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Leyton Thomas, welcome to VENTS! Your latest single ‘Screwcap Diet’ blends indie dream-pop with a poignant message. Can you share more about the inspiration behind this track and its lyrical themes?
I was bedridden for 3 days with something. Still not sure what, but it was stomach cramps, the lot – pretty bad. Anyway, over those 3 days I’m sure I would’ve carried around stresses we all share – bills, finishing a project, trying to make my boss like me. Yet all I actually wanted at that time was to feel well. When you’re stuck and isolated like that, with nothing but your mind, you really get to reflect on who you are and how you spend your time.
With a diverse range of influences and a unique sound, how do you approach the songwriting process?
My favourite stuff almost always comes from sitting with an acoustic first. If I have the skeleton of a good song, with chords and melody, I can bring it to a DAW with real creative direction. I pretty quickly decided to keep Screwcap Diet free of much digital experimentation, though. As an artist that wants to have a career that’ll be looked on retrospectively as varied and diverse, I feel a bit impatient sometimes and end up overworking a piece of music. It’s a discipline to realise when more is too much for the song. Once I had the slide guitar and vocal melody for Screwcap Diet, I wanted to just give them the space to carry the song and keep everything else very natural and pretty.
Your previous hip-hop instrumental, ‘I Forgot You At The Bottom of the Fridge’, achieved notable success on Spotify. What would you attribute the success of this release to?
As with Screwcap Diet, this was a piece that fit in a defined genre boundary, and one that I intentionally didn’t overwork. It ended up giving it that accessibility for popular hip-hop instrumental playlists and, gratefully, some of them showed great affection for it.
As someone who has moved from London to Manchester and immersed yourself in various music scenes, how has this geographical shift influenced your musical journey and the evolution of your sound?
Before I came here and started working in nightlife, the closest I’d got to electronic music was hearing Blue Monday. 6 or 7 years working gigs, late Friday/Saturday club nights, and midweek DJs gave me so much musical education – a lot of it I’m sure subconsciously too. Geographically, Manchester and London are both major cities and ultimately don’t look that dissimilar. But it feels different. I walk pretty quickly but London still feels it’s been training for longer than me and I struggle to keep up. I listened to a lot of grime, metal and punk when I was back home, which makes sense now.
You lead and front the global-psych-jazz 6-piece Deafhaüs and have a residency at YES in Manchester. How do these experiences feed into your solo work, and what do you enjoy most about these different musical ventures?
I was on stage before I was writing tunes on my own. I played guitar in a band in London and it was only in Manchester that I started writing prolifically at home and singing more. It’s a beautiful balance to not only play on stage and off, but to have a project where 6 people bounce off of each other to create dirty riffs that people dance to is a lot of fun. Both give each other that balance and context that make each really enjoyable and mentally stimulating. It helps prevent that creative crash too when you’ve been tunnel visioned on a project.
If you know YES in Manchester, one thing it certainly values is music (you can take a look at their listings for an idea). I do 6 hours every Sunday night, and I’m given the licence to play essentially whatever. I’ll go through soulful hip-hop, downtempo electronic, singer-songwriters, brazilian jazz – anything nice really. I also get to sneak some unreleased stuff in and try to subtly gauge if anyone’s feeling it. Now and then, I’ll spot someone trying to Shazam something that only exists on my hard drive and it’s honestly the best feeling.
In your music, you often explore deep and introspective themes. How important is it for you to convey a message or emotion through your music, and how do you hope your listeners connect with it?
I don’t really write about concepts or abstract ideas, or even opinions sometimes. It’s really cool that people can. I don’t know, maybe it’s the epitome of being an egotistical musician but I write about myself a lot. I’m quite rational on the surface but emotional too, and I think a lot about stuff. Some people are spontaneous and wear their heart on their sleeve. I process things, and in that time a lot of words and thoughts pass through my head. I guess I’m grateful I have an outlet to write them out.
Finally, as an artist who constantly evolves and experiments with sound, where do you see your musical journey heading in the next few years? Are there any new directions or projects you’re particularly excited about?
I’ve been waiting to write a collection of songs that really tied together before making an EP. I didn’t want to just release 4 or 5 singles and call it an EP. Well I’ve got them now – the lyrics are done, the chops are there, it just needs final vocal takes and mixing. That should be out late summer/autumn this year.
I’ve got another single that’s being mixed right now that, to my ears, is one of the most beautiful things I’ve made. The creatives reading this will know what I mean when I say sometimes you listen/watch back something you’ve done and there are so many bits you feel self-conscious about and doubt – but I’m really proud of this one. It also hints at my use of production in tandem with songwriting which I’ll be doing more of with future releases.
