By Keith Walsh
As I think about what British singer/songwriter Tom Cridland is about to do, it occurs to me that he might before too long become a household name. He’s got 130 new original tunes in the works, with a schedule of releasing one per week starting September 1. I’ve heard the first of these singles, it’s “Falling Off The Rails,” a track that pulls from the best of ‘70s disco yet manages to be completely updated and original.
Creating these songs and getting them heard is something this 28 year old British fashion designer has thought about for a couple decades. “I’ve always dreamed of doing this,” Cridland says. “When I was younger, I would always dream, when I was listening to a record, ‘Oh imagine what it would be like to be the person singing it, or making it.’ And then I would go, I can’t do that — it won’t be me one day. And then it sort of occurred to me, you only have one life, at least I want to have a try.”
The success of Cridland’s fashion brand starting in 2015 has given him the resources to pursue these ambitions. After meeting Elton John’s longtime drummer Nigel Olsson whom he sold clothing to, Cridland was motivated to take up practice of the drums, gaining enough skill to form a band, The Tomicks, and release an album (and record two others, yet unreleased) and since then has also begun to study guitar, piano and bass. (The Tomicks disbanded earlier this year, after playing hundreds of gigs around Europe in 2017 and 2018).
A Grand Tour
Fast forward to 2019. Cridland’s got 130 songs written and in various stages of recording, with at least 30 being complete, except for perhaps backing vocals. As the first tune is released on all conceivable platforms on September 1, the band will head out on a tour of the U.S. with the goal of playing in each of the fifty states.
“We just want to just get to the different states,” he says, “partly because I’d’ love to see the whole of America, and we want to reach as many differ people as possible, and so we’re doing some TV in every state, and were going to some universities as well, because I’ve done some talks on sustainable fashion and entrepreneurship at universities. So this time I’m going to do some talks on that and do the music too. And play a couple of songs with my band at the end of the talks.”
That Cridland only started writing these songs in January is amazing. “This is deeply personal music,” he explains. “All the lyrics are about things that happened or things that I think. It’s music from the heart really, even more so than The Tomicks, because with The Tomicks it was you know, it was always things started from chords, Nick (Whitehead) came up with some chords and then I’d have my words and we’d work on a melody and come up with a song together. So that was an amazing collaborative process, and that was incredible, but this is even more, when I discovered in January that I could write songs by myself I was sort of like — it blew my mind. I just couldn’t believe it.”
If the first two tracks I’ve heard are any indication, there’s the potential here to reach a wide audience, and he tells me over the next couple of years, the releases will cut across numerous styles. Cridland has recently prepared for this chameleon-like experiment in genres by covering tunes from decades through the ’50s to the ’90s with another band and releasing them on YouTube. But it’s the original songs that really have him excited, and it’s likely you’ll be hearing them soon.
Cridland explains: “’I Can’t Stop Thinking About Making Love’” is the first kind of like slow jam that we’ve got coming out, the first four are quite pop, disco soul funky type of thing. We’re not going to get into like heavy, heavy territory in term of hard rocking type of stuff until song twelve, I think. A song called ‘I’m Inadequate,’ with a heavy, meaty guitar riff, it’s like a ZZ Top type of riff, something like that. It’s a completely different style. And we got some, completely different stuff. Stuff that was tracked with live strings, there’s definitely a bit of some of that old Elton John influence, and there’s like a rap song called “F#$@ the upper classes,” there’s all sorts of stuff.”
The Fine Art Of Promotion
Cridland and his girlfriend Deborah Marx are seriously skilled at promotion, a fact that has opened quite a few doors for them. Debs is now Tom’s manager as well. ”She’s doing a great job,” Cridland says. “She’s coordinating everything from the U.S. tour to the press — it’s really hard work — and all of the different studios, running everything.” Henry Ferrari recently came aboard as assistant manager as well.
Cridland’s touring band will be Robbie Blake, guitar, Dinho Barral, bass, Paulo Romero, drums, and Tom on vocals. Most of these guys, and additional players are on the tracks as well, including top notch keyboard and brass performances. Cridland explains: “Over the 130 songs there been rotating casts of musicians, so there’s not one band. I’ve tried to utilize all the decent players I know, and I‘ve met through other players. There’s probably been a good 40 or 50 people involved in this project.”
Additional players on the tracks are: John Young, Jim Baldock, John Wright, Jono Helbsy, Steve Wattis, Tom Potter, Sam Cummings, Nick Fitch, Joe Pearson, Josh Stokes, Alex Lacey, Frank Broadway, Max O’Hara, Adam Banbridge, Abe Hampton, Conor Mangan, Charlie Love and Paul Cousins.
As is usually the case in a project this ambitious, efforts of the supporting team are critical. Tom explains: “Dinho Barral and his lovely wife Beta have been as supportive as family during this project. John Young has been amazing and wonderful to meet and work with. With regards to the musicians above I could write lyrics about how damn good their playing is!”
One more thing, Cridland says: “Andy Hughes, the engineer and producer, has recorded 99% of what you’re hearing, mixed all of it and spent months on end in the studio and here in Portugal with me recording vocals.”
I asked Cridland once again about his intentions and motivations. “This is just for the music,” he explains. “It’s not a PR stunt. It’s just I’ve wanted to do this my whole life, and I felt like I haven’t been able to. And now that I’m been able to I literally can’t help myself.
Stay tuned for more info about Tom Cridland, whom I believe you’ll be hearing much more about in other media outlets.
