Tom McRae Interview: The New Album

Indie singer songwriter discusses King of Cards

Sep 26, 2007

When Tom McRae played Toronto recently, we caught up with him to discuss everything from music to politics and beyond. In part one we discuss his new album King of Cards.

It's hard to believe that UK indie singer-songwriter Tom McRae has been making records for almost 10 years now. With his 4th release King of Cards meeting critical acclaim and easily being one of the albums of the year, McRae continues to bless us with beautiful songs and intelligent lyrics.

Suite101 recently caught up with Tom when he stopped in Toronto on his North American tour, where he opened up and talked frankly about music, politics and much more. In part one, we talk about the new album and how being in the right place at the right time hasn't quite happened for McRae. Yet...

My sincere thanks to Tom for being such a genial host, and to Jon Uren at Fruitcake Management for organising everything.

Tom McRae Interview

Suite: Firstly, congratulations on King of Cards. I’ve reviewed it as one of my albums of the year, and it really is a great album. Now you’ve previously mentioned that it might be your last album – how close did you come to calling it quits?

Tom: (laughs) Every year! Every year I think I’m going to call it a day, but that’s just over-dramatic really. I normally get pretty tired toward the end of an album, so I’ll usually think about calling it quits, but I never do.

Tom: Oh yeah. I never really seriously think about giving it up, but I do think of doing it in different ways. The music business is basically over, but that’s just the business. So yeah, I’ll throw a little hissy fit every so often, but that’s all I’ll do (laughs). I mean, I changed labels, and that was a tricky thing. When you come off a major label, your world’s going to change. I thought mine would change for the better, but unfortunately the label I signed to was even worse.

Tom: Yeah, they’re on their last legs now – they’ve just been bought by Universal, so they’re probably going to get swallowed up, or fold altogether.

Suite: Has it been hard seeing what I would refer to as lesser artists like James Blunt and Daniel Powter enjoy commercial success, compared to the years you’ve put in?

Tom: You know what, so much of that and so much of life is luck, and to be fair their albums are slightly broader in appeal than mine, and I don’t make music that would appeal to the same audience. At the end of the day, the dice fall the way they fall, and if someone’s prepared to spend millions promoting your product, you’ll get lucky. I had a pretty good shake of the stick with my first record (2000’s Tom McRae on Sony Records), and there’re some people that don’t even get that, so I’ve had my own luck in some ways. I sometimes do get a little bit annoyed when I see them on television, and I think “I can’t afford to tour like that, I can’t afford a drummer” and I see James Blunt selling out huge theatres.

Tom: (laughs) We live in hope! Anything could happen, but you know, I enjoy what I do and that’s all that really matters.

Suite: The new album sounds a lot “happier” than your previous three – was that a deliberate move by you, or is it reflective of where you are in your life right now?

Tom: I wanted to do something I hadn’t done before; I guess a slightly broader album with songs that touched emotions I maybe hadn’t visited in the past. Songs that you could listen to driving in the car, as opposed to late night when my songs are usually heard, and I just wanted to see if I could do it. Songs that might open up some new doors, hopefully, but then you can’t write songs with an end goal in mind – they’ll just come out false. So I did it, I had fun; it’s my 4th record and I think in a few years people will look at it and see where it fits.

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