Willy Mason might have been a writer, but instead he's found a creative outlet through songwriting - though he still does some landscaping to make ends meet, he tells Tony Clayton-Lea

AMERICAN troubadour Willy Mason likes to talk. It stems, he reckons, from being the son of two folk musicians who had little problem translating their needs, wants, wishes and whims into words. When Willy was five, the family moved from the coffee house/folk club environs of New York City to the rather more quaint area of West Tisbury, a small town on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. From such apparent comforts did Willy Mason's sense of ease and self-expression develop.

He says he's a natural observer of people, and that he receives inspiration for his songs from all over the place.

"I don't know if I always comprehend fully the inspiration I tend to receive," he ponders. "I've always been very curious about people; they interest me greatly. There are so many, aren't there? And quite a lot are funny - ha-ha and strange. We all are both dysfunctional and artistic, and sometimes the two go together. It's cool that, through music, I've been able to travel so much, and it's interesting to see which human characteristics carry over continents, which trends, which dysfunctions. As a species we're still trying to figure things out - we're evolving, and not in a webbed-feet kind of way, more a psychological one.

Playing in local bands was Mason's musical apprenticeship, and he might have been left wandering, lonely as a minstrel, around West Tisbury if it hadn't been for a series of fortuitous events. When the local radio station began playing Mason's unkempt three-take demos at an unearthly hour of the day, who was listening only Conor "Bright Eyes" Oberst, who just happened to be scouting around for acts to sign up to his new record label. This was in 2003/2004. Since then Mason has been touring, writing, recording and talking.

He isn't, he says, the kind of songwriter who struggles with the muse.

"Songs have always come quite naturally to me, but that doesn't mean they always arrive as frequently as I would hope. My attitude to songwriting is that it's been such a constant in my life, and for so long, that I've come to peace with the muse. In other words, sometimes the songs arrive quickly and sometimes they don't. I have little control over it, and I don't worry myself about it when they don't show up.

"The only thing I force myself to do on occasion is to write songs as an exercise, just to make it easier for when I'm inspired the next time around. These songs are rarely used for anything, but sometimes I surprise myself. The most important thing is to not take those ones too seriously; otherwise I'll get all blocked up. Let them be whatever they may be. In that sense it keeps me looser with the words, no matter what I'm writing."

Was it inevitable that he would end up a songwriter? "I think I was always a songwriter. It wasn't inevitable that I would be making a living for the family out of my songwriting, but I think that's a fortunate effect of the times. Not that I think about that aspect too much; I focus more on the songs rather than the situation that allows me to write them."

It was always music, says Mason - that or creative writing. He claims he could easily choose a different career down the line, and that he would keep writing songs as a sideline. But whatever area he chose to go into it would, by necessity, have to be creative. "Pretty much anything else is a bit of an uphill battle."

In the past he kept the bailiffs away by working as a carpenter and a landscaper. "Am I good with my hands? I can actually be surprisingly clumsy, but a little bit of grace comes with each passing month."

Along with grace comes the application of lessons learnt over the past few years of trying to make a quick (or slow) buck: planning ahead, learning to be meticulous and patient, and making sure the foundations of a potential long-term career are strong, while at the same time not being afraid to experiment and - if such experiments are deemed wrong - to tear them down.

"From the beginning I tried not to be afraid to make mistakes. I'm starting to learn the merits of planning ahead, which is not something that comes naturally to me. There are advantages, however; in the music business I'm working with more and more people, and rather than shut down myself or give in to the system of it, or resist the system, I'm trying to play a part and work with it. So it helps to be on top of things and plan ahead so that I can have an equal say in the direction of what is, essentially, my life.

"I hope some day to set up my own little label, so all this stuff I'm going through is free education."

Willy Mason's new album, If the Ocean Gets Rough, is released today. He plays Dublin's Temple Bar Music Centre on May 26th