Interview With Brody Thomas

As the first alternative artist to grace the GMV, Brody Thomas introduces us to a completely new and different look at music creation. Keep reading to see through the eyes of the more reserved, insightful and quizzical.

Where are you from?

B: Oh, that's kind of tricky. I live in California right now, in Oceanside, but I grew up in Long Island, New York. I moved to Boston for a while when I was 18 and then I moved here a year ago.

Would you say the places you've lived have influenced your music in any way?

B: Yeah, definitely. I'd say Boston has had the biggest effect. That's really where I started writing music and learning to play instruments and singing and writing songs, but then again I guess I took inspiration from my childhood in New York. Boston was definitely the birthplace of a lot of my musical creations.

So how did you come up with your name? How did you decide to just go with your name as your stage name?

B: Well 'Thomas' is actually my middle name. I had bounced around a few different stage names and it just always felt weird because of the type of music I was making. In hip-hop or rap it makes more sense to take on a persona but because I make more singer/songwriter stuff it felt strange when it wasn't just me. I was in and out of bands for a while and it was really fun to be like "What's our name", you know? But just being by myself it was kind of weird. I feel like using my middle name like that removed me enough from my normal full name but I could still say "Okay, this is me, these are my thoughts"

Would you put yourself in a particular genre?

B: Recently, yes. Lately I've been doing a lot of alternative hip-hop and a little bit of alternative pop as well. If I had to pick one thing I'd probably just say alternative but I think my songs are a mix of a few different things.

Yeah I can see that, because when I was listening to [your most recent project] 'This Is A Bad Haiku' I was getting a lot of alternative vibes, but more on the spoken word side as opposed to singing.

B: Yes, exactly. It's been called 'beat poetry' but alternative hip hop is a more common label. The spoken word is definitely the most prominent element but I guess you can say it's like rap.

What made you decide to start a solo career?

B: I was in my first band in high school, and then it just kind of fizzled out as everyone got older. I started doing my own stuff when I moved to college. I mostly just wanted to learn how to play instruments because I was always writing, so I was like "Okay, I need something to facilitate these lyrics". Then I was a band after that for like a year or two and it was awesome. If I could have kept doing that it would have been heaven, but it's hard, especially at that age - I was 21 - to keep track and stay on the same page and schedule as someone else. So doing my own thing has always been there, but once that faded away I felt like I didn't really want to try that hard to make it work. I just wanted to sit down by myself and do things at my own pace. I didn't want anyone else's opinion or anything, I just wanted to do what was truly 'me'.

In that case, what has your professional solo journey been like?

B: It's been cool. After my last band broke up I sat down and I recorded two songs in one day. They were on my previous album Jellyfish Stings And Sunburns. I kind of just sat down and they came out and it happened. The songs comes out quick, like two songs in one day, and they were kind of the jumping off point for the project. They were different from anything I'd done and I really liked the direction I was headed, so I continued with that record and then people started to notice it. They were like "This is different, this is cool, this is something interesting", and then I pretty much immediately started recording [This Is A Bad Haiku]. There were a lot of personal changes too, I moved to California and a whole lot of other stuff so it took like two years to finish it and get the concept together. The more I developed what I believed was my own unique sound, the more people seemed to latch on. So all in all, it's been really cool. More and more people are getting back to me and it feels rewarding.

Who would you say are your biggest influences right now?

B: That's tough. When I tell people what I'm like, like FFO (For Fans Of), I usually compare my music to Yoni Wolf of [the band] Why? and 21 Pilots, (I get that comparison a lot) or George Watsky. But in terms of my influences I'd say a lot a lot of my friends have played a part, which is cool because I have many musical friends so we have our own little crew where we always listen to our own and each other's music. Professionally, definitely Childish Gambino, he's had a big influence on me with the way he can bend genres. I like a lot of that kind of weird hip-hop. I also think a lot of my influence, probably the most, came from like pop/punk or like emo or indie type bands like Sorority Noise or Manchester Orchestra, which is strange because my music doesn't come out like that, but it's what I find myself listening to more. I feel like they inspire me more lyrically, but the hip-hop/rap i listen to does as well, especially when it comes it punchlines and things like that. And then the guitar just kind of comes out too and it all mixes up in my brain, I guess.

What does your music tell us about the kind of person you are?

B: I'd say overall, it gives a pretty clear look into my thoughts which is cool, I like that, but even more I feel like I'm being honest and transparent. The overall themes that I noticed pop up the most are a sense of confusion and existentialism. Like what is going on? What's the point? What does anything mean? What is love? What is this, what is that? I feel like it's a lot of me admitting that I don't really understand all this very much but also being okay with it and hoping other people feel the same.

What's your favourite song of yours that you've made and what's the story behind it?

B: My favourite song off this record [This Is A Bad Haiku] is probably Bored or Mad/Mad. Bored was fun because my girlfriend had bought a ukulele and I kinda just played something and was like "Oh, I'm going to see what I can do with this". It was a really fun recording experience, making the instrumental and seeing which directions I could go with such a simple instrument and how I could edit it to make it sound how I wanted. It gave me a good glimpse into what I really think, like what I was saying before. I'm bored of everything, and not even in an apathetic way, just in a "What does it mean to me to be excited" kind of way. The song Mad/Mad was the last song that I finished writing and recording on the album, and I just love the last hook which says "Where I come from mad means a lot". On the East Coast we say stuff like "Oh that's mad cool" and it just means very. Here [in California] they say hella. Every region has its own word. That sort of sentence was able to stand out to me. The song is about remaining neutral in a situation where anger may be present, and whether that it positive or negative. The point is the double meaning is what I was striving for, the more meanings I can attach to a sentence the happier it makes me.

I get a lot of groans for this question, but what does music mean to you?

B: I actually like this question, so screw everyone that groans *laughs*. Music to me...it's funny because I've been reading a lot more recently about music theory and the structural aspects of songwriting and the songs I put out obviously kind of break those rules; they're pretty weird. To me, right now more than ever, music means expressing yourself literally however you want and recording it. Whether it's you talking over one note on a guitar or even saying nothing at all, messing around and playing things in or out of key...if you can make something and listen to it after and be like "Oh wow" then that's good. My goal is never to capture something tangibly specific, it's more about how I feel when I listen to song and if I feel how I felt when I was making it. If I can, I feel like I've succeeded. I think music to me is the ability to capture what you're feeling, and only you can tell if you've succeeded or not.

Do you have any advice for anyone that wants to get into music right now?

B: I'd say right now seems like the best time to do it, because it seems like everyone is doing things. It's so accessible. I would say just do it. It sounds so simple, very Nike of me but it's very true. I'm so grateful that when I wanted to make music I went out to a store and bought a ukulele. I was like 19 and I was like "Okay, I'm just going to do this". That's all it is. Just go for it and whatever route you take, if you want it badly enough you'll end up making what you want to make. So I'd say figure out step one and then go take that step today.

Can we expect anything from you in the near future?

B: Yes! I'm going to be releasing some visuals for the record [This Is A Bad Haiku], like music videos and lyric videos to get people engaged and then I'm currently working with a collective of musicians called Everything Is Dope and we've got a lot of music coming out very soon. Before this record [This Is A Bad Haiku] was finished I started compiling a new record that's going to be a lot different. It will be fully acoustic singer/songwriter, just to show another side of what I like to do and how I like to play. Regarding this record I'm still going to be doing some promo and like seeing whose hands I can get it into. I'd love to release something all the time but I've got such a bad musical attention span, so I'm sure that next project will be done as soon as I can and just out whenever it's ready. Honestly I just want to make things for me to listen to honestly but the more people that want to listen too, the better.

Interview done and written by Oluwadara Apampa

*This interview has been edited for clarity.

Click here to listen to Brody Thomas' latest project 'This is A Bad Haiku' on Spotify

Click here to listen to Brody Thomas' latest project 'This Is A Bad Haiku' on Apple Music

Follow Brody Thomas on social media to stay updated on his journey!

Instagram: brodyberries