Four questions for… Dave Thomas Junior
We like to give our member artists a chance to show the face behind the tracks and to explain their music in their own words. English musician and longtime member Dave Thomas Junior has provided us the stirring soundtrack to spots such as last year’s smash Pro Infirmis campaign.
How long have you been making music?
I’ve been making music since I was four or five. My sister got a Casio PT-1 for Christmas one year and I was obsessed. I got involved with MIDI really early and just never looked back really. It’s such a challenging journey, and there’s always something new to learn. Just recently I’m finally getting into side-chain and multi-bus compression when mixing (it’s great!)
How would you describe your personal sound?
I’m very much from an indie guitar background and I think that shows in whatever I’m doing. I like to try to mix it up and do different sorts of things, using electronic elements or trying to keep everything really organic, but I think that type of guitar sound is always there!
Where do you get your inspiration?
It’s always amazing when you just get a song title pop into your head. That’s my favourite type of inspiration! I try and stay very open to what Elizabeth Gilbert said in her TED talk on creativity: the idea that we all have a little genius of our own, and it’s our job to show up at work and hope they do too. Sometimes it’s a guitar sound, just playing and trying things, and all of a sudden you can hear how the song should go – something to work towards. And yeah, sometimes it’s a lyric and that becomes the thing to hang everything around. I’ve been thinking a lot about technology too, and the Singularity. I love all that, and those ideas are something that I try to find ways to write about just because it’s so huge and so interesting.
How did you hear about Tracks & Fields, and for how long have you been a member?
I’ve been working with Tracks & Fields for about two years. A producer friend of mine turned me on to them and I thought, why not? They’ve been great, and I feel like they really listen to the stuff that I send through.
