It didn’t take long after winning the 2011 edition of X-Factor Australia for Reece Mastin to earn a reputation as a teenage bad boy.
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Now 23, Mastin has returned, reinvented as a hard rocker driven by the wisdom of experience and a desire to be himself, not a record company creation.
“It’s a massive change really but it’s something that I've been doing, personally, for a while. Since I left Sony that’s what I’ve been doing,” Mastin says.
“It is what it is and it’s rock and roll and it’s putting out there and doing my thing.
“I guess I’m kind of stepping out and doing it in the forefront. I’m in the right frame of mind to be doing it, portraying myself how I am, and not be misconceived in any way.”
This new sound has been a long time coming for Mastin, who released two chart-topping platinum albums with three consecutive number one singles on the tails of X-Factor.
He continues to travel around the country and the world, performing to thousands of fans every year and his new rocking show hits the Border on July 14, after giving the North East a taste during the Supercars series at Winton.
But taking a hands-on approach to his music has been rewarding.
“I’ve worked with some great people in the past and done some amazing things with different people but I’ve never had full control,” he says.
“Back then I was in such a fragile place and I to be honest I was pretty sick, doing stupid things … I guess it got to a point where a friend really helped me take control of everything that’s going on.
“You’ve got your general day job of trying to get the show booked and make sure everything is going to run smoothly. Then you get to do the fun stuff.”
The SS&A Club gig will be a free concert.
Mastin’s single Not The Man For You, released in March, is a rock ’n roll belter and is completely unlike anything fans have heard from him before.
“The people who are coming to see the shows have a real passion for the music,” he says. “It’s not so much about the stigma of a TV Show and pop music and all the things that come with that. It is about the music.
“I sing covers and some of the old stuff but the fans so far have got behind the new stuff, that’s the cream of the crop.”
He released his latest EP Suitcase of Stories in April and is keen to get back in the studio after a mid-year UK tour, to keep the rock and roll going.
