Ian Masters is a multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/producer. He is best known for being a founding member of the English indie pop band Pale Saints. Masters was their vocalist/bassist from their formation in 1987 until his departure from the group in 1992. Since then, he has gone on to perform in other notable groups including Spoonfed Hybrid, ESP Summer, and Friendly Science Orchestra.
Biography
He was born in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. During Masters' tenure with Pale Saints, the group released The Comforts of Madness and In Ribbons as well as several EPs. The recordings displayed a mix of Masters' choirboy-like vocals along with dark atmospheric and noisy pop tunes. Masters, who wasn't interested in touring, left the group to pursue music of a more experimental nature. His first project after Pale Saints was Spoonfed Hybrid with Chris Trout. They released their self-titled debut album in 1993, and their second album, Hibernation Shock was in 1996. In 1994, Masters teamed up with His Name Is Alive auteur Warren Defever and they began to release music as ESP Summer. In the autumn of 1998, he released the Miniature Album 7" as Friendly Science Orchestra, which became an NME 'Single of the Week'. Under this moniker, Masters covered "Because of You" on, which was released on Manifesto Records in 2000. In 2000, Masters teamed up with The Montgolfier Brothers' songwriter Mark Tranmer to form Wing Disk. Their first EP, Time is running out, which was recorded between Manchester, London, and Osaka saw release in 2002. Since 2005, Masters has been living in Japan. In 2007, Masters co-wrote, sang, played the saw and kaospad on the song "Silver Kiss" on Luminous Orange's Sakura Swirl LP. In 2008, Masters contributed vocals to a song "Hoko Onchi" on digitally-released Mid/Air by Dive Index, a musical project originated by composer/producer Will Thomas. In 2009, his project Sore & Steal released their debut album. Masters is credited with saw and effects. In 2016, he met Terao Terako, and started to make international confusion jazz as Big Beautiful Bluebottle.
