July 24, 2023 • 29 mins
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The Songwriter Show was created out of a desire to help songwriters as well as give music fans an inside look at the behind the scenes reality of their favorite hit songs. We want to empower and inspire you to improve your songwriting craft as well as give diehard fans an inside look into how the music industry really works in today's world. If you love music, you’re going to love The Songwriter Show.
Today’s show features hot new music with Governor Tom. Come join the fun!
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The Songwriter Show was created out of a desire to help songwriters as well as give music fans an inside look at the behind the scenes reality of their favorite hit songs. We want to empower and inspire you to improve your songwriting craft as well as give diehard fans an inside look into how the music industry really works in today's world. If you love music, you’re going to love The Songwriter Show.
Today’s show features hot new music with Governor Tom. Come join the fun!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-songwriter-show--4297091/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Are you a songwriter? Are youlooking to turn your songwriting fashion into a
full time gig. Whether you arejust at the start of your songwriting journey
or a seasoned industry professional, thisshow is made for you. Welcome to
the Songwriter Show, bringing together songwriting, news, interviews, and communicating.
(00:21):
Now welcome your host, Sorranto.Thank you for tuning in, and welcome
back to the Songwriter Show right hereon Reality Radio one oh one. I'm
your host, Sarantos. I'm asolo music artist who's been writing lyrics for
as long as I can remember.Words mean the world to me, and
that's why I love hosting this showfor you every single Tuesday evening. I
(00:45):
believe in my heart that every singlesong is a story. Tonight, I'm
excited to have Governor Tom. Tomis a singer songwriter who's indie style blend's
folk, blues, pop and jazzwith truthiness and wit to create an an
apologetic, poignant journey for the heartand the mind. And now welcome this
week's special guest. Welcome to show. Tom. How you doing I'm doing
(01:11):
great, Torontos. How are youdoing doing great? Man? I love
your name, Governor Tom. Ilove the man with the hat kind of
thing. It's really cool man.So I love your branding. It's pretty
cool. Well, I appreciate that. It's you know, it's hard.
It's hard to make those choices,and you know there's you can choose pretty
much anything when you're creative artist.So yeah, it's good. It's good
to land on something that you feelgood about. Yeah, tell us a
(01:34):
little bit. I've seen some ofyour pictures, but tell the audience that
might not know you, what instrumentdo you play? I play guitar,
I compose on the guitar, Iplay some piano. I work on arranging
on the piano, and I've donea couple of my recordings have me on
piano where it's very simple, whereit's very complex, than I use something
who can really play the piano.Yeah, it's funny you say that,
(01:56):
and I like the same way people. I'm like, oh, yeah,
I played the piano, and inlogic, I can play every single instrument
and not demand. But the truthis, I don't consider myself an instrumentalist
where you can, like, youknow, rip it on the piano and
the guitar, and you know,there are people that are better than us.
And at the heart of it probablylike me, You're a songwriter exactly,
a singer songwriter for sure. Sotell us how you come up with
(02:19):
a song, what strikes your muse, How do you start? How do
you figure it out? Uh?You know, it's so funny because a
lot of a lot of the songsI'm working on and recording right now,
I wrote a while ago. Sothe writing it it's sumusally an idea that
just comes to me so strongly thatit insists that I give it my full
attention. And whether it happens whileI'm just playing guitar and stumbling upon a
(02:44):
nice chord progression that suddenly feels andsounds really good to me, or whether
I'm driving my car like thinking aboutsomething or having a memory or having you
know, a thought about something outsideof myself that that that touches me and
inspires me. I've completed entire songs, you know, while driving on the
freeway, just by hitting the recordon my cell phone. And I've literally,
(03:07):
like my latest song that I justwrote is was just like it was
just that I literally I came upwith the entire song on the freeway.
Then I had to find the chords. That's awesome. How do you decide
when you look at you right dailyweekly, how do you then decide,
like you said, you wrote thesea while ago, is this going to
(03:27):
go in my awesome pile and mytrash pile and my average pile? How
do you decide what you're going towork on, what you're gonna record?
Good question. I take them out, I go out, I take them
out to open mics. I meanI usually what I'll do is, I'll
wait till have about a half adozen songs that are in sort of composition
stage, and then I will copyrightthem because the US Copyright Office lets you
include as many sort of rough draftsas you want and under one copyright license.
(03:52):
I'll record them all really rough,just so then I can take them
out and know that, you know, my work is protected. But then
I'll go out and play them foraudiences, and I will see, you
know, see see what the kindof response I get. And depending,
of course, you know, audiencesvary, so you get a variety of
responses. So I'll do that fora little while. It also kind of
helps me, and then I'll justgive myself total license to like mess up
(04:15):
or just like feel the song asI go, and that oftentimes, you
know, will change the arrangement.It will add a chorus or deleted verse,
or shift around some lyrics accidentally,And I pay really close attention to
those accidents because sometimes those are spoton, and I kind of test everything
out that way and everything that youknow that there's still making people smile and
(04:36):
satisfied after listening to it, thenI'll move forward and record. You know,
I'm listening to you. You dosomething that I think is very tried
and true. There's nothing like alive audience to tell you if something's working
and kind of tell you what youmight need to tweak. But I'm a
little bit jealous because I haven't donelive shows in a few years. I'm
(04:57):
focusing on studio stuff, and Ikind to miss that. I miss being
able to get the feel of theaudience and decide that, hey, this
is really working. I got totake this to the next level. You
know, it's a little more blindor it's a little more like trusting your
own ideas, and it might notalways be the most correct. Yeah,
I mean, I hear you.I feel exactly what you're talking about.
(05:18):
It's that is it's a tough feelingto deal with throughout the creative process.
So it is it is a bitof a luxury and an investment to go
out and get, you know,some feedback from from a live audience.
It's definitely worth the investment. Yeah, tell us a little bit about any
famous people you've jammed with, collaboratedwith, anyone worth mentioning on the show.
(05:41):
Well, um, you know,I just did a show with a
natural singer songwriter that's been doing ithis entire life. His named Danny Cooper,
and he's running around touring the countryright now. We did it.
We did a two man show,which is a lot of fun. But
I have not you know, Ihaven't made that commitment to really perform.
I just, uh, I justI really haven't done it. I worked,
(06:05):
you know. I started as anactor primarily, and then I got
in I was always a screenwriter.I found essentially that I was more interested
in being a creative artist and aninterpretive one. I mean, although I
have equal respect for interpretive artists whotake like something that someone else has written
and give it their entire creative imaginationto, you know, to build upon.
(06:28):
For some reason, I just wasnot fulfilled doing just that. So
I started writing scripts and stories andscreenplays and stage plays and treatments. And
then I picked up the guitar againafter many many years, and all that
writing just instantly became songwriting. SoI've met a lot of famous actors,
(06:49):
I've worked with a lot of famouspeople in that realm, But as a
musician, not yet. Okay,And is there any one that you would
love to jam with? And youcan't answer me. Of course you have
to pick someone else who would youwant to really jam or make a song
with it. Oh, I wasjust thinking, you know, I really
love five So I love Courtney Barnett. I was just listening to um who
(07:11):
I was just listening to. Iwas just listening to UM. Just watched
that documentary on the Golden Area eraof women's big band and Patrise Russian Uh
was in that, And so Iget I get really inspired by, you
know, UM, just people whoare being really authentic and two to themselves
as she presented herself, as sheseems, you know, as she was
(07:32):
in this documentary they just watched.So uh, gosh, there's a lot
of you know, I don't know, man, all my all my idols
and mentors are are really sort ofthey're just they're just way too big.
I don't think I would ever performwith anybody like that. I have.
I'm definitely a huge fan of certainartists, the younger artist like Gary Clark
(07:54):
Jr. And um Oh, there'sso many. I'm really not a good
name person, but yeah, yeah, I'd be more than happy to just
go. I really love um Cagethe Elephant. They put on an amazing
show. I really like show people. I like musicians who really like put
on a show because I know thatthat's like not really easy, because it's
(08:16):
hard enough doing just the music sometimesand then like adding that performance layer is
sort of like a whole other partof the brain has to kick in and
help out. And I just reallyI get really inspired when I see that
done really really well. Okay,cool, tell us about this song we're
going to hear in a few minuteshere. This is Public Eye. This
is a song. M I don'tknow how this came to me. The
(08:39):
chord progression came first, which Ijust loved a lot of some C seven.
There's some seven chords and seven majorseven chords in there, and just
h I'd realize that a lot ofmy songs were either about relationships or sort
of social company or or personal storiesat that point, because I think I
(09:03):
think when I said when I whenI did commit to writing music, I
really sort of I would have tosay, obviously as a songwriter, you
know, some of my biggest heroesare people like Joni Mitchell and M Paul
Simon and um Tom Waits, andso I really I really idolize sort of
the singer songwriter writers that write personally, they write about themselves because to me,
(09:26):
that extra added element of truth combinedwith music and performance is just so
valuable. So, um, publicEye came to me and that I'd never
really really sort of like written asong about a girl or about a female
perspective solely. Um, and soI just kind of picked up on on
(09:50):
on what you know, just justthe just what what female especially young female
performers have to go through in ourculture and what they're subjected to, you
know, And I think I thinkit just really sparked my empathy and compassion
and really just tried to put myselfin those shoes and just imagine what it
(10:11):
would be like and you know,and you know, I mean, these
women these women wind up suffering fortheir talent, suffering for their commitment to
their work and being good at whatthey do. And I really just needed
to kind of explore that. Sothat's pretty much what public eye is about.
Yeah, that's uh. You know, I completely agree with you and
(10:33):
empathize with you and a great songman. Let's let's take a listen.
Everybody see a question mark, youmake a any answer tid but a picture
(10:56):
on the screen if the truth betold, The truth is souldis mystery once
it's fluffed and full hyped, beyondextreme, and the public eye. You
don't wear an umbrella. It's aword, unimagined scrutiny, and it's true.
(11:24):
Her defense rests in equal measure ofa worthless, vindictive mockery. And
ask her what it's like. You'llleave her crying, ampty promise of a
life that's like a dream. Still, she won't know what to say,
(11:48):
so please stop trying. It onlymakes her lose her way. She's just
nineteen, nineteen nineteen. She's justnineteen. She's no right to shame,
(12:11):
regret, or indignation. The attentionwhat she begged for, prayed a fame
solid the platinum on her wall sinceshe was sixteen, so ungrateful for it
all her pains game get a pictureof her angrious expression. If her waistline
(12:50):
catches sunlight on the sand, theypay millions for a personal indispression captured in
these top knots, lenses out,hand, lenses up, and the public
(13:18):
eye. You don't wear an umbrella. It's a world of un imagine scrutiny,
and it's true her defense threats inthe wool measure of a worthless,
vindictive mockery. So you see herat the check stand, growing older when
(13:48):
you comment on the ugly price ofplain, on that crazy trashy bleach out
turning thirty rest. She've got justice, Sofa, so blame, so blame,
(14:11):
to blame, cool song man,So Governor Tom, tell us a
little bit about what kind of excitingthings you got for the fans this year
are coming up? Well, I'mjust finishing up a fifth track to add
to the fourth that I've released,and I'm going to release that as an
(14:31):
EP in the next month or twowith the latest UM and that's going to
be my first EP. But Ihave already I'm working on charts and and
and setting up it was funny.I really thought I was going to do
an album, but I really I'vegot two more EPs lined up. One's
going to be love songs. I'mreally trying to, you know, are
as as I'm sure you know,as you record, you know, well,
(14:52):
everything's so digitized and computerized, whichaffords so much ease and convenience,
But then at the same time we'rekind of what we've lost as we've lost
a lot of breathing, we've losta lot of off the grid. I
mean, when you look at howyou make music on a computer nowaday you're
literally like on a grid. Andso I've got one EP that I want
(15:13):
to do, songs that just govery off tempo as freely as they want
to, and they're all mostly lovesongs. So it's going to be kind
of like a love song CD ora EP. And I don't know,
I don't it's going to be curious. I don't know, because with my
with the EP that's coming out first, it's all I recorded my rhythm first
and then built from there. Sothis is going to be kind of the
reverse. So that'll be exploration,and then I'm going to do another EP
(15:37):
of sort of more more rock androll style songs, the songs that I
have to lend themselves more to like, and then I'm going to move back
into steady tempo stuff. I'm performingwise, I'm still running around la and
singing out some of these new songs. And also I just decided that I'm
gonna think I'm gonna do like abusking tour. I don't really have it
(15:58):
in me with all this work totry to, you know, to do
these EPs. That's really where Iwant to focus. I don't have an
in me to do all the communicatingall that stuff necessary to really sort of
like plan and book a tour.So I think I'm going to do I'm
going to do a busking tour Torontosbecause busking is one of the most terrifying
things that I can possibly imagine formyself. And since I'm a firm believer
(16:22):
in facing your fears, I feellike I feel like I need to,
Like, I'm so comfortable I'm gonnawhen I'm on a stage. I'm so
comfortable in front of an audience whenI'm on a stage, but when i'm
just when there's not that like imaginaryfourth wall, when it's just the idea
of me just being like just completelyamid you know, the listeners that there's
(16:48):
something about that that terrifies me,and so I have to face that.
So I think I'm going to justplan a few you know, do a
little homework and run around California probablyin the fall, and just show up
places and busk because a will um, I won't have to do any of
all that negotiating and all that terriblestuff when you know, not terrible but
just time consuming. Um. Yeah, And so that's what I've got coming
(17:11):
up. Okay, cool, tellus your favorite eighties jam? What comes
to mind? Gotta be Ah,it's gotta be a Michael Hutchinson in Excess
song. Um oh, any ofhis music. He's yeah, outstanding musician.
Um. I also love that songby I'm really so bad at Names
(17:32):
Santos one two, one, twothree four. Um ah, gosh,
of course, you know, Princereally ruled the eighties. But you know,
uh, damn, I'm feeling I'mI'm feeling so bad on this answer,
which is fine, you know,but eighties music is good. There's
(17:53):
a lot of excellent, excellent eightiesmusic, so I'm really hard pressed to
answer your question. Okay, howabout your ideal superpower. What would you
say that is that I actually possessedher that I would want to possess it.
How about both? I think Ithink I think my my the superpower
(18:14):
possess is that I'm able to I'mable to reach my best within a group
and also inspire the group that I'mwith to reach for their best. And
that's why I think that my musicis succeeding in a way that I'm a
little bit surprised about, although Idid go out of my way to hire
like just outstanding musicians when I recorded. And I think the superpower that I
(18:40):
would really really like to have issomebody who's just, um, I guess,
you know, honestly just comfortable ina crowd. I've never really felt
comfortable in a crowd. I'm reallyalways been on a taller side. And
it's funny because when you're when you'rea taller individual, it's like you're kind
of always on display. You neverreally have a choice about it. So
(19:02):
I tend to, you know,just to keep my life in balance,
I tend not to sort of alwayswant to be out unless it's something that's
really sort of my choice. SoI guess I would just I would love
to just feel like really confident andand comfortable socially, um, more than
than I'm able. Yeah, okay, all right, I'll tell you what.
Tell us a little bit about thestrangest and weirdest compliment you've ever gotten
(19:26):
for your songwriter. Mhm uh youknow, um, that's a good question.
I just unfortunately the answer is beingpreempted by I just the answer that
I get, the compliment I getthe most most consistent is just that people
(19:47):
feel like my my songs are poetry. They just really feel like they're you
know, truly worthwhile poems put tomusic. And to me, that's the
most satisfying because I'm you know,as I said, it's like I really
it's like being a creative artist isreally my focus, and you know,
(20:11):
really to just face that blank pageand create something from scratch, and so
to have the writing, which issort of you know, the nucleus and
the blueprint of all else that followsthat. You know, that's the core
of the creativity. And to havethat recognized is is the best I can't
think of anything like, Okay,here you go, here's here's your story.
(20:33):
So I have this song. It'sactually I released. Did I release
that song? No, I haven't, No, I haven't. I wrote
the song called Global Citizen, andyou know, it was it's sort of
you know, it was in theline with you know, let's do songs
that are you know, pro andbut you know, pro issue and pro
environment and all of that. It'snot a bad song, but I was
out testing it out at a atan open mic in a in a very
(20:53):
conservative community, and a couple ofyoung kids it's very you know, obviously
not of their own minds, butof their you know, their families minds
just literally started yelling during my signlike hippie sage, blank tea and you
know, liberal blah blah blah andliterally like literally shouting down my song while
(21:18):
I'm performing it because it was likepro environment and pro change and it was
that. So that answers your question, that was the most outrageous. Uh.
I won't necessarily call a compliment,but it was definitely the strangest reaction
to to my writing that I've receivedsupport. Okay, awesome, man,
all right, I'll tell you what. Tell us a little bit about your
(21:41):
website before I let you go.Where can people buy your stuff stream mat
so they can reach out to you. All right, Well, Governor Tom
music dot com is my website andit's you know, yeah, you can
put yeah, you can purchase mytracks there. There's probably honestly the easiest
place. I got PayPal and Stripe. That's all I really got set up
for payment, so hopefully people couldbe confident in that. And I just
(22:03):
find even myself nowadays, Man,I try to, like, I hear
a song and I'm like, I'mgonna support this hardist, I'm gonna buy
this music, and it takes likea day and a half to find,
like where you can I mean,none of the none of the like Amazon.
It used to be the last,you know, the last place you
could actually download something, and eventhat they've made so difficult because they want
to you know, they just wantto stream and take all the money.
(22:25):
So if anybody really wants to supportmy music, my website is the best.
Um it's hosted to a company calledband Zoogle, so they don't take
you know, a big cut ofit. Band Camp my music is also
on there. They do take apercentage, but that's fine too. I
don't want sharing, but um,yeah, that's where my music is if
anybody wants to buy or listen andstay updated, and I try to stay
(22:47):
I have a real problem with socialmedia because because my name is Governor Tom,
all of my stuff, anything Itry to do is constantly getting shutut
down by their algorithms because it getsflagged to something politically, even something political,
And it's been going on for wellover a year at this point,
and I'm actually so frustrated. Sobut it's also where I feel like I
(23:10):
have the best connection with anybody,with any fans of my music. So
um, and that's because I can'tuse Governor. It's uh, it's the
Facebook is either GTE music or Ithink that you know the it's backslash the
music of Tom Would, Tom Wouldbeing my my real name, and Governor
being Governor Tom being my artist name. Awesome. Well, I want to
(23:30):
thank you so much for being onthe show tonight, Governor Tom Toronto.
Thank you so much. You're welcome, man. Tell the listeners out there,
thank you so much for spending alittle bit of your precious time with
the two of us. We knowit's important and we hope your unique story
gets hurt around the world too.My name is Torontos. Please show me
every Tuesday night. You're other amazingartists sh they're fascinating behind the scenes stories
(23:53):
right here at the songwrit Sean RealityRadio one to one. Have a great
night. I love you guys,m M, thank you for listening to
(27:11):
The Songwriter Show. To keep themomentum going, head over to www Dot
songwriter Show dot com and join ourfree music community of artists, songwriters,
and producers. That's www Dot SongwriterShow dot com. H Hello Condu.
Are you a songwriter? Are youlooking to turn your songwriting fashion into a
full time gig. Whether you arejust at the start of your songwriting journey
or a seasoned industry professional, thisshow is made for you. Welcome to
the Songwriter Show, bringing together songwriting, news, interviews, and communicating.
(00:21):
Now welcome your host, Sorranto.Thank you for tuning in, and welcome
back to the Songwriter Show right hereon Reality Radio one oh one. I'm
your host, Sarantos. I'm asolo music artist who's been writing lyrics for
as long as I can remember.Words mean the world to me, and
that's why I love hosting this showfor you every single Tuesday evening. I
(00:45):
believe in my heart that every singlesong is a story. Tonight, I'm
excited to have Governor Tom. Tomis a singer songwriter who's indie style blend's
folk, blues, pop and jazzwith truthiness and wit to create an an
apologetic, poignant journey for the heartand the mind. And now welcome this
week's special guest. Welcome to show. Tom. How you doing I'm doing
(01:11):
great, Torontos. How are youdoing doing great? Man? I love
your name, Governor Tom. Ilove the man with the hat kind of
thing. It's really cool man.So I love your branding. It's pretty
cool. Well, I appreciate that. It's you know, it's hard.
It's hard to make those choices,and you know there's you can choose pretty
much anything when you're creative artist.So yeah, it's good. It's good
to land on something that you feelgood about. Yeah, tell us a
(01:34):
little bit. I've seen some ofyour pictures, but tell the audience that
might not know you, what instrumentdo you play? I play guitar,
I compose on the guitar, Iplay some piano. I work on arranging
on the piano, and I've donea couple of my recordings have me on
piano where it's very simple, whereit's very complex, than I use something
who can really play the piano.Yeah, it's funny you say that,
(01:56):
and I like the same way people. I'm like, oh, yeah,
I played the piano, and inlogic, I can play every single instrument
and not demand. But the truthis, I don't consider myself an instrumentalist
where you can, like, youknow, rip it on the piano and
the guitar, and you know,there are people that are better than us.
And at the heart of it probablylike me, You're a songwriter exactly,
a singer songwriter for sure. Sotell us how you come up with
(02:19):
a song, what strikes your muse, How do you start? How do
you figure it out? Uh?You know, it's so funny because a
lot of a lot of the songsI'm working on and recording right now,
I wrote a while ago. Sothe writing it it's sumusally an idea that
just comes to me so strongly thatit insists that I give it my full
attention. And whether it happens whileI'm just playing guitar and stumbling upon a
(02:44):
nice chord progression that suddenly feels andsounds really good to me, or whether
I'm driving my car like thinking aboutsomething or having a memory or having you
know, a thought about something outsideof myself that that that touches me and
inspires me. I've completed entire songs, you know, while driving on the
freeway, just by hitting the recordon my cell phone. And I've literally,
(03:07):
like my latest song that I justwrote is was just like it was
just that I literally I came upwith the entire song on the freeway.
Then I had to find the chords. That's awesome. How do you decide
when you look at you right dailyweekly, how do you then decide,
like you said, you wrote thesea while ago, is this going to
(03:27):
go in my awesome pile and mytrash pile and my average pile? How
do you decide what you're going towork on, what you're gonna record?
Good question. I take them out, I go out, I take them
out to open mics. I meanI usually what I'll do is, I'll
wait till have about a half adozen songs that are in sort of composition
stage, and then I will copyrightthem because the US Copyright Office lets you
include as many sort of rough draftsas you want and under one copyright license.
(03:52):
I'll record them all really rough,just so then I can take them
out and know that, you know, my work is protected. But then
I'll go out and play them foraudiences, and I will see, you
know, see see what the kindof response I get. And depending,
of course, you know, audiencesvary, so you get a variety of
responses. So I'll do that fora little while. It also kind of
helps me, and then I'll justgive myself total license to like mess up
(04:15):
or just like feel the song asI go, and that oftentimes, you
know, will change the arrangement.It will add a chorus or deleted verse,
or shift around some lyrics accidentally,And I pay really close attention to
those accidents because sometimes those are spoton, and I kind of test everything
out that way and everything that youknow that there's still making people smile and
(04:36):
satisfied after listening to it, thenI'll move forward and record. You know,
I'm listening to you. You dosomething that I think is very tried
and true. There's nothing like alive audience to tell you if something's working
and kind of tell you what youmight need to tweak. But I'm a
little bit jealous because I haven't donelive shows in a few years. I'm
(04:57):
focusing on studio stuff, and Ikind to miss that. I miss being
able to get the feel of theaudience and decide that, hey, this
is really working. I got totake this to the next level. You
know, it's a little more blindor it's a little more like trusting your
own ideas, and it might notalways be the most correct. Yeah,
I mean, I hear you.I feel exactly what you're talking about.
(05:18):
It's that is it's a tough feelingto deal with throughout the creative process.
So it is it is a bitof a luxury and an investment to go
out and get, you know,some feedback from from a live audience.
It's definitely worth the investment. Yeah, tell us a little bit about any
famous people you've jammed with, collaboratedwith, anyone worth mentioning on the show.
(05:41):
Well, um, you know,I just did a show with a
natural singer songwriter that's been doing ithis entire life. His named Danny Cooper,
and he's running around touring the countryright now. We did it.
We did a two man show,which is a lot of fun. But
I have not you know, Ihaven't made that commitment to really perform.
I just, uh, I justI really haven't done it. I worked,
(06:05):
you know. I started as anactor primarily, and then I got
in I was always a screenwriter.I found essentially that I was more interested
in being a creative artist and aninterpretive one. I mean, although I
have equal respect for interpretive artists whotake like something that someone else has written
and give it their entire creative imaginationto, you know, to build upon.
(06:28):
For some reason, I just wasnot fulfilled doing just that. So
I started writing scripts and stories andscreenplays and stage plays and treatments. And
then I picked up the guitar againafter many many years, and all that
writing just instantly became songwriting. SoI've met a lot of famous actors,
(06:49):
I've worked with a lot of famouspeople in that realm, But as a
musician, not yet. Okay,And is there any one that you would
love to jam with? And youcan't answer me. Of course you have
to pick someone else who would youwant to really jam or make a song
with it. Oh, I wasjust thinking, you know, I really
love five So I love Courtney Barnett. I was just listening to um who
(07:11):
I was just listening to. Iwas just listening to UM. Just watched
that documentary on the Golden Area eraof women's big band and Patrise Russian Uh
was in that, And so Iget I get really inspired by, you
know, UM, just people whoare being really authentic and two to themselves
as she presented herself, as sheseems, you know, as she was
(07:32):
in this documentary they just watched.So uh, gosh, there's a lot
of you know, I don't know, man, all my all my idols
and mentors are are really sort ofthey're just they're just way too big.
I don't think I would ever performwith anybody like that. I have.
I'm definitely a huge fan of certainartists, the younger artist like Gary Clark
(07:54):
Jr. And um Oh, there'sso many. I'm really not a good
name person, but yeah, yeah, I'd be more than happy to just
go. I really love um Cagethe Elephant. They put on an amazing
show. I really like show people. I like musicians who really like put
on a show because I know thatthat's like not really easy, because it's
(08:16):
hard enough doing just the music sometimesand then like adding that performance layer is
sort of like a whole other partof the brain has to kick in and
help out. And I just reallyI get really inspired when I see that
done really really well. Okay,cool, tell us about this song we're
going to hear in a few minuteshere. This is Public Eye. This
is a song. M I don'tknow how this came to me. The
(08:39):
chord progression came first, which Ijust loved a lot of some C seven.
There's some seven chords and seven majorseven chords in there, and just
h I'd realize that a lot ofmy songs were either about relationships or sort
of social company or or personal storiesat that point, because I think I
(09:03):
think when I said when I whenI did commit to writing music, I
really sort of I would have tosay, obviously as a songwriter, you
know, some of my biggest heroesare people like Joni Mitchell and M Paul
Simon and um Tom Waits, andso I really I really idolize sort of
the singer songwriter writers that write personally, they write about themselves because to me,
(09:26):
that extra added element of truth combinedwith music and performance is just so
valuable. So, um, publicEye came to me and that I'd never
really really sort of like written asong about a girl or about a female
perspective solely. Um, and soI just kind of picked up on on
(09:50):
on what you know, just justthe just what what female especially young female
performers have to go through in ourculture and what they're subjected to, you
know, And I think I thinkit just really sparked my empathy and compassion
and really just tried to put myselfin those shoes and just imagine what it
(10:11):
would be like and you know,and you know, I mean, these
women these women wind up suffering fortheir talent, suffering for their commitment to
their work and being good at whatthey do. And I really just needed
to kind of explore that. Sothat's pretty much what public eye is about.
Yeah, that's uh. You know, I completely agree with you and
(10:33):
empathize with you and a great songman. Let's let's take a listen.
Everybody see a question mark, youmake a any answer tid but a picture
(10:56):
on the screen if the truth betold, The truth is souldis mystery once
it's fluffed and full hyped, beyondextreme, and the public eye. You
don't wear an umbrella. It's aword, unimagined scrutiny, and it's true.
(11:24):
Her defense rests in equal measure ofa worthless, vindictive mockery. And
ask her what it's like. You'llleave her crying, ampty promise of a
life that's like a dream. Still, she won't know what to say,
(11:48):
so please stop trying. It onlymakes her lose her way. She's just
nineteen, nineteen nineteen. She's justnineteen. She's no right to shame,
(12:11):
regret, or indignation. The attentionwhat she begged for, prayed a fame
solid the platinum on her wall sinceshe was sixteen, so ungrateful for it
all her pains game get a pictureof her angrious expression. If her waistline
(12:50):
catches sunlight on the sand, theypay millions for a personal indispression captured in
these top knots, lenses out,hand, lenses up, and the public
(13:18):
eye. You don't wear an umbrella. It's a world of un imagine scrutiny,
and it's true her defense threats inthe wool measure of a worthless,
vindictive mockery. So you see herat the check stand, growing older when
(13:48):
you comment on the ugly price ofplain, on that crazy trashy bleach out
turning thirty rest. She've got justice, Sofa, so blame, so blame,
(14:11):
to blame, cool song man,So Governor Tom, tell us a
little bit about what kind of excitingthings you got for the fans this year
are coming up? Well, I'mjust finishing up a fifth track to add
to the fourth that I've released,and I'm going to release that as an
(14:31):
EP in the next month or twowith the latest UM and that's going to
be my first EP. But Ihave already I'm working on charts and and
and setting up it was funny.I really thought I was going to do
an album, but I really I'vegot two more EPs lined up. One's
going to be love songs. I'mreally trying to, you know, are
as as I'm sure you know,as you record, you know, well,
(14:52):
everything's so digitized and computerized, whichaffords so much ease and convenience,
But then at the same time we'rekind of what we've lost as we've lost
a lot of breathing, we've losta lot of off the grid. I
mean, when you look at howyou make music on a computer nowaday you're
literally like on a grid. Andso I've got one EP that I want
(15:13):
to do, songs that just govery off tempo as freely as they want
to, and they're all mostly lovesongs. So it's going to be kind
of like a love song CD ora EP. And I don't know,
I don't it's going to be curious. I don't know, because with my
with the EP that's coming out first, it's all I recorded my rhythm first
and then built from there. Sothis is going to be kind of the
reverse. So that'll be exploration,and then I'm going to do another EP
(15:37):
of sort of more more rock androll style songs, the songs that I
have to lend themselves more to like, and then I'm going to move back
into steady tempo stuff. I'm performingwise, I'm still running around la and
singing out some of these new songs. And also I just decided that I'm
gonna think I'm gonna do like abusking tour. I don't really have it
(15:58):
in me with all this work totry to, you know, to do
these EPs. That's really where Iwant to focus. I don't have an
in me to do all the communicatingall that stuff necessary to really sort of
like plan and book a tour.So I think I'm going to do I'm
going to do a busking tour Torontosbecause busking is one of the most terrifying
things that I can possibly imagine formyself. And since I'm a firm believer
(16:22):
in facing your fears, I feellike I feel like I need to,
Like, I'm so comfortable I'm gonnawhen I'm on a stage. I'm so
comfortable in front of an audience whenI'm on a stage, but when i'm
just when there's not that like imaginaryfourth wall, when it's just the idea
of me just being like just completelyamid you know, the listeners that there's
(16:48):
something about that that terrifies me,and so I have to face that.
So I think I'm going to justplan a few you know, do a
little homework and run around California probablyin the fall, and just show up
places and busk because a will um, I won't have to do any of
all that negotiating and all that terriblestuff when you know, not terrible but
just time consuming. Um. Yeah, And so that's what I've got coming
(17:11):
up. Okay, cool, tellus your favorite eighties jam? What comes
to mind? Gotta be Ah,it's gotta be a Michael Hutchinson in Excess
song. Um oh, any ofhis music. He's yeah, outstanding musician.
Um. I also love that songby I'm really so bad at Names
(17:32):
Santos one two, one, twothree four. Um ah, gosh,
of course, you know, Princereally ruled the eighties. But you know,
uh, damn, I'm feeling I'mI'm feeling so bad on this answer,
which is fine, you know,but eighties music is good. There's
(17:53):
a lot of excellent, excellent eightiesmusic, so I'm really hard pressed to
answer your question. Okay, howabout your ideal superpower. What would you
say that is that I actually possessedher that I would want to possess it.
How about both? I think Ithink I think my my the superpower
(18:14):
possess is that I'm able to I'mable to reach my best within a group
and also inspire the group that I'mwith to reach for their best. And
that's why I think that my musicis succeeding in a way that I'm a
little bit surprised about, although Idid go out of my way to hire
like just outstanding musicians when I recorded. And I think the superpower that I
(18:40):
would really really like to have issomebody who's just, um, I guess,
you know, honestly just comfortable ina crowd. I've never really felt
comfortable in a crowd. I'm reallyalways been on a taller side. And
it's funny because when you're when you'rea taller individual, it's like you're kind
of always on display. You neverreally have a choice about it. So
(19:02):
I tend to, you know,just to keep my life in balance,
I tend not to sort of alwayswant to be out unless it's something that's
really sort of my choice. SoI guess I would just I would love
to just feel like really confident andand comfortable socially, um, more than
than I'm able. Yeah, okay, all right, I'll tell you what.
Tell us a little bit about thestrangest and weirdest compliment you've ever gotten
(19:26):
for your songwriter. Mhm uh youknow, um, that's a good question.
I just unfortunately the answer is beingpreempted by I just the answer that
I get, the compliment I getthe most most consistent is just that people
(19:47):
feel like my my songs are poetry. They just really feel like they're you
know, truly worthwhile poems put tomusic. And to me, that's the
most satisfying because I'm you know,as I said, it's like I really
it's like being a creative artist isreally my focus, and you know,
(20:11):
really to just face that blank pageand create something from scratch, and so
to have the writing, which issort of you know, the nucleus and
the blueprint of all else that followsthat. You know, that's the core
of the creativity. And to havethat recognized is is the best I can't
think of anything like, Okay,here you go, here's here's your story.
(20:33):
So I have this song. It'sactually I released. Did I release
that song? No, I haven't, No, I haven't. I wrote
the song called Global Citizen, andyou know, it was it's sort of
you know, it was in theline with you know, let's do songs
that are you know, pro andbut you know, pro issue and pro
environment and all of that. It'snot a bad song, but I was
out testing it out at a atan open mic in a in a very
(20:53):
conservative community, and a couple ofyoung kids it's very you know, obviously
not of their own minds, butof their you know, their families minds
just literally started yelling during my signlike hippie sage, blank tea and you
know, liberal blah blah blah andliterally like literally shouting down my song while
(21:18):
I'm performing it because it was likepro environment and pro change and it was
that. So that answers your question, that was the most outrageous. Uh.
I won't necessarily call a compliment,but it was definitely the strangest reaction
to to my writing that I've receivedsupport. Okay, awesome, man,
all right, I'll tell you what. Tell us a little bit about your
(21:41):
website before I let you go.Where can people buy your stuff stream mat
so they can reach out to you. All right, Well, Governor Tom
music dot com is my website andit's you know, yeah, you can
put yeah, you can purchase mytracks there. There's probably honestly the easiest
place. I got PayPal and Stripe. That's all I really got set up
for payment, so hopefully people couldbe confident in that. And I just
(22:03):
find even myself nowadays, Man,I try to, like, I hear
a song and I'm like, I'mgonna support this hardist, I'm gonna buy
this music, and it takes likea day and a half to find,
like where you can I mean,none of the none of the like Amazon.
It used to be the last,you know, the last place you
could actually download something, and eventhat they've made so difficult because they want
to you know, they just wantto stream and take all the money.
(22:25):
So if anybody really wants to supportmy music, my website is the best.
Um it's hosted to a company calledband Zoogle, so they don't take
you know, a big cut ofit. Band Camp my music is also
on there. They do take apercentage, but that's fine too. I
don't want sharing, but um,yeah, that's where my music is if
anybody wants to buy or listen andstay updated, and I try to stay
(22:47):
I have a real problem with socialmedia because because my name is Governor Tom,
all of my stuff, anything Itry to do is constantly getting shutut
down by their algorithms because it getsflagged to something politically, even something political,
And it's been going on for wellover a year at this point,
and I'm actually so frustrated. Sobut it's also where I feel like I
(23:10):
have the best connection with anybody,with any fans of my music. So
um, and that's because I can'tuse Governor. It's uh, it's the
Facebook is either GTE music or Ithink that you know the it's backslash the
music of Tom Would, Tom Wouldbeing my my real name, and Governor
being Governor Tom being my artist name. Awesome. Well, I want to
(23:30):
thank you so much for being onthe show tonight, Governor Tom Toronto.
Thank you so much. You're welcome, man. Tell the listeners out there,
thank you so much for spending alittle bit of your precious time with
the two of us. We knowit's important and we hope your unique story
gets hurt around the world too.My name is Torontos. Please show me
every Tuesday night. You're other amazingartists sh they're fascinating behind the scenes stories
(23:53):
right here at the songwrit Sean RealityRadio one to one. Have a great
night. I love you guys,m M, thank you for listening to
(27:11):
The Songwriter Show. To keep themomentum going, head over to www Dot
songwriter Show dot com and join ourfree music community of artists, songwriters,
and producers. That's www Dot SongwriterShow dot com. H Hello Condu.
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