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Tom Prior is a name that needs to be on your radar. This week he released his excellent EP Bad Advice and he’s gearing up for a big performance next week in London. GroundSounds caught up with the talented musician to learn more about the EP. Tom was kind enough to dive into each song and give us some context, background, & inspiration for the new songs. Check it out below along with a stream of the EP so you can listen along while you read!
Bad Advice
I wrote “Bad Advice” last December and it was the first time I thought I’d finished the EP. (I hadn’t). It was my third trip to Sheffield working with StickyBlood. I wanted to vent about the really tough year and many false starts I had had in 2013. It’s one of them tracks where every line is about something very specific and true to me. I love the song, I found a new avenue of creativity in my project after making this record.
All Dressed Up
The first time I went to work in Sheffield, we made a bunch of tunes that I think we’d all prefer nobody will hear. When I came back we made music with a bit more consideration, we didn’t want to make anything safe or middle of the road. We made this on the first day of the second trip. I think My Song 5 from Haim’s first record was something we listened too, I loved the way it was music based on a family bond with good songs but they also experimented with technology. The outcome was great and we usually open the show with this one now.
Common Ground
This track ended up being the biggest problem in my life for most of July. I wrote it in early June for what was supposed to be the first track of my next project. As soon as we’d finished it, we realised it would piece together the two halves of the EP well. I think it does, it was influenced by a few bands, from the chords of Oasis to the grooves of Bombay Bicycle Club and more. We got to record this one in some big studio in Bristol, it was a really good weekend and eventually a great way to end the creative process of this EP.
The Altar
By January this year the EP was actually finished, luckily I have some great people around me who pulled me up on the fact that I’d probably gone a bit guitar mad and beyond that it just wasn’t really good enough. The Altar came on the last day of a seven day trip to Sheff in February. By this point, I was trying to fill voids I could see in the tracklist, it’s about a friend of mine who I haven’t seen for about five years. They have no idea i have written a song about them, think I’ll leave it that way.
Stones
This was another late addition to the EP, I actually wrote it in 2012 and I don’t know if I ever wanted it to see the light of day but my managers and a few mates convinced me I shouldn’t waste it and since I’ve come to understand what’s great about it. It was good to work on this one at home in the Shed as that’s where I started out, it was important to me that we ended delicately after the angry opener.
Tom Prior – Bad Advice EP
