing at the age of 7, and has sang on recordings for Ontario Institute for the Studies in Education in 84; he has sang on numerous sessions, with his three-plus octave range. He has played instruments like mandolin, banjo, harmonica and percussion on professional audio recordings; he played almost all the instruments on his solo CD, as well as programming of MIDI. His CD won an award in New Mexico in 2008. he is a member of SOCAN; his music has been in film, and television.