Dylan John Thomas describes his journey to rising musical notoriety as “a bit of graft and a bit of luck and meeting some nice people who can help you out”. The Glasgow-based singer/songwriter grew up in care but found a release through music and a mentor in fellow Glaswegian troubadour Gerry Cinnamon.
With an impressive six sold out shows at his home city’s famous Barrowland ballroom under his belt before he had even released an album, Thomas is now snapping at the heels of his mentor. Entertainment Now spoke to him as he released his self-titled debut album.
What were your earliest adventures in music?
I got into Johnny Cash when I was younger. I don’t remember much music before that, just whatever was in the radio. I used to play a Playstation game called Tony Hawk in the foster home and Ring of Fire would be on the soundtrack every ten minutes. I remember jumping about the room singing it and that was the first proper memory I have of getting into music. It sparked something in me and I got a wee Argos guitar for Christmas.
You have cited Paul Simon, Lindsey Buckingham and Mark Knopfler as your guitar heroes – not the usual suspects.
I know there are some great soloists out there but I always lean towards the finger picking side of it. I was obsessed with how you could make your guitar sound like two guitars like the blues musicians where you had your thumb on the bass and were picking out your melodies on the higher strings. If you can then make that into a three-minute pop piece – songs like Romeo & Juliet and The Boxer – that’s what I got obsessed with, these techniques sitting within the structure of a standard pop song rather than a ten-minute virtuoso piece.
What drew you to writing your own songs?
I remember wanting to sing along with the songs I had been listening to and through that I knew I could hold a tune to an extent and it was a natural progression for me to come up with melodies on the guitar. I don’t remember a specific point, it just happened when I was messing about on guitar.
You’ve said you want to write “Oasis choruses, Bob Dylan” verses…
Noel Gallagher hasn’t really written a bad chorus, every tune is that punching-the-air song. You get them on the verses and then it goes off in the bouncing chorus.
Can you tell us about your busking days?
I wanted to be able to tour but I knew I wasn’t anywhere near being able to sing or play that well so the idea was to do an apprenticeship playing in front of people every day, trying to get rid of the nerves and shaky voice so that I could get to a point where I had the ability to play onstage.
How did Gerry Cinnamon enter the picture?
I was a young boy in foster care needing a bit of direction and Gerry helped me figure out my way musically but also life in general, dealing with things at that age, trying to find my way in the world. Growing up, I didn’t have anybody to speak to and Gerry saw that, this young boy jumping about the gigging scene. Having somebody there who could look out for me, give me advice and take me under his wing, that was special.
You wrote your debut album during lockdown – how was that period for you?
Everything had been 100 miles per hour and then to have nothing happening during lockdown it gave me a bit of hindsight to write about things that happened growing up and process a lot of things that I’d never really dealt with. It was going to come out one way or another and it’s better that it came out in a song. I progressed a lot during that period.
How did that come out in the recording of your album?
We had an idea that the tunes that make up the live set were going to be the first album. The second album, when that comes, will maybe be a different thing but the first album was the idea of trying to capture that live feel.
Dylan John Thomas is out now on Ignition Records
