Your album Rainbows and Dead Flowers relies on melody and a great pop sound. What do you think about the current top 10 in the Spotify Charts?
Well, thanks Ben. I appreciate that. "Rainbows and Dead Flowers" was three years in the making. I’m really pleased with that record. I think it has some of Antti’s and my finest songs. The album is about the complexities of life and in essence, deals with the challenges that come from being human. I recommend it to anyone who has gotten burned by life. The lyrics will probably resonate with such a listener.
I have the highest respect for the current Top 10 in Spotify. It’s usually not my music at all, nothing that I would listen to, but it’s quality stuff, mixed, mastered and performed brilliantly. And I have always made it a priority to keep myself posted on what’s happening in music and what the kids are listening to. You’ve got to stay tuned in like that if you entertain any thoughts of finding or maintaining an audience. And I’m not genre sensitive. I love music and consequently listen to everything from classical music to rap and hip-hop. Great stuff is great stuff. Genres mean very little to me.
I can understand why many people frown at Spotify’s Top 10. It’s not very innovative. But then again, it is the way it is for a reason. That’s the stuff that most people really like. And great music does not have to be innovative. I mean how innovative is blues rock? And yet I love it, love it, love it! Going back to Spotify’s Top 10, that’s the stuff that sells musically and image-wise. They must be doing something right! We tend to forget that there is a reality to every job and the job of a record label is to sell records and gain streams, not necessarily to come up with the most innovative music ever produced. It’s called the music business for a reason: it’s a business!
I'm a bit less charitable than you about the Spotify top 20 - they all sound like monotone nursery Rhymes to me, but I am getting old! Thanks for the Guest Blog Tom, I'm looking forward to your next contrbution!
In the meantime check out this video from Tom and the Missing Hubcaps, off the album Rainbows and Dead Flowers