Recently wrapping up a series of Australian appearances with Ta-Ku and Wafia, after co-writing and co-producing their collaborative (m)edian EP, the Auckland based songwriter and producer Thomston is set to release his forthcoming TOPOGRAPH album, a project that is ‘a first statement’ – something that says a lot about Thomston to a listener.
Already compared with the likes of Frank Ocean and SOHN, Thomston took the music blog scene by storm when he leaked an experimental EP in 2014. Since then 20 year old Thomas Stoneman, better known for his stage name Thomston has garnered over 20 million Spotify streams and offered a brooding snapshot of suburban teenage transitions. We spoke about giving birth to his new record, and the thought process surrounding the fresh mini-documentary intro to his album (viewable below).
What’s been going on this past few weeks – have you been non-stop?
Actually, the last couple weeks have been embarassingly chill…
That’s what happens when you’re pregnant and about to give birth to an album, you need to stop working for a bit right?
Yes, that’s it – totally. I did some writing for the next album in Australia, but have been focused on finishing art and the full package for this record.
During our last interview we asked you to describe what your ‘album trailer’ could potentially look like…
Yeah, and now there’s actually a trailer! Didn’t I say, ‘coming this winter; hits.’
Yes, you did – the mini documentary you’ve released digs a bit deeper though. Who did you create that with?
A boy-genius called Chase Madsen made it with me. We shot a bunch of it in Mercer Bay and the rest of it in National Park and the city.
The drone shots are amazing…
Yeah, we crashed it though…
How many times?
Once – that was enough to destroy it, and the camera too. I wasn’t flying it when it happened, but we were navigating it around the cliffs you see in the trailer. When the drone loses contact it flies up 30 metres and then returns back to where the controller is. However, it’s not so good if the surrounding cliffs are higher than 30 metres – it went straight into a rock face, and tumbled down. We couldn’t find the memory card, so we thought we lost all the footage – then I found it in a bush. Professionals only.
I was about to ask how you got the footage back, why was a narrative trailer important to you as opposed to the classic 15-sec snippet of songs that we seem to receive on the regular?
It was important for me to explain my thought process and concept for the record because I put a lot of effort into that side of things. I didn’t decide last minute that the album was going to about a random item I picked from the room I was sitting in. The trailer really portrays my passion for that…
You gave us the ‘top line’ of what the individual songs mean in just over a minute, but if we took your yellow cab analogy and zoomed right out to look at the album as a small cab itself – what does the whole record look like?
The album as a whole from a birds-eye view is my past 2-years, life, and the exploration that I have gone through in my formative years. What happens after you graduate high school really defines you, so this album is a representation of what has happened in that period.
You know when you listen to an album, and all the tracks are about the same thing – most of the time a girl, lets say in this instance ‘Jessica.’ The artist explains song by song, but it’s all about Jessica…your record is very different to that, its refreshing…!
I get so bored if I write a similar song twice. Straight out of high school I had almost no life experience, there wasn’t really much to me. Over the past 2-years I’ve become very observant of myself and discovered the things that I though were boring about myself were actually a unique perspective that people want to hear. If I can write something about these experiences in an interesting way that communicates a shared feeling then it will resonate with people. People have heard some songs to death, so it’s important for me to branch out and explore different themes – I’ve done that on this record.
I wrote a song about someone from school who was super ambitious and we’d collectively talk about travelling, where we wanted to study etc – then they kind of went off the rails and I was really worried they’d settle for this mundane, safe, and boring life. I didn’t want that for them, and neither did they – but I was worried they were going to lose perspective of what they were truly after. Recently it turned and actually became a track for me when I had a crisis of confidence. After this past year I’ve decided I can’t stop and engage with a safe career now, this is what I want, and if I give up then I am the subject of the song I wrote about.
It was funny, I wrote a song about someone else, and it will probably help me more than it will ever help them.
…sorry that was a long winded answer.
That’s so much better than ‘Yeah this songs about when Jessica broke up with me, oh and the next one – that was just about a really rough patch I had with Jessica…’
Totally, you’ve got to deliver it in a special way. Fun fact, the girl in the upcoming ‘Float’ video’s name is actually Jessica…’
No way…that’s what we call a sniff.
The line of the trailer that related to me most was the loneliness you faced in New York…can you tell us more?
I spent time in LA before NYC, I had friends there, we wine’d and dine’d, went to Disneyland, I worked in Max Martins studio – it was a crazy experience. When I got to the other coast there were so many people, but nobody looked at me. I felt small, insignificant, and it took me aback. I felt so lonely the whole time I was there. It was loud and suffocating, but at the same time it was something that taught me a lot.
The song I wrote didn’t end up on the album, but a bunch of the verses center around the encounters I had with the homeless who were on the street freezing. I can’t think of a more different scenario to what I grew up with. The number of people who walked past, and just didn’t care.
I felt lonely, but I was still comfortable – that was the difference.
How is this new album different from Argonaut and Backbone?
I see those as formative EP’s. I wouldn’t say I’m in my final form now, but my record doesn’t sound like any body else – that is something I’m very proud of. I could have made a record that potentially would do better if it sounded more like what was ‘hot at the moment.’ Could’ve dabbled in some cultural-appropriating dance hall beats, people like those at the moment. For me it was important to make something that was a first statement to a listener. That’s where the new album differs from Backbone and Argonaut – back then I was figuring out what I was doing.
At the same time, with those EP’s I dipped a little too far into the influence of other people. This new record I have completely separated myself from that.
The post Thomston takes a TOPOGRAPH plunge with teaser for new album appeared first on SNIFFERS MUSIC | MIXTAPES | CULTURE.