James Mastro has spent years playing alongside Mott The Hoople legend Ian Hunter, as well as people like Patti Smith, Richard Lloyd, and John Cale. He is now ready to release his first solo record, Dawn of a New Error, and recently took some time to stop by and talk all about it.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Conversation with James Mastro:
On who joins him for the new record – Well, it started with my good friend, Tony Shanahan, who is been with Patti Smith for probably almost 30, well, 30 years as her bass player and keyboard player and we’re good friends. I had a band called Health and Happiness Show, and he was in that. So it started with him. He had just started a studio and he needed someone to go in there and do trial runs and see how the studio was working. So I was the guinea pig and we just started making the record from there. It was me and him and some great drummers coming in Louis Appel, who played with Southside Johnny, Steve Goulding from Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello and Graham Parker, and Brian Griffin, who plays with Patti, Black Crowes, and just a ton of other people and through my working with Ian Hunter, I was able to convince him to come in and do some singing on it too.
On if he always wrote with an eye toward his solo record – No, I’m doing that now, but these were kind of tidbits that just had been (around). I’d been so busy the past 20 years playing with other people that I never really had the focus to do a record, and COVID kind of gave me some time to sit down and say, “Well, I got enough songs or almost enough songs for a record here”. So that kind of was the final impetus to finish it. But I’m always writing, whether you finish it or not, it’s another story.
On if his writing is influenced by current events – Well, I find if I watch the news or read the paper continuously, I get very depressed. So I kind of keep a sideline glance at everything. But yeah, there’s no way you can’t be affected by what’s going on. Whatever your political beliefs or religious beliefs, to me, it just boils down to what’s right and what’s wrong and what’s good for someone or what’s bad for someone. It should be that simple. So when things seem bad, that’s when I get upset. So I can’t say I’m really a political writer, but, you have to be affected by the weather somehow.
On coming up with the concept for the video “Right Words, Wrong Song” – You can preach all you want, or you can just kind of go the roundabout way of getting your point across. Someone who saw the video is like, “Wow, this reminds me of total MTV early days”. I was like, “Well, yeah, I guess so”. I grew up and was part of that. So I guess I kind of rubbed off and the idea of making videos is not appealing to me. So, if we’re going to do it, I was going to have fun with it.
On what he learned coming up with the CBGB crowd – Business-wise, a lot. At 18, I thought I was going to be a millionaire because I was on a major label with Richard Lloyd. I soon learned that’s not the case. We were being paid very well for what we did back then. As a kid, still living at home. I was still in high school, but coming home with a lot of cash. It was like, “Wow, I could make a living doing this, and this is what I want to do”. So the fact that I was getting paid for doing something that I love was kind of a plus. As far as musically, what I learned from each person. From any one I work with at any level, there is always something to learn. With Richard Lloyd, basically, that’s where I learned to play guitar. He’s a phenomenal guitar player, as we know. A phenomenal lead guitar player, but also an amazing rhythm player. My role in that was rhythm, and everyone wants to play lead guitar, me included, and I don’t feel I’m that good at it, but rhythm guitar is an art. So, from Richard, guitar lessons, basically, every night we went on stage, it was a lesson. Playing with Patti Smith, she is the lead, her voice is the lead guitar in that band. So you just follow, and there’s so much passion there. Every night’s going to be a rollercoaster ride. So you just have to be ready and you’re watching and it’s interaction with the other musicians. You have to pay attention. Same with Cale. John is brilliant and he would change things every night, deconstruct his own songs. Nothing was sacred. So you kind of learn, you can go out and do this song the same way every night or you can push yourself and all those artists really push themselves. So that was a great learning point for me.
On whether he approaches music differently as a frontman than a sideman – Yeah, that’s a good question. Because I hate singing, but I guess if I’m put myself off as a frontman, then I got to really focus on that. So I’m happy to share the role of guitar duties with someone else. I have a great guitarist on playing with me for our upcoming shows Chris Robertson, who played Psychedelic Furs, and he’s in a band called Elk City and is just brilliant. It’s kind of nice to be able to, again, go back to my rhythm playing, which I like to do and that’s how I wrote the songs, playing rhythm guitar, so it kind of makes sense for me to change the way I play.
On if the influence of all the people he’s played with rub off on his writing – I don’t know if I’m consciously thinking of any of them. It’s kind of like you eat enough food and it’s in your system and it’s there. Again, just taking the good qualities from every one of those artists and being with Ian for over 20 years, it can’t help but rub off. He’s such a great songwriter and lyrically, very different from Patti or John. Ian is much more structured in his writing and discipline. So there’s that good balance for me of trying to make it really perfect, but then also having that freedom of a poet like Patti or something. I don’t consciously think of it, you plant the seed and see what comes up.
On how he hooked up with Ian Hunter – I totally bamboozled my way into it. Mott the Hoople is the reason I started playing guitar. I loved that band as a kid. Ian was finally doing his show in the year 2000 in New York. My friend was Andy York, who’s produced all Ian’s records since was the guitar player. So, when I found this out, I called him up right away and I was like, “Hey, look, I know you may not need it, but I’d love to be a part of the band, play guitar”. He’s like, “Great. Let me call Ian”. He calls me back the next day and Ian doesn’t really want to have another guitar player. I thought about it for a day, called him back. I was like, “I know you’re doing, “I Wish I Was Your Mother”, the song has a mandolin”. I was like, “I’ll play mandolin”. And he was like, “Great idea. Let me call Ian”. So he calls me back. He’s like, “Ian said come by”. The only issue was I didn’t play mandolin. I didn’t own a mandolin. So, I went and borrowed one from a friend stayed up all night, learned the song, and went to the rehearsal the next day and passed the test. Then it just kind of went on from there.
On what Ian Hunter records he would recommend to someone just discovering him – Every one of his records, any current record he started recording in the 2000s are phenomenal. The Rant record is great. Maybe one of my personal favorites is Shrunken Heads, but also his first solo album right after Mott, which is just called the Ian Hunter is great. Some of those songs were supposed to be Mott songs. So you can hear the transition from Mott and then him becoming more introspective, but even his newest record Defiance is phenomenal. The songwriting is just consistent.
On how Ian can still sound so strong at 84 years old – Science should be studying him. He really is phenomenal. He’s sharp, he’s fit, he puts us to shame. We’re doing a two-hour show. I’d come off stage and be like a little knackered and be like, “Okay, now what? Let’s go out”. He’s pretty inspiring.
On touring plans – We’re doing a big show in New York at the Bowery Electric the night of the release, February 21st. Then I’m playing Asbury Park, February 24th at the Clinch Gallery. But then I’m also going on tour after that with Alejandro Escovedo. So I’ll be opening those shows and then in Alejandro’s band afterwards. So double duty, two different hats.
