Rising Stars: Meet Tony Mason

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Mason.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in a small town in the Rocky Mountains named Grand Lake. I always loved music and as a child, I began writing lyrics and poems. Throughout high school, I sang in a couple of punk/rock bands. Once I graduated from Middle Park High School (Granby) in 2002, I moved to Winter Park and continued to play music solo while the rest of my bandmates moved away to different towns to start going to college.

In 2005, I decided I really wanted to pursue a career in music. I wanted to become a rock star! I moved down to Lakewood, CO to attend Red Rocks Community College and study music performance. I was taking courses such as songwriting, classical voice training, classical guitar, creative writing, poetry, English and much more. After a year and a half of schooling at Red Rocks Community College, I had an academic advisor pull me aside to tell me that I seemed to really be excelling with my passions in music and told me about the Music Industry & Entertainment Studies program at CU Denver on the Auraria campus. In 2007 I transferred my Music Performance degree from Red Rocks Community College to Colorado University Denver and started a dual degree in Music Performance and Music Business.

By 2008, I realized I did not want to pursue a career as a musician anymore. I did, however, want to find a way to promote and work with the network of amazingly talented people I was surrounded by. So I dropped the performance part of my degree and went full focus on Music Business. In 2008 I made the decision to start booking and organizing concerts with all my talented friends. This was the birth of my independent concert booking/promotions company Tone Dynamix. I came up with the name Tone Dynamix partially because growing up my friends and family often called me Tone. Also, “tone” being a sound adds a nice touch. I’ve always enjoyed a very broad and dynamic range of music and wanted to work with all genres. So, at the crossroads of my name and my passion, Tone Dynamix was born.

Tone Dynamix started as a fictitious business name. It was never actually registered with the Secretary of State and it was just a name to book and promote shows under. I started small by booking songwriter showcases in small rooms such as The Mercury Cafe, Leelas Cafe, and Cafe 13. This led to a classmate of mine who was interning at The Old Curtis St Pub. She noticed my love for punk rock and saw me booking songwriter showcases all around town. One day she asked if I would throw a punk show at the Old Curtis St Pub and I said yes. The first show brought in like 20 people. The next one did 30 and then 50 and so on. Next, I started booking shows of all different genres and I realized I could go to other venues and repeat the process. I started walking into venues such as 3 Kings Tavern, Cervantes Other Side, Rockstar Lounge, Moes BBQ, Meadowlark, Lions Lair, Skylark, Larimer Lounge and more. I would tell them who I was, show them my roster of bands spanning many genres, then ask if they had any dates I could fill for them. I started booking all different genres of shows from the country, folk, Americana, punk, metal, rock, rap/hip hop, psychedelic, reggae, funk, jazz, jam, you name it! My main focus was to plug the right shows into the right rooms, smaller shows into smaller capacity venues, larger shows into the larger capacity venues, punk shows into punk clubs, hip hop shows into hip hop clubs, etc.

In 2009, I got my first job in the music industry, working artist merchandise sales at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Shortly after that, I was encouraged by one of my professors to go out and get an internship which at the time I really didn’t want to do because I was already a full-time student in school, working part-time at Red Rocks, working part-time managing a snowboard shop and booking concerts through Tone Dynamix. But, I knew it would be a beneficial thing for me to do so I squeezed it into my already extremely busy schedule and found myself an internship at Larimer Lounge. I started as a marketing & publicity intern, which quickly led to booking support bands and booking shows on open nights, which then led to a part-time job as publicity manager, talent buyer and working box office/security. With that internship which led to another internship at AEG Live and several part-time positions at Larimer Lounge and my work with Tone Dynamix, I learned a lot about the process of booking, promoting, marketing, street teaming paired with the ins and outs of producing successful concerts.

In 2010, I graduated college from CU Denver with a Music Business degree and was immediately offered my first full-time job in the industry as a talent buyer & promoter for Hermans Hideaway. A 500 capacity venue on South Broadway. That job gave me the opportunity to utilize all these skills I learned from my schooling, internships and part-time experiences in the industry. I learned how to book a higher volume of shows to help keep a concert calendar constantly full. To efficiently organize and run a street team. Build and market my own shows along with my coworker’s shows. I would even work the front door of all my shows, greeting and collecting money from each patron, making them feel welcome in our space. I was working door/security and settling with the bands at the end of each night. At this point, I did let go of the idea of Tone Dynamix as I was now working with just one venue full time rather than working independently booking multiple rooms. I didn’t want Tone Dynamix to become the in-house promo company for just one venue. Because that would defeat the purpose of the name and the motto of the company. To book the right shows into the right rooms!

One night in 2012, while working merchandise sales up at Red Rocks, I ran into the VP of AEG Live, who also independently owns Larimer Lounge. He notified me of his plan to purchase a small dive bar on East Colfax named Lost Lake and that if he did, someone would be needed to book and manage the venue for him. Ultimately, after two years of working with Hermans Hideaway, I decided to leave my job there to accept the position as lead talent buyer and manager of Lost Lake. After another two years of working at Lost Lake, the lead talent buyer for Larimer Lounge announced that he was leaving to take up a new job in New York and I was offered his position. In 2015 I became the senior talent buyer for both Larimer Lounge and Lost Lake. In 2017 Globe Hall was acquired and I started booking their calendars too.

In December of 2019, I was offered a position as a talent buyer for Gas Monkey Live and Gas Monkey BBQ venues down in Dallas, TX. I accepted this position, notified all my jobs and worked my last day in Colorado on January 31, 2020. By February of 2020, I started working for Gas Monkey remotely from my home in Denver. On March 9th, I was flown down to Dallas. I found a sweet apartment downtown, signed a lease to start on May 15th and flew home on March 13th. That was the same day the world shut down due to Covid-19. I was told this would be temporary and I still plan on moving to Dallas on May 15th. As we got through April and into May, we realized things were not getting any better and delayed my move until August 1st, which then got delayed until Spring of 2021 and at this point, it could be Spring 2022 before things would be recovered and back to normal enough to have me head to Dallas.

In late August of 2020, I was offered to book safe and socially distant, limited capacity shows that we titled the “Safe Sound Series” at The Oriental Theater here in Denver so I plugged a bunch of shows in there through the remainder of the 2020’s September, October, November and December. The last week of November and all of December ended up having to get canceled once the second round of shutdowns happened again just before Thanksgiving. At this point, I was offered another opportunity to start booking bands into immersive digital Livestream performances at The Armory Denver, a digital media warehouse and film production facility in the RiNo arts district of Denver.

Since I was picking up more and more work booking bands independently, I got the idea to relaunch Tone Dynamix but do it legit this time so I registered the name with the Secretary of State, obtained my EIN, business certificate of good standing, opened up a business bank account, revamped all my socials and built a website. I spent most of December 2020 developing Tone Dynamix into a legitimate business and converting my canceled shows from The Oriental Theater into digital live streams at The Armory. Then, in January 2021, The Oriental Theater was able to open back up at a limited capacity and I was able to start offering bands physical, in-person shows at The Oriental Theater if they felt comfortable with it or digital Livestream shows at The Armory if they felt more comfortable going that route.

Most recently added to the roster of venues I am booking in addition to The Oriental Theater and The Armory Denver. I’ve also begun booking shows into the Oskars Blues Black Buzzard and HQ (the new 3 Kings Tavern space). The goal for Tone Dynamix is to grow out of the pandemic into an emerging entertainment market-creating amazing concert experiences for both the bands and fans.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has not necessarily been a smooth road. The music industry is not an easy one to navigate your way through. You kind of have to just work all different aspects of it to figure out what you really like and where you really want to be. I have worked many different job titles, worked extremely long hours day after day with little to no sleep. You have to be tough, you have to have thick skin, you have to continually push yourself to keep a positive attitude and not get jaded and then you have to be able to cohesively work with the people who are jaded and have negative attitudes.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a concert booker and promoter. I specialize in having deep knowledge in the Denver music scene. I am known for my expertise in working hand in hand with bands to ensure they have the tools and information they need to adequately promote and playoff a successful show and for professional forecasting of shows to ensure the venue is properly staffed for the night.

How do you think about luck?
I honestly can’t say that I have experienced much good or bad luck in my life and business. I always found that hard work and dedication have been the leaders in my success and why I am where I am today.

Contact Info:

• Email: tonedynamix@gmail.com
• Website: www.tonedynamix.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonedynamix
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonedynamixbooking
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonedynamix