Zachary Mason Turns a Countdown Into Three Tracks on 5...4...3...2...1...

The Guildford Songwriter Blends Eighties Rock, Psychedelia and Acoustic Storytelling

Look at the tracklist before you press play. A release called 5…4…3…2…1… that opens with its title track and then goes to The Funky Martians and Earthsick is not being subtle about where it is headed. Zachary Mason put the three songs out on 3 October 2025, and almost a year later they are still being handed around.

You can listen to our full playlist which contains the artist’s music, and know more about the artist’s work by scrolling down the page.

Zachary Mason Turns a Countdown Into Three Tracks on 5...4...3...2...1... — Zachary Mason Turns a Countdown Into Three Tracks on 5…4…3…2…1…

Zachary Mason Wrote a Countdown, a Launch and Two Songs About Leaving

The sequencing does the storytelling here. That is unusual for a short release. Most three-track projects are a lead single plus two more. This one reads as one idea in three movements.

The title track is the countdown itself. The Funky Martians is what you find when you get there. Earthsick is the part nobody puts on the poster: the homesickness that arrives once the novelty wears off. Whether or not Mason intended a story arc, the titles supply one, and it changes how the record lands.

That instinct is what most people who write about him notice first. His songs tend to be built around a scene rather than a sentiment. The arrangements follow the words instead of leading them.

Eighties Rock Guitars With an Acoustic Songwriter Underneath

The genre labels attached to this release are 80s rock, psychedelic rock, acoustic and alt-rock pop, which sounds like an artist who cannot choose. In practice the combination is more coherent than the list suggests.

The eighties element shows up in the guitar tone and the size of the sound. It is not synth pads or gated drums. Reviewing his earlier single Sweet Girl, Illustrate Magazine described crunchy guitar riffs and a thumping beat under a husky, high-spirited vocal. They called the delivery conversational yet melodious. That is a fair read on the register he works in generally.

Meanwhile the psychedelic side arrives in the arrangements rather than the production. There is no wall of phasing or backwards tape here. Instead the songs take detours, and the detours are where the interest sits.

Underneath all of it is an acoustic songwriter. Strip the electric guitars off these tracks and the songs still stand up. That is not true of most rock records leaning this hard on riffs.

That layering explains why the release has kept circulating rather than sinking after its first fortnight. A record built on riffs alone gets consumed quickly. By contrast, a record where the writing survives the arrangement rewards a second and third pass, and listeners tend to hand those along.

Neil Young and Bob Dylan Are the Influences He Names

Mason’s own reference points are not fashionable ones, and he does not pretend otherwise.

Neil Young is the closer match sonically. Young spent a career refusing to separate the acoustic songwriter from the loud electric band. He moved between the two on one record, treating neither as the real one. That is precisely the space Mason occupies.

Bob Dylan is the writing reference. The pull toward incident over sentiment, and toward a character in a situation rather than a feeling described, runs straight back to that tradition.

Tom Petty is worth adding as a third, although Mason has not named him. Petty built a career on exactly this combination: plain-spoken storytelling, big guitars and choruses that arrive without ceremony.

The coverage has been steady, too. KIMU and Cage Riot have both written about his recent work. Good Music Radar and Musikepool followed. Music For All then covered him for a Brazilian readership.

IndieRock.News curator team: “What earns 5…4…3…2…1… a slot on our list is the running order. Three tracks is barely enough room to establish an idea, and Mason uses it to set up a departure and then undercut it. Most short releases do not attempt that much.”