Interview With Tom Williams and The Boat
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In their first year, Tom Williams and The Boat were picked to play at Radio One’s One Big Weekend in Maidstone and were asked to record a session for the national Introducing show hosted by Huw Stephens. All this and the band weren’t even 6 months old. I caught up with Tom this morning to talk about his bands new single – 90mph.
A major festival, a session for Radio One and 27 recorded songs. Do you sleep?
Yes I’m actually quite lazy, I have to force myself to work.
I must be dead by comparison if recording 27 songs in less than a year is lazy.
Maybe I’m not lazy, the thing is there’s nothing I’d rather be doing than writing, and recording and gigging so it’s not a major strain!
So you find it all quite easy then?
Yes I think so. I stress myself out a lot, which is all the motivation I need. We genuinely love getting together every week and learning new songs. We’re definitely not cruising and I’m definitely not writing the best songs I can but I think that kind of mental wrestling will mean that hopefully we’ll keep getting better.
Was there any temptation with the new single to make it uber-poppy, kill off any meaning and generally do a Daniel Beddingfield?
No not at all! I wanted to write a pop song, but still keep it lyrically. Arguably 90mph is one of the darkest songs I’ve written, but I’m not sure a lot of people would pick up on that.
Is it about something specifically that you have had to go through?
No, something I saw friends go through, and something my dad went through. The trauma of burying a parent.
Trixy Vixen, from you February EP, was a dark song about visiting a sick relative who eventually dies. Death seems to be a common theme across some of your songs?
Yes death crops up a lot! I don’t know why, maybe I do think about it a lot. It’s the final destination isn’t it? The thing we all have in common…it does completely shape our lives whether it’s through religion or lifestyle, I think we all think about it all the time.
The single has a b-side, Too Slow. What’s it about?
A man, post divorce, trying to find his feet and it’s not strictly a b-side, more an album taster!
Where did the song come from?
I’m not really sure… I think you write songs and you know you’re saying something interesting but I don’t think you really know what they’re about. Often you find that out when singing them live, you’ll hear the words come out of your mouth and you’re like, ‘oooh’!
Is the album always on your mind?
At the moment yes, we haven’t sorted a track listing, but we have got a 11 song shortlist which I think is quite a neat length for a record. We start recording in July, it should be finished by the end of the month.
Will any of the old songs creep onto the tracklist?
Yes it’ll be a greatest hits of sorts. All re-recorded and reworked though. 90mph and Too Slow are the newest.
Will you write any thing else just for the album?
I don’t really have time now, everyone’s swamped with exams over the next 3 weeks, and the first album session is July 2/3rd in north London. For the people that have liked us for a while, the songs will sound like you’ve never heard them before, hopefully how they’re meant to be heard! For everyone else, this is the first thing they’re ever hearing of us.
How About “Denmark” and “Yup” for the tracklist?
We tried playing yup again but it didn’t feel good, although I still love the recording, very lo-fi! I would have loved the first track on the album to have been the first track we ever put out. Denmark will be on there.
Denmark feels very stripped back, it will be interesting to see how that transforms with the full band.
It won’t be full band I don’t think, it’ll be live like The Penguin EP version. We’re going to try and record the whole record live, that’s how too slow was done and it’s got a great energy and feel to it.
Are your ambitions still the same as they were a year ago?
Yes much the same, still itching to do more, I’m a very very annoying person.
You’re selling this single through iTunes too, how come?
We’ve never really used it before so we thought we’d give it a go.
What interests are you currently pursuing outside of music?
I’m doing a fine art degree!
What hobbies did you have as a child?
Playing football, skateboarding, and computer games.
Whats in store for the band in next 12 months
God knows! An album, lots of gigs, a couple of big ones hopefully and more new material. Our rap/experimental album, break up and reformation rumours…
A support slot for Michael Jackson?
I told you not to tell anyone about that?
Oops.
Unbelievable.
I hear he wants to record with you?
I just turn off my phone.
What are you doing for the rest of today?
Art stuff, I’ve got an end of year show in 10 days as well as 2 massive exams then I’m done and we’re all go on the album.
FYI…
90mph is released on iTunes on June 15th. Come back here for the link. Tom has a twitter, stalk him.
Next Gig
Sellindge Music Festival 07.06.2009, see myspace.com/williamstommusic for more. See the likesounds.com coverage of Sellindge Music Festival.
Tunes
Tom Williams and The Boat – Too Slow.mp3 (pre-album teaser) [mp3 removed]
Tom Williams and The Boat – Yup.mp3 (from the Penguin EP, October 2007) [mp3 removed]
Tom Williams and The Boat – Denmark.mp3 (also from the Penguin EP) [mp3 removed]
Really looking forward to hearing the rest of the album – I think Too Slow is an excellent track and really complements the band’s earlier material. I hadn’t heard those two earlier tracks before – I really like the live-room sound of Denmark and the poppiness of Yup.
Looking forward to see them play on the BBC Introducing stage at Sellindge Music Festival next week – they’re great live too.
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