Tell us a bit about how MF Tomlinson started. When was the project first conceived?
Up until now I’ve always expressed myself as a member of a group. Listening to Bill Fay, John Cale and Jonathan Richman at Pacific Social Club and hearing contemporary voices like Courtney Barnett’s gave me confidence that maybe people might be interested in what I have to say.
The great thing about being solo is that you can collaborate more widely. Playing to my strengths as a writer and letting others play to theirs as the songs take shape was a big part of the mission statement and continues to be one of the most rewarding parts of the process.
You’ve just released your new single, ‘Sum Of Nothing’. What’s the story behind it? What inspired it?
We’re all striving to do something — working super hard and rushing around all the time, trying to right the wrongs in the world as best we can, trying to live our best lives. At the same time you’re constantly being told (and at this point you’d have to be mad not to believe) that what we’re doing is erasing the future we’re trying to build.
I’m reading this great book called The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing. She talks about the anthropocene and this notion of precarity and has a great way of explaining that this is a really unique time in history because people have always thought the world was ending but now (it looks like) it actually is.
Your music paints a candid picture of life. What messages are you trying to relay with your lyrics?
It’s always different song to song. There’s this book called Art as Therapy by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong – a caption under a dark canvas says “this is what an inner feeling might look like”. You’re trying to create something that can share a feeling that you have with other people – share an experience. Sometimes the lyrics are abstract, other times they’re direct like when you’re sat at the laundrette with a bit of a hangover and you get all sentimental. I think a very big component of lyrics are the arrangement that they’re presented with.
How would you describe your sound and how did you come to it?
It is contemporary songwriter music – storytelling in the vein of Cohen & Richman, but then sonically it’s very much influenced by Kate Bush, The Flaming Lips and Issac Hayes.
For me its all about my collaborators – I’m very much in awe of them. I have worked closely with Ed Grimshaw and Angus James to develop all the songs. Each time I reached out to a new musician, they brought something incredible and often ended up joining us live. Now there are seven of us onstage and even more working on the songs with me. Super lucky.
What’s next for MF Tomlinson? Any new music or big shows on the horizon?
Moth Club in London on Wednesday July 31 will be the single launch! Tickets are £5 and I just found a flight for like $800? Can ya make it? Gonna try to get out at Australia ASAP but I’m going to LA right now to visit my old YKB buddy Sean Cook aka Sean Cool. We’re going to record some new stuff that hopefully will be ready for later this year!
‘Sum Of Nothing’ is available on all streaming services. Find out more about MF Tomlinson via his Facebook page.
