“Doing a long interview like this is kind of cathartic.” Says Thomas Pitts of London-based Auld. Talking about himself and his music does not come easily for Thom. Being verbose about your own talent is often difficult for artists, adding to the contradiction that so often surrounds a person who chooses to get up on stage as an entertainer. Yet, for all the questions Mr. Pitts implies about shyness, you cannot overlook his mastery of writing and performing listenable music. Thankfully, Thom and his cohorts in Auld embrace what they term as “genre fluid” as they frame their story through the lens of indie pop, sometimes rock, and sometimes electro. They like a good cry and they like a good dance and they want you to join them. Their just-released first single, Need Her Still is a good introduction to the Auld sound. “I wrote this and then everything started to fall into place afterward,” says Pitts.“This is the only love song I have ever written. Lyrically it is quite simple – it is a list of things that would make life quite nice and more enjoyable on paper but all of these mean nothing without the person you love”.
Thomas Pitts’ fascination with music began with an obsession over the Spice Girls at 9 years of age. He wrote songs to the tunes of their songs and also to the tunes of the Lion King. Fast forward to the appearance of The Strokes, which influenced Pitts to form a rather young band emulating that sound. Auld started by Thomas Pitts as a solo project. They currently perform as a 6-piece, with Pitts joined by Alan Giles, Brian Wortman, Rachel Hearne, Glen Giles, and James Milner. Their debut album, Mainstream Music will be released in the middle of March. On the next edition of Life Elsewhere, hear cuts from the album and Thomas Pitts’s uninhibited conversation with Norman B.
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