By Keith Walsh
British fashion entrepreneur-turned-musician Tom Cridland has a headful of melodies, and 130 songs already in various stages of recording. His knack for combining words with catchy tunes should come in handy as he and his band of four mates embark on a three month tour of the 48 contiguous United States.
“Yeah, I mean I wouldn’t say I’m consciously doing that,” he says. “You know what I mean? I’m into marketing and all of that, but with songwriting, I think that’s what I like and seem to do. I just like really catchy melodies. It really comes instinctively.”
Cridland is anything but shy about his ambitions of parlaying his talents into success on the music charts. On social media he’s dubbed himself “The Last True Rock Star,” and in the coming months will release a mixtape of tunes under the same moniker, in addition to releasing a single every week on all streaming services. “Next I’ll be making some dance records,” he says. “I want to take some of the modern production things and bring some proper melodies to them. That’s the main issue. The main thing about my music is that it’s all got melodies. And currently at the moment on the radio I don’t hear a lot of melodies.”
Moving Forward
It seems he’s learned from experience. Cridland attributes the failure of his previous musical project to it having roots only in the music of the 1970s, as well having only a couple of upbeat numbers on their self-titled debut. “The reason The Tomicks potentially came to an end, ” he explains, “is that I have a more varied taste in music than most people. I think I truly like a lot of different genres.”
The set at this opening gig was short — the 10 catchy little pop tunes, most of them heavily influenced by Motown, funk and disco, were performed with skill and style. Cridland tells me that in a couple months his new releases will include some heavier sounding songs, including metal, and hip hop. As he travels across the U.S., he’ll be tracking vocals on a laptop equipped with Pro Tools, a microphone and some sound barriers. Back home in London, Andy Hughes will mix these into songs that are in the works, as well as continue mixing and mastering the tunes for the weekly releases, informed by feedback from Cridland.
The performance at TR!P, a small and clean venue just off the 10 Freeway on Lincoln Blvd came together almost miraculously–Cridland’s interview in Los Angeles for his podcast, of Chance The Rapper, was delayed until 6:30 or so, meaning the band’s performance had to be rescheduled from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Aside from guitarist Robbie Blake, the other three members of the band had just arrived at LAX from London around 6 p.m., and were eager to get on with business. In addition, the Nord Stage 3 keyboard purchased that afternoon from Sam Ash in Los Angeles failed to perform, leaving the keyboardist without gear. It’s a credit to the skills of band manager Henry Ferrari that he was able to sort all of this out, including getting a replacement keyboard in time for the performance at 10.
The band handled the chaos of the uncertainty of this debut gig with ease, which perhaps comes down to the attitude of their leader. “We’ve been through it all before,” Cridland says, referring to his previous experiences with The Tomicks. “We’ve played empty bars, we’ve had gear problems. We have to accept that we’re going to see all sorts of things. We’re going to be playing dive bars, we’re going to be playing empty places, playing cool places — we’ll be playing everywhere.” In addition to Cridland and Blake, the band features Jim Baldock on keyboards, Dinho Barral on bass, and Paulo Romero on drums.
Ferrari and Debs Marx, Cridland’s business and romantic partner, are doing everything they can to make this tour matter. The goal is to book at least two or three shows in each of the 48 states. Venues include bars, pubs and breweries, as well as some universities where Cridland is slated to give a lecture to students on the virtues of following one’s heart. Cridland explains: “It will be geared towards inspiring entrepreneurs, but it’s going to be about ‘you should truly do what you want to do. Not nearly what you want to do.’” After lectures Cridland and his band will perform.
Cridland intends to do an ongoing world tour after this foray into the states. He says making it in the music business means everything to him. Though sustainable fashion established him as an entrepreneur, it’s music that is his true passion, and it seems that he’s staking everything on it. “The way I see this, this is life or death,” Cridland says. “This is not child’s play here.”
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