A Chat with Tom Minor (02.06.25)
After several years of writing songs for other artists, singer-songwriter Tom Minor stepped forward to share his original music as a solo artist – damn, we’re glad he did! Infusing layers of Britpop, indie-rock, and power-pop, the UK-based artist drags listeners back to yesteryear while retaining a contemporary edge. We speak with Tom Minor about his EP, The Manic Phase, what music means to him, future plans and more.
OSR: What drew you to music? What made you choose to pursue a musical career?
Minor: Just about as long as I can remember, I’ve been listening to and enjoying music, perhaps more than anything else really. And at some point in my early teens I started learning guitar on my own, and pretty soon after began writing songs as well. So in retrospect, I guess it was a natural progression to start wanting to do it more seriously, after gradually building up the skills and confidence to have a go at it career-wise.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Minor: As a musician – and I think the same goes for just about anyone else making music – besides creating your own music and trying to fulfil the vision you have of the kind of music you want to make yourself, I very much enjoy finding new music made by other people that’s out there but I haven’t discovered yet. And of course it’s always fun listening to your own old favourites from earlier times every now and then. Music is such an effective way to take you down memory lane.
OSR: You recently released your EP, The Manic Phase. What can you tell us about the EP? Is there a backstory or theme?
Minor: All the four songs on the EP are thematically connected to each other in some vague way I guess, even though that wasn’t the original idea necessarily when writing them. Two of them are also my singles from earlier this year, and when planning the release of the title track as a single, it felt like a good idea to include the two previous ones, as all three of them were written pretty much at the time and thus probably say something about my state of mind at the time of writing. The fourth one of them (‘Saturday Eats Its Young’) is a close cousin to the title song ‘The Manic Phase’ as far as the subject matter is concerned, even though it was originally released a while back, so I wanted to put it on there as well, to give it all a bit of perspective.
OSR: When creating the EP, did you face any challenges regarding composition, writing, recording or production? How did you overcome these, if you had any?
Minor: I love pretty much the whole process of writing and arranging. Also, our method in recording – with Teaboy Palmer, my producer and partner-in-crime – is quite playful and we tend to try different instruments and experiment a lot during the process. It’s usually quite organic and easy for us. The mixing stage can be challenging at times. Are we already there, is this as good as it can get or could we make it better, should we still tweak a few knobs more? So the hardest part I guess is knowing when to stop. In those moments it helps to remind one another of the fact that there’s really no such thing as perfection, so you might as well let go of it before you start losing your way.
OSR: Over the years, your music tended to keep an indie-rock feel to it while exploring various other genres. Do you feel The Manic Phase is a true representation of your sound, you as a musician and as a person?
Minor: It’s a true representation of part of my sound for sure, both musically and as a person. I try to be versatile between songs, because there are so many different aspects of music and genres I love and listen to. But I think overall it all falls under the wide umbrella of ‘indie music’, because it can really be whatever you let it, ‘independent’ of any restrictions, commercially or stylistically.
OSR: Which do you find more challenging – the melody or the lyrics?
Minor: What comes first is usually the song title and/or a key idea of what I want to write a song about lyrically. The melody starts coming quite naturally to me after that. The lyrics take a longer time for me to finish, but I wouldn’t necessarily say they are more challenging. Perhaps it’s just that I love dwelling on them, because it’s quite rewarding to hone them to the hilt until I’m perfectly happy with the result. I like to think of a song as a micro-universe that contains everything as a self-sufficient entity it needs in order to run on its own, and nothing unnecessary.
OSR: What is the most exciting or best thing about being a musician; also, what is the most difficult or worst thing about being a musician in today’s world?
Minor: For me, creating music is one of the few areas in life where you can exercise almost complete freedom. Of course you need to have the necessary tools for it, like instruments and recording equipment, but today they’re more accessible to almost anyone than ever before in the history of recorded music. As for downsides, and I don’t want to moan too much about it, but although the streaming platforms offer indie artists great opportunities to showcase their stuff, they’re also ripping musicians off in a terrible way by paying next to nothing for the content they completely depend upon.
OSR: Do you have any advice for emerging artists?
Minor: Today’s music business is often a tough place to be, and it’s easy to get discouraged. Regardless, follow your own path, don’t lose faith, and don’t forget to have fun while doing it. It’s always a learning process as well, and wherever you may end up in, the most important thing is to focus on enjoying the ride as well.
OSR: What do you hope people take from your music?
Minor: Although some of my songs may come across as sad or pessimistic, to me there’s always a positive vibe behind them. I hope I’m able to convey a message of hope and a positive call to action: if the protagonists of the songs can change their lives, or at least acknowledge they should, then so can you folks!
OSR: What can we expect from Tom Minor in the future?
Minor: We’re currently preparing my second album and it’s due out in November, if all goes well. Before that I’m releasing two more singles. The first one of them is due out on 4th July and it’s called ‘The Loneliest Person on Earth’. I tried my best but couldn’t come up with a title sadder than that!
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
Minor: As you’re currently reading The Other Side Reviews, you must be more or less keen on discovering relevant new releases. Congrats, you’ve come to the right place! Keep exploring the wide world of music, there’s a lot of great stuff out there for us to find.
Many thanks to Tom Minor for speaking with us. Find out more about Tom Minor on his Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
