Talk us through how the band came together.
Well, it’s currently just myself so it’s very early stages. I’ve been speaking with some friends about getting a lineup together for live shows though, so I’m excited to get that in a room.
Introduce us to you and your musical history.
I’m Tom. I’ve been playing music in some shape or form since I can remember – my Dad was a musician so I grew up surrounded by all sorts of music and instruments. My first love was drums or anything I could play a beat on. Then I heard The Beatles and had to learn guitar so I could play and sing along. And now here we are.
What’s one question you’re sick of being asked when interviewed?
This one. Joking, it’s probably the one about naming your musical hero. There’s nothing wrong with it, I just find it impossible to answer and it would change every day for a different reason.
We set up RGM USA and many other countries in the world to share music with america and the UK, good idea?
Of course.
Do you sign up to any conspiracy theories?
No, I think that’s a dangerous rabbit hole to go down.
Did you buy anything you don’t need in the pandemic?
Not really. I actually sold a lot of things! Most things I bought were actually really beneficial – I got some much-needed equipment to help me record from home. I figured I was gonna be hauled up for a while and so I might as well learn to record myself properly. That’s how I ended up with this first bunch of songs so I guess I did something right!
What useless party trick do you have?
I used to do a headstand. I can still do it but in my old age, I’ve realised how much it actually hurts and how bad it probably is for me, so that’s not really a thing anymore.
What was the most fun you have had on stage?
There are too many times, I can’t pick one. Sorry!
What was the worst experience on stage?
I’ve done my fair share of covers gigs, and there have been some pretty rough ones. People trying to take/play your instruments, giving you a hard time for not knowing the words to whatever song they want you to play. All pretty trivial but it wears thin after a while. I can laugh looking back now, but at the time I was pretty done with it.
What makes you stand out as an artist?
That’s a really hard question to answer about myself. I think my influences are pretty clear and I’m not claiming to have reinvented the wheel. I’d like to think the combination of my voice, lyrics and production come together to make something that only sounds like me, but that’s not for me to decide.
Right now, what’s pissing you off the most?
I don’t have enough space on my phone to list everything. Short answer, the state of our political system and everything that that encompasses is in absolute shambles right now. But right this very second, I’m on a train with lots of loud people that my headphones can’t block out so that’s also a valid answer.
What’s your favourite song to play live and why?
I’m yet to play any of these songs live, so I’ll have to get back to you.
I hear you have new music, what can you tell us about it?
This is a collection of songs that I wrote and recorded over the last year or so. They weren’t planned or written with any sort of project or goal in mind but I was recording them all at home on my own and so there’s a similarity running through them in terms of the sounds and arrangements. All of a sudden, I had four tracks that seemed to all sit quite nicely together.
Talk me through the thought process of the single.
Well, it wasn’t written with a single in mind so there was no thought process in that sense! I wrote it in the morning and recorded the basic arrangement in the same afternoon so I had a structure to work with. Don’t overthink it. That’s about it!
What was the recording process like?
The initial process was pretty fast – I record really quickly when I’m at home because everything is at my fingertips and I get impatient if it starts to go on for too long. I finished writing the song and then recorded exactly what I had written, which was a lead vocal and an acoustic guitar part. It was designed to be a reference demo that I would re-record but it ended up staying, and then I layered more parts for the second half of the song much later on when I decided I wanted a full arrangement. When I listen back to it it’s actually pretty crazy to me that I did all of that in one room!
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the single?
It was probably the production process. The whole EP is the first set of songs that I have written, recorded, and mixed on my own that are being released properly, which is a pretty big thing for me as I never thought I’d be doing full mixes myself, or not yet anyway. I’m still a beginner in that world really but now I know I can do it and can’t wait to do more.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
I could probably listen to it ten times a day and find something different on every listen that I’d want to change! Especially on Nowhere At All, because by the end the arrangement is pretty dense so there’s a lot to balance. I’d be mixing it one day, and then the next day go back and wonder what I was thinking! I spent a lot of time doing very minimal tweaking on that track. The recording process is usually pretty quick, it’s everything that comes after that takes me ages.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
I think I need to get my writing head back on and start working on some new music. At the time of writing this, I’m one week away from moving house, so I’m very keen to get a new space set up and start working in it. New locations and surroundings normally sparks some fresh ideas so hopefully that will be the case this time and I can strike while the iron is hot, or at least tepid.
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