Sweet Sweet Music Blog spoke to Tom Werring about trying to write a cohesive record, thinking about the state of life and trying to be optimistic about the future.

It’s hard to believe ‘Through The Window’ is a debut record. How did it come together?

I too can’t believe it exists!  It came together through sheer force of will, to be honest.  I’ve wanted to write an LP for a long time, and I just kept trying to write some simple pop songs until I had enough that I thought were halfway decent.  I was having a big moment of inspiration getting really into pop music, and tried to channel a certain sound and make it my own.  I’m also really fortunate to be friends with Billy Mannino, a super talented recording engineer and collaborator who let me work out ideas in his basement on weekends for a whole year.  But yeah, really just focused hard on trying to write a cohesive record, thinking a lot about the state of my life and trying to be optimistic about the future.

I almost ‘find out about new pop music’ for a living :-). But I only found out about your record recently. Is it hard to get your music heard?  On the other hand, you have a lot more streams on Spotify than ‘related’ bands so I probably have been looking in the wrong direction.

Well grateful you heard it!  That’s definitely another thing where I’m fortunate to have friends that were willing to put the record out and even listen to my music at all.  My friend Jake is always so down to help me release my stuff, which I’m really very grateful for.  It’s definitely really hard to get music heard with Spotify playlists and all that and to be honest, I’m not really too concerned about having a bunch of people knows my music.  Really just want to use this project as an opportunity to stay creative, keep busy, and stay sane.  Hard to come by these days.  

When you first heard the final version of ‘Loner Sky’ you must have recognized you created something special? Or did you already knew that earlier on?

Appreciate that perspective – I don’t know if I ever thought it was “special” per se.  My measurement of whether or not I think any of my songs are any good is if I would listen to it if I didn’t write it.  Striking a balance between emulating the bands I love and making something personal.  The only thing I ever thought was “special” was the way Billy can make my songs sound in the studio.  He’s a true wizard! 

What other artists do you consider as an inspiration? And why?

Definitely find a ton of inspiration at every moment.  Personally, I’m lucky to have so many friends who are insanely talented songwriters.  My best friend Jade from Oso Oso is probably the biggest source of songwriting inspiration having played music with him since I was 16.  My friends in bands like Macseal, Just Friends, and Prince Daddy and the Hyena are just constantly staying active and creative, and it keeps me energized to keep writing myself.  But on a non-personal level, bands like Teenage Fanclub, Big Star, and Fountains of Wayne were experts at writing solid pop songs and I’m always getting inspiration from them.  Recently really loving HAIM as well. 

How did you ‘stay sane’ the last couple of months?

Another thing I’m incredibly grateful to have right now is a job that lets me work from home, so have just been so distracted with work that it keeps me busy.  My wonderful girlfriend also keeps me sane, and we just adopted our dog Benny who is a perfect angel that I love dearly.  All solid distractions from the catastrophic failure that is the US government, so I’ve been trying to use that privilege to stay engaged with my community, support my neighbors, and volunteer and donate where I can.  

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