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Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason made some recent appearances in Billboard magazine and New York’s Q104.

In Billboard, Mason talks about the upcoming reissue/rarities project “Why Pink Floyd?,” telling writer Gary Graff the band has warmed to the idea of releasing incomplete and alternate takes.

“One now looks at these things and realizes there really is interest and how things came about and what the early versions were and so on. We thought rather than just leave everything in the vaults, it might be worth bringing everything out and giving people a complete view of what we’ve done,” he says.

Most exciting, Mason says the the already announced schedule of releases (“EMI announces massive Floyd reissue/rarity project“) probably won’t be the end of the vault-mining.

“We will do some more sort of in-depth versions of other albums, but I don’t know what we’ve got in the pipeline for that, yet.”

Read the Billboard article online.

Mason on Q104.3

Friday morning, Mason made an appearance on New York’s Q104.3. Listen to the interview here:

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has donated a piece of his drum kit — and his signature — to help raise money for a U.K. charity.

When you make a donation to sponsor drummer Mike Dolbear‘s run in the Halstead & Essex Half Marathon May 8, you’ll get a chance at winning a Paiste 2000 Reflections 14-inch thin crash cymbal used by Mason on Floyd’s 1987 album “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” and signed by Mason.

Dolbear, co-founder of drummers’ Web site mikedolbear.com, will run just more than 26 miles to benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust, devoted to improving the lives of children and young adults with cancer.

“Every £2.50 of sponsorship will earn one chance to win, so £25 will earn 10 chances,” Dolbear explains. “There no maximum donation.

“When you have made a donation, please send an email to charityrun@mikedolbear.com with your name, contact details and the amount that you have donated. When I have completed the run, Nick Mason will pull a name out of the hat and the lucky winner will receive the cymbal.”

The winner will also receive a certificate of authenticity and a copy of “Momentary Lapse.”

As of this writing, Dolbear has raised £390.

Make your donation online. And follow Dolbear on Twitter.

Nick Mason is the subject of a brief story in Classic Rock magazine. The Pink Floyd drummer has joined Featured Artists Coalition, a group devoted to bettering communication among recording artists and their business side counterparts.

“There is a tendency for musicians to view labels as just people in suits, but we are trying to get the two sides to talk,” he says in the article, “because it can only be to everyone’s benefit.

“One thing we want to see is for labels either to explore more of their back catalogue, or to give the rights back to the artists. So many companies have material in their vaults they don’t even know exists.”

Let’s hope.

Read the full article online.