Spindle Introducing… Interview 7th September 2011

It’s not everyday you attend a weekend music workshop at school and the next thing you know you’re signed to Helium records. Except if you’re the teen trio One Sixth of Tommy. The three ladies, Jordan, Joanna and Jorja, have been busy as of late – with performances at this years Glasto, an album release in August and a jam packed touring schedule, including Spindle Introducing . We were lucky enough to get a split second with the girls to find out more…

Hi ladies. You were discovered at a school weekend music workshop and this lead to you being signed to Helium records. That was in 2007 tell us about the journey from then the now.

Well, we recorded an album and basically we’ve just been doing gigs around the country to promote ourselves and our album ‘You’re In My Head’.

Were you friends before you were signed?

Yes, we’ve all known each other for most of our lives really.

You’re all still only 19, how did you find spending your teen years in such an adult industry?

Fortunately we’ve had a lot of supportive people around us who know what they’re doing and they were always there to remind just to have fun and enjoy ourselves.

What does the band name represent? Who is Tommy?

We like to keep Tommy a secret. You’ll probably hear a lot of different things about Tommy in the future.

Choose four words to describe each other.

We asked our drummer to describe us in 4 words, : Bubbly, Chilled, Creative, Sleepy.

You’ve worked closely with producer Chris Hughes, who is famed for working with people such as Tears for Fears and Paul McCartney. How was that?

It was so much fun! The second we met Chris we knew we were just going to have a blast making the album. He’s so laid back and chilled about everything. Our personalities really matched up so it just made us enjoy making the album that much more.

Your songs have been described as melodic, graceful and uplifting. In one sentence, describe your musical sound.

A simple blend of acoustic, pop, and folk.

You played this year at Glasto tell us all about that!

It was an amazing experience! We loved the croissant neuf area and stage where we played. The whole place has such an amazing vibe and we can’t wait to go back in 2013!

What’s the worst, and best, gig you guys have played?

The best would probably have to be Glastonbury, we played a small gig on the Bandstand on the Wednesday and the crowd were just loving it, it was amazing!

And we did a gig when we were first starting out and our microphones didn’t work properly and everything kept breaking, it was a bit of a disaster, but we got through it

Your album was released in August. How has the reception been?

We had our album launch last week and the turn out was great. Yeah it’s early days but we’re really happy with the reception so far.

Besides music, what else makes you tick?

We all have part time jobs and very different interests outside of music but we all love going out and having a good dance.

Finally, tell us what we can expect from One Sixth of Tommy next.

Lots more gigs, and we have lots of material for a second album so were gonna keep writing and recording too.

Amy Lavelle