By Keith Walsh
Tom Cridland may be the most ambitious person I’ve ever met. After his fashion brand took off right out of college, Cridland was inspired by meeting Elton John drummer Nigel Olsson to take up drums and vocals. Now Cridland hopes lightning will strike twice with his rock and roll career.

Cridland is not one to wait passively – far from it. He’s written more than 150 songs in the past three years, both with his band The Tomicks and in his solo career. The quality of the recordings and the material itself is quite good. I’ve had the luck to connect with Cridland since 2017 and follow his progression from drummer and vocalist, to whiz kid songwriter, to interviewer of rock legends. He does all these roles with aplomb and skill.

After putting in 24/7 effort and releasing dozens of singles in his preferred classic rock influenced styles, Cridland has yet to break through with a hit. I asked him if he was tempted to craft a song in one of the styles that radio and other commercial platforms find most marketable at the moment.

Tempted
“Yes,” Cridland explains, “I’ve got kind of tempted in that sense more than ever recently because — and I’m not meaning to sound downbeat. I’m not downbeat — I’m very happy in general. I have noticed that, you know, trying to do things in a way that I would consider the right way, doesn’t seem to resonate very well with streaming services and with algorithmic services.”

Crildand contines: “You know, like my talking about politics, for example, on YouTube, has sent my subscribers skyrocketing opposed to my podcasts. And I think the podcasts with the celebrities, when I talk about music, I think there’s a nicer thing to do than talking about current affairs.”  The YouTube posts that Cridland refers to are his statements about the British Royal Family and U.S. and British politics, which have reached more people than his music or interviews with rock and roll legends at The Greatest Music Of All Time.

Promoting music is challenging for young artists, to say the least. For someone like Cridland, who calls himself an “Artist Without A Label,” or AWAL, it takes a lot of promotion and luck to break through commercially. I asked him again about the likelihood that he might create a deliberate hit.

“Yeah, yes,” he says. “I mean, one considers what’s happened on YouTube, I think it’s highly likely that if I produce something that was more likely to be played in a club or if I produce something that was kind of closer to hip-hop and something that was, you know, as you say, very processed, was adapted to have the kind of more modern beats and a lot more modern production ( I might have greater success) because there’s nothing that is really that modern (that I’ve done). You know, there’s some stuff that’s slightly more modern, but everything’s pretty retro.”

“Good For It”
Indeed, when Cridland launched his rock band The Tomicks in 2017, it was with the intent of making rock and roll great again by reframing new songs into classic sounds. After he launched a solo career in 2019 with a daunting schedule of releasing a single a week, Cridland continued his habit of honoring his favorite genres from the 70s, 80s and 90s with a dazzling array of songs across a variety of styles. When I reached him by phone Cridland was in Hamburg, Germany, just a short plane flight away from his home in London, at a friend’s wedding — a situation that didn’t lend itself well to promoting his music. He had just released his massive box set of 106 tunes that included his singles released every week as well as the rest of the unreleased material. The set includes songs in a variety of styles, from love songs to comedy songs and socially aware hard rock.

I asked him how it felt to have accomplished such a massive catalog of songs in such a short time. “It’s good to have done this and to be a bit more realistic about what work I do,” he said.” I felt more like it was an accomplishment at the time to write so many songs. I had more faith that that would shine through at the time. I was more kind of manically focused on music, so that’s why I wrote, you know, a hundred songs in two months. And then I had to had to focus on other things, after the American tour for business reasons, and obviously, because of the pandemic. So I had like, 60 of these songs I’d finished, and I was doing so much other stuff, but I mean, I’ve effectively did the vocals for 60 of these songs over two weeks.”

The boxed set covers an impressive range of styles. My review is here. Cridland hired the best musicians available to realize his musical visions, and this quality is evident in the recordings. The songs were recorded and mixed at Love Electric Studio in London by Andy Hughes. Just a few days before  I spoke with Cridland, the British Football Team (or as we call it in the U.S., soccer) had suffered a crushing defeat in finals against Italy. British fans acted crazily, rioting in the streets. I mentioned to Cridland that his song from his boxed set, “Football Is A Gentleman’s Game” was rather prescient.

“Yeah. Excellent question. It would be worth noting that musically that song is a complete and utter rip-off of ‘Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock And Roll)’ by Elton John. I mean, it is literally is that song. But I mean, I didn’t put that together thinking ‘Oh I’ve just written  ‘Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony’ all over again. I mean it’s more about fun.”

Cridland captures that spirit of fun very well with his music. One thing’s almost  certain: based on his tendency to perfection and his gift for emulation,  If Cridland decides to craft a hit in one of the currently popular styles, it’s sure to check all the boxes. This fall Cridland will reach new audiences when he opens for R and B legends The Stylistics for their UK tour.

Tom Cridland Official Site
Tom Cridland on Bandcamp
“Corporate Psychopath” By The Tomicks

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