Reece Mastin

Most people will recognise the name Reece Mastin from his time on X Factor but recently the young man has taken a huge leap with his career, moving over to independent record label Social Family Records. Since his time on the show Mastin has grown both musically and personally taking on an ambassadorial role with the charity White Ribbon, an organisation working to stop violence against women.

When speaking about his decision to move across to Social Family Records Mastin had this to say; “the benefit with Social Family has been that I have 100% control creatively. So it’s been good for me to let myself go a little bit and do what I wanted to do.” To which he added with a laugh, “the only bad thing is that if everyone hates it it’s all on my head.”

With this new direction, Mastin has been able to explore his passion for rock and roll as he attempts to find his “own individual sound”. Recently Mastin released his first EP Rebel And The Reason with his new label, and it’s clear that progress has been made towards finding his own niche market and sound.

Following the recording of the EP a quick writing expedition to the US was on the cards to expand his knowledge and create material for an upcoming album. “We went over for about two weeks and have about ten or eleven songs to throw into the pile. Now we’re looking at picking the tracks and getting it recorded to hopefully have out by the end of the year.”

As a man Mastin has grown considerably as well, undertaking an ambassadorial role with White Ribbon. “The more I’m learning about violence against women and studying it, the more I realise how intense it is and how much it is going on. People don’t talk about it, especially us as men, so it’s important to let people know it’s ok to talk about it and stand up to say ‘no’ if we see it going on.” According to statistics from White Ribbon, one in four children witness violence against women in their home and on average one woman a week dies at the hands of an ex or current partner, showing that this is an extremely important issue in Australia.

“I wanted to bring the issue to peoples attention, and because my audience is predominantly young girls, plus I’ve got three sisters as well so I’d hate to see any woman I know in any of those scenarios,” said Mastin whilst speaking about his confronting Rebel And The Reason video clip.

Jun 12, Factory Theatre, 105 Victoria Rd, Marrickville, $35+b.f, factorytheatre.com.au