Hola!
Nope, I am not Spanish and can barely speak the language, yet for some reason this is how me and my friends often greet each other, so, hola!
Welcome to my inner most thoughts - This Feels Familiar - a place to talk about life choices and events, being a woman in your 30s, careers, relationships and mental health and, no doubt, the music I love. All the familiar stuff, with my own perspective of course so that I, and you, can perhaps think - ‘thank GOD I’m not the only one’.
I’m Louise Mason (or Mase as my friends like to call me). I am a freelance broadcaster, journalist and producer. Once upon a time I was a city lawyer in London before moving into radio via being an HMV Christmas temp (yes that is read correctly as a ‘break down’ - a story for another time).
The three most recent things you are very unlikely to know me for, but you may know the shows/podcasts/stations, are:
I produced
‘Changes’ podcast before it moved to Substack. I always felt it was perhaps ironic that I produced Changes as I’ve had lots of big changes in my own life and loved finding out about other peoples.As a broadcast music journalist you may previously have heard me on BBC Radio 6 Music, when music news was a thing, or BBC Scotland interviewing artists and discussing the latest happenings in music.
I present and produce radio shows, my most recent being The Flip Side on Reform Radio which I am very proud of. There are 5 years of shows for you to jump into with me sharing soul/neo-soul, indie, modern r&b, electronic and jazz, plus a monthly throwback and interviews with new and established artists.
As I mentioned, my friends call me Mase or even Carlisle, so take your pick! The latter being because I am from Carlisle (on the English side of the Scottish border for those who don’t know) and when I went to Uni in Manchester and introduced myself as being from the walled city, the name just stuck - something to do with the way I said it: ‘Carrrliiisle’. I was born in Yorkshire, grew up in Lancashire, then moved to Cumbria when I was 10 which means that no one can ever pin down my accent but in a word, I am “Northern”.
I now live in Edinburgh but have also lived in Manchester, London, Paris and Melbourne. Not a brag, more of a, ha, someone’s indecisive. Edinburgh is the longest I have lived anywhere in over 10 years. It’s the Scottish weather, what can I say!
So, thanks for stumbling across my page, I hope you find something you like. You can subscribe now for free to receive all my writing. My aim is to share at least two pieces a month but, let’s see how it develops. I will also do audio versions of all pieces in case you prefer to consume things that way. Plus, I will be sharing some playlists too (see my radio shows for now above).
Hey sister, can you spare a dime?
There isn’t a pay wall just now but if you want to subscribe for less than the price of a Lannan pastry (seriously if you come to Edinburgh you should definitely go to Lannan) then you would be allowing me to spend some paid time doing this work (the freelance life is real and any donation helps). If you like it a lot (or let’s face it just want to support me in starting this), you can even be a founding member! Just click above for options and in future I will be sure to give some subscriber perks! Suggestions welcome.
Be aware your welcome email may be sneaky and go in promotions or spam. Do reply and let me know how you found me, where you’re based and what you are most interested in reading about on Substack, or just say hi!
Welcome aboard!
