CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland indie-rock band The Mason District found inspiration on Instagram for its newest music.
Singer-guitarist Tom Tobias was impressed with his cousin Lucy's Instagram posts on her account, @EarthToLucy. "She's very in touch with the universe, and just a free spirit," he said.
Lucy's Instagram posts consist of her original paintings, videos of her dancing freely in grassy fields and plenty of positive messages. Tobias ended up penning a song based on his cousin's approach to life.
"It's not necessarily a song about my cousin," he said. "But it's about a state of mind, going against what society tells you to do and taking an alternate path in life and knowing there's an alternate path you can be from."
The Mason District is premiering the song "Earth To Lucy" today with cleveland.com. Listen below.
The song is a part of The Mason District's upcoming three-song EP, "The Blue Room." It's the first of three short EPs the band plans to release in 2018.
The band decided to go about releasing them in a segmented, trilogy-like way to stretch new music throughout the year. And you can expect some differences on the album, compared to The Mason District's 2016 EP release, "Shotgun Soul."
"Shotgun Soul" was released one year after The Mason District formed by open-mic night friends Tobias, drummer Collin Nutter and bassist-singer Maria Petti. Since then, the band has toured around the Midwest and East Coast, been involved in a Cle Clothing Co. ad campaign and played Machine Gun Kelly's EST Fest last year.
The Mason District entered the studio to record new music at the tail end of 2017.
"We're still a three-piece, but now when we write songs and when we are playing them, there are so many other parts," said Nutter. "Production-wise, we've added more instrumentation, hearing a more full picture of the songs that we write."
"The Blue Room" EP will be released on May 12 with a show at the Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland. Tickets cost $10-12. The Mason District will perform with indie-rock band The Whiskey Hollow and hip-hop duo Smoke Screen.
"We didn't just want to get three rock bands on the bill. That's done so much," said Nutter. "We wanted something different."
After the EP is out, The Mason District plans on playing shows in the area and focusing on producing the next two 2018 EPs releases.
"We'd definitely like to get out," said Tobias. "Maybe weekends, hitting up different cities in the region and going from there."
"We're trying to have a sustainable touring career eventually," added Nutter. "No matter what the size, we want a nice loyal fan base wherever we can get it."