The dreamy indie rock number, ‘Reach Out’, is the debut single from Melbourne solo artist Mayhemtom, aka Tom John.
Tom John has been involved in music since the 1990s when he helmed the funk-rock cover band Electric Mayhem, whose repertoire consisted of James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Jamiroquai originals.
However, most of John’s professional life has been spent in a clinical setting working as an oncologist. His day job forces him to confront death on a regular basis, acknowledging its inevitability and working to either delay its onset or reduce the severity of the pain it brings.
John has returned to music in recent years, seeking to channel the psychological and philosophical implications of his day job into his work under the Mayhemtom alias.
This is evident on ‘Reach Out’, which opens with the dour admission that “There is a darkness within everyone” that “haunts us all.” John counters this sentiment in the following line by calling attention to the “light that burns” even when one’s chips are down.
These two lines prefigure the conceptual duality that underpins the entire song.
“The whole thing was a duality between dark and light, love and hate, and despair but mostly hope,” says John.
“It is not about anything specifically, but more written to say, ‘Hang in there, there’s a way through this. Reach out, you’re not alone.’ I see this despair in sick people, in friends going through terrible times – there’s darkness that seems endless but also light.”
The most jarring lyric comes in the pre-chorus: “I cry the day you die even though I always hated you from the start.” John’s decision to deploy the word “hate” is not just jarring but also reveals how extreme and vulgar the concept of hate is.
We can convince ourselves of hatred and yet, once something terrible happens to those we supposedly hate, we’re reduced to tears and reminded of their humanity.
“I think about death a lot in my work, but also going through scenarios outside it,” says John. “Would you still cry for someone who meant something personally to you even though you hated them now? I think the answer is usually yes, in which case why do we cry in the first place?
“Is it for ourselves, is it for the loss of what could have been or is it because we are expected to do so? It’s those paradoxes that developed into that lyric.”
John worked on ‘Reach Out’ with Melbourne musician Marcel Borrack who fronts the band, Minibikes. Their relationship stretches back several decades.
“We attended primary school together, then secondary school,” says John. “I hadn’t really spoken to him for many years, but we ended up riding with a group of mates most Sunday mornings over the last three-four years.
“I mentioned that I was interested in recording and we sat down, mapped a few songs and slowly started putting them together.”
Borrack had a major influence on the track’s scenic arrangement and production, injecting backing vocals, dreamy guitar, driving bass and washed-out keys.
“He has been amazing to work with,” John says. “Plus he has done it all before, so it gave me confidence to explore different sounds. I’d send him a whole lot of different takes, different sounds and he’d process it and send back this amazingly formed sound that was exactly what I was after.”
While John’s background is in funk music, there are scarce remnants of this in ‘Reach Out’. The arrangement is very decorative, but not overdone. The vocals are clear and present in the mix and the song rises to a soaring climax.
John names Radiohead and The National as two staple influences, as well as artists such as Laura Marling, Jeff Tweedy, Paul Kelly and John Prine.
“More recently, the thing that I find most helpful with songwriting is to follow where it leads and not try and bend it to fit a progression,” he says. “Some of the songs I love are also the most simple, so allowing it to form no matter how simple is important.”
John’s perspective on music has greatly shifted over the years. His decision to launch the Mayhemtom project reflects a newfound sense of creative urgency – he’s not looking to be someone, but rather to express something purposive.
“It seemed that once I started tapping into my own emotions, almost from nowhere these songs just flowed. I have absolutely loved writing, crafting and feeling them, which is what makes the process therapeutic. I am really lucky to have talented musicians Pete Burgess and Marcel Borrack as close friends that never left the industry, to help guide me in putting some of these tracks down.”
‘Reach Out’ is out now. For more from Mayhemtom, follow him on Facebook.
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