On a mildly warm yet wet Saturday afternoon (typical British weather) we made our way down to Notting Hill Gate to see Tom The Lion share a few tracks live at Rough Trade West. Tom played for us his latest track ‘Tanks’ a song about the afflictions of loneliness, memory, and desire. Tom was kind enough to share a few words after personally signing records for his fans.
You’ve got a new album due out later this year. What can we expect from this album?
The album will be called ‘Roundtrip’, it’s a collection of songs written around me moving through various means of transport in London. It’s me trying to figure stuff out via different mediums of transport and places.
What have you then discovered through this?
I don’t think I have found out a lot, but I think I have discovered some things about myself. I sort of wrote the songs on the basis that if you examine the lyrics carefully at some point you will hopefully gain some insight. I don’t know if I have quite achieved that though, but I have definitely documented my journey. The album is due out hopefully by the end of summer, so have a listen and see what you can get from it.
Whilst we wait for the album, how are you going to keep us entertained?
I’ve got a few releases lined up. There will be one next month and of course ‘Tanks’ was released last week.
In terms of independent artists progressing within the music industry what more do you think can be done to support indie artists?
It would be great to have more live performance opportunities, instead of those designed for money making artists. People who haven’t got a huge following need that opportunity to be able to play at decent venues and in front of a crowd. There are definitely more opportunities than before with things such as streaming services which opens up more doors for alternative artists to find an audience and access people who are willing to pay for their music.
So has it been easy for you to break into the industry and get to where you are at this stage?
Not at all. I have been at it for a while and just like many other things it takes time and hard work and building relationships through your friends and working with a lot of people. It’s difficult to have a plan, you just take on every opportunity as it comes.
When you are writing your music, do you write it with your audience in mind and anticipate how they are going to react to it?
I try not to do that. I have never been good at knowing what people think anyway, so I just make music that is true to me. If people like it, great, if they ignore it, that’s ok too.
As a fashion publication we are keen to know, if you were to choose a fashion item to describe your music, what item would you choose and why?
Probably a shoe, just a single shoe. Something that I would wear. Like an expensive well-fitted shoe, a shoe that will be loved by its owner. Probably not the clearest way to describe my music, but yes a single shoe.
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