In this interview feature, we get to know the most radicalist up and coming stars on the planet.       

This time we’re catching up with MF Tomlinson, the captivating songwriter whose debut EP, Last Days Of Rome, is strangely prophetic for today’s current situation.

In fact, it was the EP’s title track that first introduced us to the London-based Australian artist. If we take our minds back to a time before the all-consuming pandemic news cycle, our screens had visages of other disastrous world events, such as the uncontrollable wildfires in Australia, the tedious nature of Brexit, and the inflammatory relationship between Iran and the US. We were teetering on the edge of tragedy, and yet little did we know that it wouldn’t be all-out-war between peoples, but a continuous battle against a near-invisible virus. In a way, the message of Tomlinson’s ‘Last Days Of Rome’ portrays how the lack of foresighting clairvoyance means that we never know when, how and where the end will arrive. While this might sound like an overwhelming narrative to weave into a typical three minute thirty seconds of audio, the resettled performer delivers it with panache and theatricalism over a stretching seven minutes. 

It was a seriously impressive listen that meant when the EP came around, we knew that we had to ask MF Tomlinson more about that bar-setting single, the EP and the contrast between then and now from the perspective of this skilled songwriter. 

TMR: How are you holding up through the lockdown? Keeping in touch with your family back in Australia?

We are doing really well - I'm really lucky to be isolating with my wife. We've been working away and making extravagant meals. Very carby meals. Since when were carbs extravagant? Definitely going to unrecognisably change after this lockdown, like when someone gets ugly for a movie. But I was no movie star to begin with : / My wife looks fabulous though. Radiant. The main thing I have ended up filling my days with has been writing loads of music and collaborating with all the guys in the band. It's been getting me through! When I am not doing that I work at a bakery, we were furloughed for a bit but now we're back at it! The bakery is taking the brunt of people's newfound interest in baking. Pleased to be of service. One of things that feels very worthwhile about the job is taking the extra bread to charities like St Mungo's to help out and also seeing people who are working with vulnerable people everyday. They are just amazing. There are so many aspects to frontline work and you begin to understand how long we are going to have to keep giving back to the community to heal the damage that has been done.

My family are all good thank you! It's been nowhere near as severe in Australia. Lots of Zoom chats, it kind of takes distance out of the equation. My Dad is apparently ordering little juice boxes of Negroni to support his local bar. My sister in law is stuck in Australia, at the beach poor thing! Not jealous.

TMR: Your single ‘Last Days Of Rome’ turned out to be oddly prophetic for the times we’re living through right now, yet what was the original inspiration behind the semi-apocalyptic song?

I'm not saying that I expected anything that has happened this year, but somehow doesn't feel like too much of a surprise -  if that makes sense?

It was gutting, and heartbreaking but it did feel to me like somehow, something like this was going to happen - something big. The last few years have seemed like it was one thing after another.

So that was the inspiration - I felt an increasing sense of urgency to get Rome out as 2019 unfolded, it felt like the message of the song message became more and more relevant.

When it's a song like Rome there's a satisfaction in being able to express what you're feeling but you also really don't want it to be accurate or true. So it was a weird one.

Maybe people don't want to hear more bad news, but a lot of my favourite singers have always sung about the events going on around them. The hard thing is you don't want to be singing with nothing to say and for that reasons Rome was one of the hardest songs I've written.

There was living up to the standards my collaborators Angus, Ed, Ami and Connie and co-writer Paul brought to the track, but moreover there’s always a feeling of ‘am I overstating this?’ I wanted to externalise the feeling of the world at the start of 2020 very precisely.

With a lot of help I feel like it achieved that. This feels like a new era.



TMR: You were lucky enough to play shows in London last year, so let’s reminisce about the times we could still venture out to gigs… what was your favourite live show? And why?

Last year were so lucky! I will have to list a bunch of equal faves. All the headline shows: were so busy and the band grew every time, and that was such a good feeling. It was so daunting to book bigger places like the Lexington and the Moth Club but on the night it always came together. Another was the Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever at Village Underground - they’re great friends and one of my favourite bands around right now. That stage is amazing too, and the lights and the audience - all of us in the band really felt it, and afterwards the MF's all became big RBCF fans too. It was really special evening. The very next day I flew out to LA to do the Sum of Nothing video - big! Also the last show we played before lock down at the Shack - it was our first show for EYOE and we decided let's just go for it and had an 11 piece band, which was wild. We had Ed, Viljam and Angus in the arches just like Joni Mitchell in the last Waltz. Just before the show I dropped the big heavy keyboard on my hand and it was so swollen it looked like a whoopee cushion with fingers. Classic Times.

TMR: With live dates shelved, we’re enjoying lots of new music online. What have been your favourite album releases since the lockdown started?

Well can I start by saying the new Marcus Hamblett album ‘Detritus’ arrived in the post today. Cleaned up on Bandcamp Friday! Got Modern Nature too.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have of course been releasing singles ahead of their new record - I'm super excited for the release!

Also been enjoying new music from Dick Dent and the Death of Pop and very big fan of the new Katy J Pearson too!

Whenyoung have a new song and Sinead O'Brien AND KLO aka Kelly Lee Owens has a new track which is epic as usual, can't wait for her new record.

And Forest Law have a new EP on Brownswood and also Clementine March's album on Lost Map <3

Who else? And Wesley Gonzales! Always brilliant. Also be on the look out for stuff from Neolithic Records - extremely cool stuff coming out on that label.

And Ajimal - his new album is coming soon and has been dropping amazing tunes. He was kind (pun intended) enough to ask be in the vid for 'Above All, Be Kind'.

Whole lotta legends in that video. It's a great time for new music.

TMR: Any old favourites that are getting you through?

You bet. Listening to a lot of Nina Simone and Chris Cohen. Learning so much by listening to these two. Also a lot of John Martyn. And now Tony Allen and Kraftwerk. The inspirational figures at Atlantis Records in Hackney recommended Porgy and Bess - Miles Davis featuring the orchestral arrangement of Gil Evans. I picked that up right before lockdown. It's amazing when someone can point you at a classic record that is brand new to you. I recommend you pay them a visit.

TMR: Of course, you also released your EP, also titled Last Days of Rome. Does this release mark a significant milestone in your career?

Massively - I had no idea what a journey it would be to start releasing solo material. All these unchallenged notions of who I was and expectations of the finished product. I've felt constantly under a microscope, in a way that I've never done before. I’m always falling short and trying again and again. I always have my heart in my mouth and I always feel like I'm running out of time. And I am glad for all of that cos I think it's led to the best stuff I've done so far. Thanks to all the people that I worked with I was able to live up to my lofty expectations. They really pushed me and were there for me - it's really been a group effort. That's not only in the creation of the music but the videos, the photos, the design. I feel like I'm asking a lot of people - what's been the most inspiring thing, the quality and how much work everyone's put in. That's very humbling. I just hope that I am organised, respectful, inspired and sane enough to make it as fun for them as it is for me.



TMR: We love ‘Sum Of Nothing’ as it’s a warning against global warming through your lived-in gaze and oxymoronic joyful instrumentation. Why did you take this more upbeat approach as opposed to a “serious” sound?

Sum of Nothing is a mediation on two things. It's celebrating the incredible socially progressive culture that exists at the moment - that’s where that upbeat feeling comes from. That's what life feels like, or what normal life feels like to me when you think 'Ah man aren't my friends great' or 'Isn't that thing or idea or tv show or artist or anything really saying something amazing and there's an audience for it and it's growing'. I get a lot of purpose, get a lot of power out of that. And the other aspect of the song is of course addressing is the diametrically opposing sentiment that at the same time as you're doing all this great stuff, you are simultaneously erasing that amazing future you're creating. For people my age and younger, this knowledge has underpinned everything we’ve ever done. This is definitely a feeling unique to our generation, and I feel like we should really own that. I feel like that's why Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion resonated so wonderfully. Everyone has always felt like the world was ending but this time it actually might, Y'know? When you're talking about the here and now it's always complex, so often these songs have a duality to them. It's also putting it cynical and funny way that maybe helps me rationalise this stuff on a personal level, and hoping the listener will crack a smile too.

TMR: The last track to be revealed was ‘You & Me, Babe’, which also shares a name with a song by Ringo Starr. Did you take inspiration from the Beatles member?

I did not know this! Listening now! It's quite a different take on the topic isn't it? There's some interesting song titles on that album…

TMR: Of all the five tracks, which explore everything from loss of innocence to the climate crisis, what’s the one that you don’t get tired of hearing?

I’m so attached to all of them but probably on most days the ‘Nietzsche’s Day Off’, because it’s pure fun - reminding me to relax, which I often need reminding of! Also the video shoot was such a hoot.



TMR: During lockdown, have you been writing lots of new music, perhaps leading up to an album?

I have been writing furiously since lockdown began - I needed to now more than ever. As I said, it's the way I process things and how I find my purpose. I can get through a lot if I feel like I've got a new tune coming along, something really good. I really fall apart without that though! Unsurprisingly I now have a lockdown album - all my friends and collaborators across Europe and in the Southern Hemisphere have been sending me parts - guitar solos, drums even the flugelhorn and the tuba! My painter friend Chiara Baima Poma has been doing an incredible painting for the cover. Very excited! I've been returning the favour by playing a little saxophone here and there on other people's tracks which has been super fun. Really hope I'll have something to share soon. You can’t rush these things, but you can try. Thanks for checking in on me - hope you're good! Stay safe <3

By Hannah Thacker

Photo credit: Jack Tennant