NEW LIFE:Kathryn Mason leaves the music industry on a high note and finds true happiness on the piste, writes Michael Kelly
For many 'new-lifers', there's a seminal moment when they have to choose between happiness and high earnings. Kathryn Mason, a former head of marketing in the music business who now works full-time as a ski instructor, has an interesting thing to say about that choice: "I am earning about a quarter of what I used to earn," she says, "but I am 10 times happier."
When she left school, Mason went to Scotland to study the business side of the music industry. "From the age of 15 I always knew that I wanted to work in the business. I loved pop bands at the time but what fascinated me was the business side of it - how did they get on the TV and the radio? I applied for the course about two years before my Leaving Cert and they told me to come back when I left school!"
After finishing the course, she spent 15 months working with Virgin Records in London before returning to work for BMG in Dublin. She was to spend the next 13 years with the company with her career on a steady upward trajectory - from administration to press and promotions, then to marketing and finally becoming head of marketing.
"I was involved in the launch of Westlife," she says when I press her to drop some names. "I also worked with Take That, Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera, Dido and Faithless. When they came to Ireland I was in charge of their PR, advertising, TV appearances and poster campaigns. I'm a bit of a pop tart so I loved every minute of it. I always said that if I woke up one morning and didn't want to go to work, I would get out."
As the industry changed, that promise was increasingly put to the test. "We had the arrival of the iPod and iTunes and I was hugely frustrated that the head honchos weren't embracing that. They kept saying it's a fad but it was obvious that it was far more than that. The focus was increasingly on reality TV to bring in new talent."
Mason recalls attending a music industry conference where an executive announced that the future of the business lay with reality TV. "I just thought, 'Oh my God'. I had been in behind the scenes on some of those shows and they just didn't look after the kids involved. It was quite vicious."
Initially drawn to the excitement and intensity of the work, as the years went by the relentless nature of the job began to take its toll. "It was great fun but the work was all-consuming. I worked all week and then the weekends were about the shows like the Late Lateon Friday and Kenny Liveand Tubridy Tonight.
I was a power-worker, taking calls at 10 or 11 at night. I was getting almost no exercise, was putting on weight and never seeing my friends. On top of that I had a succession of failed relationships and boyfriends who I felt were only with me because I could get them into Lillies on a Saturday night."
Amid these problems, she took solace in the relentless can-do attitude of her professional alter ego. "I had a reputation for getting things done and attention to detail so I put myself under enormous pressure. Because of failed relationships I had very little faith in myself but a lot of faith in Kathryn the career-person."
Concerned by the deterioration in her health, her doctor advised her to take a holiday and Mason decided to go skiing in Morzine in France. "I knew from the first moment that I put on skis that I loved it. The whole holiday was just such an energy release. I would go for about two weeks a year and that was the only time I would turn off the mobile and totally switch off. I tell people that skiing saved me and I don't think that is an exaggeration."
As her skiing abilities improved, she began to get interested in coaching, getting actively involved in the Ski Club of Ireland at Kilternan and qualifying as a dry slope instructor in 2001.
"In 2003 I was on holidays with Connick Ski in Chatel and muttering to people that I would love to try a ski season. When I went back to work I was in the frame of mind that my life had to change. I had moved to Universal and I knew it wasn't for me. A few weeks later, Connick Ski called me and said they might have a job for me the following season so I did my snow qualifications on a glacier in Italy during the summer."
What was the reaction when she handed in her notice? "Oh God, it was mainly people saying - 'You're doing what?!' But I didn't care. I had bought an apartment in Dublin and I felt that I was pretty well set up and had been sensible up to that point."
She did her first season in Chatel in 2003/2004 and has been going back each year since, busying herself in the summer months with PR consultancy work. "I am heading into my sixth winter this year and my parents keep hoping I will come home and get a real job," she laughs.
She is acutely aware that she no longer has a long-term career plan but for the moment, life is good.
"Each year I am thinking, maybe I should settle back down now and I definitely can't do the late nights and early mornings anymore. So yeah, that's a major thing for me now - what's the long-term plan? I want kids and to meet some nice guy and maybe this is not the best environment for that. The perceived stereotype about instructors having this wonderful love-life is just not true by the way, for the female instructors anyway!"