THOMAS is Toronto's melismatic messiah, Thom Gill. You may have noticed him humbly grooving up on stage with his other musical projects Bernice, OG Melody or LOOM. He'll be joining us for the Most People debut record release party at Cinecycle and we're curious to see what sort of bubbles and butter people morph into once his curvy guitar licks and languid language start a-flowin.’ In this interview, THOMAS tells Wavelength’s own Adam Bradley about galloping poodles, the “semi-circle of death” and how Moon Shoes are for dreamers...

Hey Thom! I heard your song "God Is Calling Me" on CBC Radio 2's The Signal recently and I found myself singing it repetitively while walking down the street one night. Is that weird?

No way! The song is a series of five motifs that are intended to be mantric, put you in a special place so you can absorb the words and convert their present-tense scriptedness into a real, present statement about yourself. If you are finding yourself singing the phrases repetitively, I am “doing my job.”

Have you ever found yourself singing the songs of someone you know?

I would like the answer to this question to be “exclusively.” Not quite true. But I am, even to those who know me superficially, a Toronto enthusiast. Not that all my friends live in Toronto. But for the purposes of this questionnaire: Toronto is the world's musical fulcrum. We tirelessly infuse the world with our sounds and the world responds with mediocrity. Haha. Now to answer the question seriously. I know some gifted songwriters. And yes, I chew on their songs until my gums bleed. And I love every painful, gorgeous minute of it.

Do you ever sing your own songs when you're walking down the street?

Yes sir, I do. I have sung constantly since boyhood. And to hone my own phraseology and melodicism in hopes of delivering more acutely what makes THOMAS THOMAS in performance, I whittle away at my songs while, as you so deftly put it, walking down the street.

When you do walk down the street, where do you like to go?

In the mornings I like to walk to my PO Box, coffee shop and falafel dude. In the afternoons I like to walk to Colin's stoop and the record store. In the evenings, I like to walk to the Holy Oak. In the deep of night I like to walk to a covert location to meet my maker and ask them how to walk better and where to walk next.

Do you have a favourite yard in Toronto or otherwise?

My friend Claire's yard has been host to many an enchanted evening of Toronto capital-B Bliss. A willow fans myself and Robin as we coo love songs. Miniature poodles gallop about. Claire is tending to a casserole through the window. My car is parked in the alley (I didn't walk here).

Have you ever built something? Like a bench?

Never a bench. But my father teaches welding so I welded a bugle once! Kinda fun eh?

Do you ever find that your artistic intuition translates to other aspects of your life? Maybe with cooking or dancing?

Well, I don't cook. I love to dance. Big time. But when I dance, it's loose, largely pretty thoughtless, hopefully a regression to when I had no formal language for my artistic intuition.

My friend Adam was just saying he thinks about sex as a song form: “AABA, maybe a couple of C's and D's in there. Y'know, an intro, a coda, whatever.” I'm into that idea.

My friend Liam was just saying that improviser chops factor into a musician's sense of humour. Musicians are funny! We think about jokes with a lot of attention to form and colouration and we explore absurd extremes. I like this idea too.

All I can think of about myself is that I have a car and I take great pride in my navigation skills. Particularly getting around our fine city. One of our fine city's least fine points might be its layout and another its infrastructure, the byproduct of both being its infamous traffic. So I find I use my improviser chops when I'm getting around in the clusterfuck. Sometimes you have to go east to go west. But with music, hopefully there's no beginning and no end, whereas with driving, point A to point B should be your primary focus. If you're dawdling, get out ma way! Lord, get this man an editor eh?!

What do you think of the “semi-circle of death,” that space in front of the stage where no one dances? Toronto can be pretty bad for it sometimes.

I think it's fine. As long as people are still engaging by listening and laughing, I don't need to see their mouths siphoning beer while I'm trying to express myself. Haha.
You know what else Toronto is bad for? Talking. I went to see Cass McCombs at The Garrison recently and I had to leave. Not because the music was bad - the music was perfection - but because the audience blahblah-ing was wholly distracting and moreover, embarrassing! Now Cass thinks we're a bunch of arseholes. So if you were at that show and you thought your conversation was more vital than the vitality of a beautiful, intense, focused performance of a vital songwriter who was our city's guest, shame on you! But yeah, I doubt the semi-circle's going anywhere.

Moon Shoes (TM) or Sock'em Boppers (TM)?

Moon Shoes. No question. It's kinda like, are you a dreamer or a fighter? I'd like to think I'd never “bop” someone. And I'm a sucker for shoes.