‘It’s not just about Yorkshire... it’s about the world’

He was thinking about the “knot of vipers” that led this country into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq when he wrote his latest single Fire, which is released on November 4.

Mason does not regard himself as particularly religious, but he does believe that one day everyone is held accountable for what they have done.

“In their case,” he says of Bush, Blair and company, “I want to bring that judgment sooner.”

Mason is the former frontman of The Beta Band, one of the most exciting British acts during the turn of the last century.

The experimental folk rock electronica has given way to a more soulful sound in recent years, encapsulated in the personal songwriting of Boys Outside and most recently Monkey Minds in the Devil’s Time.

Mason’s vision is of a society based on love, compassion and freedom and he is one of the few musicians working today who is unafraid to write songs with a political conscience.

He fears the “dark path” the country is heading down, but believes it is not too late to make a change. “I would say the hour is at hand,” he says.

Mason was in Hackney at the time of the 2011 riots and says “it was something that was bound to happen - it was waiting for a trigger”.

He warns “the same thing is happening right now” with David Cameron’s war on the welfare system.

“People think it’s out of their hands to have any control over what’s happening. I believe the opposite is true,” he says.

“We have all the power, we have just forgotten how to use it.”

Mason believes that in the future, people will come to recognise the importance of whistleblowers like Julian Assange and Bradley Manning.

With his music, he wants to “attempt to start a dialogue with my fellow human beings about what’s happening on a global level... not just about Scotland or Yorkshire... it’s about the world”.

Mason says his work has become more focused in recent years, which has brought long-running themes to the fore in Monkey Minds.

The title is a Buddhist term for an easily distracted brain, a reference for these smartphone times.

Now 40 and “enjoying it”, Mason has been in the music industry for 15 years. He is of the generation that witnessed first-hand how file-sharing destroyed the business model.

He describes the industry as “a difficult place, but an interesting place”.

“There’s no money any more. So we have the situation where all the people who were making loads of money have left to suck the blood out of another sector,” he says.

“What we have left is a real hardcore of people who are in it because they love music, want to get the job done and make things happen.

“Human beings will still make music,” he says, regardless of whether they make money or not.

Mason is coming to Leeds with his five-piece band on November 8. They will be playing songs from Monkey Minds, Boys Outside and some older material.

“You can expect some fun, tears and anger,” says Mason, whose father is from Leeds.

Beta fans will be hoping he plays some of the old favourites like Dry the Rain, Inner Meet Me and It’s Not Too Beautiful.

Mason says: “I’m very proud of The Beta Band: a beautiful bit of art punk, a snapshot that’s encased in history and really cannot be destroyed now. You can’t do anything to sully what we created and we split just at the right time.

“I’m the only member of the band that thinks that. I knew it was right... before we started making terrible decisions because we were skint.

“It was an incredible psychedelic explosion of art and music and dreams and humour and sadness and everything else.

“Having said that, I’m incredibly proud of the latest album. I think it’s a great record and it says everything I wanted it to say but doesn’t say it in a po-faced way. It’s accessible without coming over as naive.

“I’m very proud of that record, which is a nice place to be when you feel like you are still making something worthwhile after 15 years and 10 albums.”