Yesterday I had the privilege of having a chat with Australian singer-songwriter Reece Mastin – now going by MASTIN – about his career up until this point, his new single ‘Not The Man For You‘, which is out today – his forthcoming EP, which is now available for pre-order and out in April; touring around Australia, making music, working with labels, going independent, learning new things, what MASTIN has coming up in 2018 and much more.

To kick off the chat, I wanted to know how Reece’s 2018 has been going so far. MASTIN assured me his 2018 has been “quite stressful”, but “in a good way”, as he is keeping himself creatively busy by working on this new EP.

MASTIN had been working on his new single for quite some time, not only is it one of the songs in a short list of songs in the EP, but it was also not the original song Reece was going to choose as a first taste of the forthcoming EP.

MASTIN explains how “this one [Not The Man For You] grabs people straight way,” as it is a straight up rock anthem that lets MASTIN show his great rock style.

The title of the first song MASTIN was going to release off the EP was ‘The Problem’, a song he had been playing live since last year. MASTIN thought he needed to choose a fresher song for his fans to year as it had become stale at that point, so to speak.

Speaking on the story of the EP – MASTIN explains how he had been sitting on these songs for a while and there isn’t an overall story arc as most of the songs on the EP work as individual stories.

MASTIN has gone through a transition over the last couple of years, from going independent, to putting his own money into his music, working with new people, growing personally, growing professionally – helping him grow as a person.

MASTIN goes into detail about the past couple of years of his life as he explains, “I almost didn’t want to put anything out – I’ve been going through a lot of stuff myself.

Continuing on with the last couple of years, MASTIN explains his time within the music industry as a 16-year-old.

“I kind of gave myself a reality check; I left Sony [Sony Music] because I wanted to pursue Rock n Roll music and that’s what I wanted to do.”

After feeling like he had neglected his own career. MASTIN explains how did therapy over the last couple of years and “sort the right” people out to help his career.

Still on his previous career, MASTIN continues, “just face the things head on. I think that is something I struggled with for a while.”

MASTIN still gets look to this day, as he has that stigma of being a pop artist. MASTIN explains how he will get people looking at him as if he isn’t anything other than a pop star, however, once he and the band “start playing and everybody turns their heads and goes ‘awe, what’s the go here? We don’t even know you do rock n roll.'”

The hefty price of going independent has weighed on MASTIN as well, he explains how when you are with a label, they do pay for everything to a point – even though you do pay them back – and how much he changed.

2018 looks to be a big year for the artist formally known as Reece Mastin – now going as MASTIN – as he has a new EP coming in April and taking his music on the road for a 19 show tour from Saturday April 7 to Saturday July 14 all over the country.

Have a listen to MASTIN‘s new single below.