By Keith Walsh
Tom Cridland has never been busier. The thirty year old British singer/songwriter just released his solo album, “A Midlife Crisis In Your 20s,” featuring 16 new songs out of more than 100 he’s written and recorded in the past couple of years. On July 17 he’ll release his boxed set featuring the remaining tracks, including 60 that have never been heard.
It’s all a labor of love for Cridland, who has a full time job running his fashion line, which he started with a small government loan after leaving college. The brand became wildly successful in a short of time. Then Cridland launched his rock and roll career as a drummer, vocalist and songwriter in The Tomicks, after being inspired by his idol, Elton John’s drummer Nigel Olsson , whom he met as a customer of his clothing brand.
“Midlife Crisis” spans a range of styles, from rap to classic rock, 80s love songs (or more appropriately, love laments), to Motown and disco. The tunes are expertly written and played, produced at Love Electric Studio in London by Andy Hughes and mixed by Justin Woodward.
Formative Years
The sounds of the 70s are strongly represented here. Cridland explains: “I think I was into the 70s from the age of 18 till now, very formative years, when I met Debs and all my friends and that’s just stayed with me. And I just can’t really get past that. Just no matter how hard I try. I do listen to so much new stuff as well, and I really do try and get into that spirit, but sometimes I just put on, you know, Elton.” Deborah Marx (Debs) is Cridland’s life partner as well as his partner in the clothing business that bears his name.
Opening track “The Politician” which features a hilarious vocal performance and lots of sound effects, is the most comedic song of Cridland’s I’ve heard yet. “It’s quite a ridiculous song,” he said, “but I found it entertaining, so I included it, and I just thought it was quite a good opening thing, even though it’s not really something I’ll be planning on doing much of necessarily.”
Cridland’s knack for writing hooks is audible across the album. And though this talent has been evident since he launched The Tomicks , he’s had some experienced teachers along the way. Cridland’s podcast “The Greatest Music Of All Time” gives him the opportunity to speak to several hundred music legends from decades past, ranging from Smokey Robinson to Annie Lennox to Chance The Rapper.
Lessons Learned
I asked Cridland what knowledge he has gained from these conversations. “Well I learned first off that not only do I like the music of some of the 70s artists the best,” he said, “but I really enjoy talking to them the best, and I felt like they were so pleasant and interesting and wise. In terms of lessons that they’ve given me, it’s definitely shown that there’s no right way. There’s no kind of formula that you can follow.”
He says meeting so many of his favorite artists has had an interesting side effect. “I mean, the number one takeaway (of meeting them) on the podcast is how much I love my friends and family, because as much as it is an honor to talk to famous people, I just don’t give a s#$% about that anymore…. I wouldn’t even want to play that game of trying to meet people in the same way that maybe I would have when I was in my early 20s.”
As we quickly got back on the musical lessons to be learned from speaking with legends, Cridland continued: “People’s stories and the way people have done it has been so drastically different. We get technological Luddites who only know how to play musical instruments, who are being streamed in the millions on streaming services. And then you get people who can’t read music and make all of their music on a laptop and are a million miles away, to be honest, from the type of thing that I like to listen to, but they have great chat, are great to talk to lovely people and they were great podcast guests and they made their way.”
Electronic Music?
Cridland has done little electronic music in his career, seemingly preferring organic sounds in his solo work and also with his band The Tomicks. A couple standouts that feature sweet synth tracks are his 2019 release “Damn Right, You’re My Baby,” “I’ve Come Too Early” from the same year, and 2021’s “Sexual.”
On “Midlife Crisis,” the only purely electronic track is “Somewhere Under The Floorboards.” It’s the most 80s influenced track on the album, featuring synth bass and production styles from that decade. “Yeah, that’s meant to be a bit like a kind of Tina Turner, Phil Collins-ey. But it’s heavier than Tina… there’s a 70s and 80s influence probably in that one. Yeah, I wanted it to be a bit like Phil Collins like, in terms of the melody…and the way it was mixed and the drums.”
“Girl,” is a lovely mid tempo tune with another style of 80s production, this time with ethereal guitars awash in reverb and a delicate vocal. The following track, “Take Me To Avalon,” is a reflective slower tune that features beautiful synthetic strings, and dramatic choruses, and again a bit of 80s production, but with 70s ballad sensibilities. “You’re So Fruity” puts the listener right in the middle of the 70s, complete with soulful brass tracks and what sounds like a monologue by Barry White.
There’s a trippy song on the album, “I Wind Back The Clock,” that has a strong Beatles influence including sampled Mellotron flutes from a Nord keyboard. “The reference was definitely The Beatles,” Cridland said, “and a lot of the musicians working on it work, are pretty Beatles obsessed. Some of them have even done a party – they’ve done a couple of gigs that I think they played The White Album note for note, and they played Abbey Road (in its entirety).”
I asked Cridland if he thought that by releasing so many songs across so many genres he might be making it hard for people to categorize him or relate to him. He explained: “Perhaps it’s not the most intelligent thing to do from a branding perspective to go off on the all these left-field things sometimes, doing all these jokey things. But I mean, this was done in a year like all of these a hundred songs and I will probably make a more focused album that’s like sticking to like what I really, really love. But at the same time, I just thought it was quite fun.” Aside from the few political or social commentary songs, “Midlife Crisis” features many love songs, which Cridland said are his preferred form. “I do prefer love songs. One hundred percent.”
This autumn, music fans in the UK will have a chance to see Cridland and his band perform live in his twenty-show tour with R and B legends The Stylistics, as well as the occasional show with his Elton John tribute band. Those in Portugal will have the chance to see the band at warm up shows there.
Cridland tells me he’ll be visiting the U.S. in 2022. In the meantime, there’s this excellent new album, and the 100-plus boxed set due July 17, which features all of his previously released tunes as well as 60 or so unreleased tracks.
“A Midlife Crisis In Your 20s” features members of the band that Cridland toured the U.S with in 2019: Robbie Blake on guitar, Jim Baldock on keyboards, and Dinho Barral on bass. Additional players on the album are; John Wright, Paul Cousens and Adam Bainbridge on bass; Tom Potter, Charlie Love and Frankie Broadway on drums; Sam Cummings and Conor Mangan, guitar; Justin Woodward, guitar solo on “Take Me To Avalon”; John Young on piano and horn arrangements; and Max O’Hara on keyboards.
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Tom Cridland’s Greatest Music Of All Time Podcast
Tom Cridland On Spotify
Tom Cridland,com
The Stylistics Official
