Join young singer-songwriter Mason Hope along with Brooke Schubert and MC Wheels for a unique musical event, on the Sunshine Coast, that's part concert and part conversation.
Mason, Brooke and Wheels are three incredibly gifted young artists each with an inspiring and life-changing tale to tell as part of 'A Night Of Music & Conversation'.
For Mason, he says the evening is a chance for him to do what he has always done. “I work for Headspace and what I do there is I'm trained in 'lived experience' and as a youth ambassador I tell my story to a lot of people,” Mason explains.
“We're going to be able to sing and give a message that is meaningful. I think it's such a cool concept what's going to happen on that night. It's not a night of music, it's a night of music and conversation; when someone can tell their story and life experience, it starts those conversations and I think that's really cool.”
Mason is a national ambassador for Headspace, having had a close affiliation with the mental health organisation since the age of 11.
“I use my training in being able to positively spin my lived experiences and I talk to people on a wide population level about those things because when you're able to take something traumatic in your own life and use it to better someone else, I think that's really cool and that's what first got me into Headspace,” Mason says.
“From there I've been going up and up with them to the point where now I speak to crowds of people about my life and how you're not alone, and how things can get better and will get better. In a simple way of putting it, you really have to wholeheartedly believe you can get through it and that you will get through it.”
Though only 18-years-old, Mason has accomplished much as a musician including winning the coveted 2016 Gympie Music Muster national talent search. Yet the accolades and success haven't come easily for him, with traumatic experiences of his own leading to Headspace in the first place.
“For a lot of people it's not just one specific thing but a grouping of different types of trauma,” he explains.
“So bullying is one specific aspect and then being a foster child or being abandoned is another aspect, but if you mix those two together it becomes something bigger.
"For me personally it was a combination of bullying through my younger primary school years into some high school years and parental abandonment. Those two meshed together to create my main specific reason of trauma.”
It's Mason's warm, forthcoming nature and willingness to share that makes him not only an adept mental health ambassador, but also an engaging live performer who utilises both story and song, and that's exactly what he has planned for 'A Night Of Music & Conversation'.
“I think it will be a nice selection of my work,” he says.
“A lot of original stuff mostly and I think we're trying to blend it; I'll use my music to take you through the journey as much as the conversation will.”
