Tom Minor: “You can’t really lie with music - or at least we tend to instantly recognise fake when we hear it, don’t we?”
Tom Minor is a London-based singer/songwriter who first came into my sonic orbit in 2023. His eclectic tunes have soundtracked many moments in my life - and I’m not in the habit of exaggerating such statements. All that is to say, it's a strange feeling putting together interview questions for a musician whose music has been sort of asking its own questions of me. But I gave it my best!
Finally getting the chance to chat to Tom, we speak about his brand new album, Ten New Toe-Tappers for Shoplifting & Self-Mutilation, his love for bands like The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, and The Strokes, and what he believes music's role in society is. So, without further ado, please welcome our pal Tom Minor!
Hey Tom, I can't quite believe this is the first time we've properly caught up with one another!
As one of my most consistently played artists over the years, I'm obviously very familiar with your work - but for those unfortunate souls who have yet to discover your art, what would you say they're missing out on?
Thank you Jeremy, I’m flattered, a huge privilege and pleasure!
How about this: if you appreciate a solid helping of vintage-flavoured indie rock to nourish your soul and move your feet, I might be your man.
A mate of mine has this pet maxim that a songwriter has to decide if they want to either show their smarts or be relatable with their writing, and that you can’t do both at the same time. I guess I’m still trying to prove him wrong.
Now, I’m sorry to pose such a tough question so early on, especially given the size of your discography, but if you could choose one song of yours to skyrocket to the top of the charts and achieve massive global success, which would it be and why?
A hard one for sure, but I’d go for Change It!. It might have the ingredients of a moderate hit musically, a short and sweet punchline, and a fine set of lyrics of hope and a certain kind of optimism, which is not that typical of me, I guess.
A runner-up: in a more perfect world, Progressive or Punk, also from the new album, would deserve much more attention than it’ll ever get, but is obviously too complex for anything resembling even remotely any kind of broader success. The world could do itself a favour, but I know it won’t.
Let's chat about Ten New Toe-Tappers for Shoplifting & Self-Mutilation.
Apart from being the best-named album so far this year, do you feel like it encapsulates how your songwriting has developed since album one?
I guess you could say so. It’s been a natural progression, more or less. I may be biased, but I think there’s an added amount of clarity of purpose involved with many of the songs, compared to the debut. Plus, I think my producer, Teaboy Palmer, has levelled up his game quite a bit.
I’m glad you like the album title! I was quite hesitant about it at first, fearing it might get banned on the streaming services. How provocative can you legitimately get? That much at least, it seems. The decision to use it was easier to make in the end after coming up with the cover picture. I couldn’t believe my luck the moment I realised I had finally managed to snap the perfect photo to go with the title.
Have you ever listened back to a track of yours and realised it revealed more about you than you intended at the time?
Embarrassingly often. But I do try to “speak from the soul” - not quite sure if I have one, though - and write about things that matter to me at the time. So I don’t mind revealing myself to a certain degree, if I think there’s something worthwhile there for other people as well. Then again, a writer can always reserve the right to write it all off as pure fiction if it came to that, can’t they?
Take us through some of your biggest musical influences.
And, just for fun, if you could pluck one song from history and add your name to it, which would it be?
I’m pretty much a child of the noughties when it comes to early influences: The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, etc. Before that, I had more or less inadvertently delved into the best part of the last five decades of 20th-century popular music by being exposed to our deep and wide family record collection. Loads of sixties and seventies greats and cult oddities, punk, new wave, soul, reggae and indie rock of the 80’s and 90’s there.
More recently, I’m also a selective fan of the show tunes of the Great American Songbook, Cole Porter and the like, which can probably be heard here and there in my writing. Not very mainstream that one these days. One more name: Raymond Douglas Davies.
I could also name just about any song by The Last Shadow Puppets, for instance. For now, I pick Meeting Place from their first album, and not just for the lovely string arrangement. Such innocence and grace in the writing and delivery!
What, to you, is music’s role in society?
To me, music represents probably the purest form of self-expression and a voice of “truth”, if you will. You can’t really lie with music - or at least we tend to instantly recognise fake when we hear it, don’t we?
Whatever’s going to happen and however fucked up we’re going to end up as society, I’m sure music will always have its place, whether it’s for entertainment, comfort or political commentary.
What do you love most about being a musician? And on the flip side, what are some of the biggest challenges that you’ve faced so far?
I’m sure many of my colleagues would agree with this: the process itself of making music – whether it’s writing, recording or performing - is highly rewarding, and the result - a finished song, record or live performance - is a by-product of that. That’s why I wouldn’t have the tiniest temptation to replace any part of that with using AI any time soon.
The flip side: getting noticed is a challenge, of course, but that hasn’t really changed. In a sense, it’s sometimes even easier today, at least to a certain degree. But music as a business is pretty much broken, has been for a while, and it may never get fixed again. It’s next to impossible to earn any kind of living with your precious “by-products” on your own terms nowadays. I’m not complaining, though; many musos are worse off than me.
Tom, it's been an absolute pleasure having you here! Thank you so much for taking the time!
Before we say farewell for now, what is next on your sonic horizon, and do you have any words of wisdom you'd like to leave us with?
Ditto Jeremy!
We’re already well on the way to recording new stuff and preparing for my third album. It’s only due out sometime next year, but some singles will be released this year, the first of them in a couple of months, I hope.
My words of infinite wisdom for now: hardly anyone has left this world unaware of the fact that all things must pass, and we don’t need to go it alone. So be productive rather than break things up. Go and find your own way of doing it, and try to make it happen while you may.
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