Randy Devlin-Souter Of Tomorrow, When

Interview With Randy Devlin-Souter Of Tomorrow, When

SBS:  Welcome to our pages!  Whether you’ve been here with us in some way before, or you’re brand-new to the site, it’s probably best to get an introduction from you so that we get everyone on the same page to start.  Tell us a little bit about the history of your music, and what’s happening with it lately!?!

Randy Devlin-Souter:  Thanks for having me!  My band name is Tomorrow, When and I’ve been making music for something like seven years now?  I’ve been playing since I was in elementary school, playing trumpet and stuff, and I started writing and recording seven years ago.  I make Indie Rock, which is a REALLY wide umbrella, but there’s a lot of room to wiggle in that genre.  I had a new single come out May 21st, which is my first single in something like seven months?  So that’s pretty exciting.

SBS:  Let’s talk about the before and after of where you’re currently at.  What’s something about the music that you’re making now that you don’t think you could have done five years ago, and what’s something you think you’ll be able to do with your music five years from now that you can’t do today?  How have you grown as an artist/band, and what steps do you take to continue your artistic evolution?

Randy:  I think something I couldn’t have done back then, is, like as simple as mix and master properly.  I usually learn and pick up stuff pretty fast, but it’s taken me so goddamn long to figure out how music production actually functions on the inside.  It’s been crazy.  As for something five years from now, I think I want to just have a drummer & a space to record drums.  They’re so loud, and time consuming, and I need more mics, and it would be awesome for a guy who drums to just wander along and I can scoop him up.  I think I’ve grown a lot as band, and it really shows over the course of my discography, from like, larger sounds and more players to something a little more simple, it’s really been a process of elimination when it comes to how I want to sound.  Continuing my evolution, I’m trying really hard to refine this whole “Live Plus” sound I’ve kind of got and want it to sound professional, while keeping the jank and charm of an indie project.

SBS:  If you were to assess the overall health of the independent music scene right now, what would you say?  What are the positives and the negatives about the current state of independent music, and what do you feel like artists & bands can do to contribute to the community & help it grow beyond the music being made?  If you’re not actively looking to listen to the music of other independent artists/bands, is it really all that fair to expect anyone would listen to yours?  How do you help the scene around you grow?

Randy:  I think I wanna tear down EMI and Warner Music.  One of the best things about the music scene right now is that so, so many voices are being amplified by all the technology available and services we can use and just being out there is half the battle.  But the problem is, we are living at the behest of those services.  Most of my promotion is done on social media, my music is hosted (albeit I have backups) on steaming platforms and distributed by a large-scale artist distribution company, and they sort of have my livelihood in their hands.  I think bands & artists need to collaborate more frequently, effectively, and efficiently.  It’s like a really awesome logarithmic frequency function; the more voices you add together in unison, the louder they get.  It’s not twice as loud because that’s how sound works, it’s like two and a half times as loud or something.  Logarithms are crazy.  Anyways, make friends and be friendly and work with those friends so everybody hears you more and one day we can blow up the headquarters of EMI and take back the scene entirely.

I listen to all of my friends’ records when they come out!  I save the ones I like, and offer advice/constructive criticism on the ones I felt weren’t hitting for me if they ask.  I think that’s the least we can do, is engage with art that each other create.  It’s absolutely fair to hope, maybe not expect, your compatriots and your circle to listen to your work because that’s why the circle exists: to support and to lift each other.  For strangers it’s a little trickier, transactional?  Not everyone can take a leap of faith.  I tend to take leaps for other people’s art, listen to releases by people I’m maybe in the same city of but not the same scene.  You never know who you’re gonna connect with!

SBS:  What do you consider to be the biggest accomplishment or achievement you’ve had with your music to-date?  How do you personally measure your own success – is that something that even can be measured?  Is it awards, accolades, chart position…or is your definition of success based on something entirely different?  Should success, however you define it, be something that artists are continually focused on – or is success something that naturally occurs in the course of doing what you love to do?

Randy:  I think the thing I’m most excited about/would call my biggest accomplishment, is this interview show I’m working on.  On the day of writing this, I’m getting ready to release the first episode.  I spent the last two months editing and sending clips and getting feedback and I think I’ve created a product that’s really special here!  It’s not a glittering example of my awesome musical genius or whatever, but it’s more-so a testament to the impact a competent artist (hopefully!) can cause on a scene!  I convinced a total stranger to come into my house and answer questions based entirely on a couple of conversations and a display of musical competency!  I’ve convinced multiple people!  I think it’s insane that these people I’ve barely spoken to, I’m now grilling for like hours on art, philosophy, some inane psychobabble, the works.  I feel like managing to get guests who want insightful questions and whatnot is a testament to the body of work I’ve released.  This is my display of competency, my aptitude.  If you want me to interview you, you have to judge me based on those credentials.  I think success is relative.  I’d argue I’m marginally successful, maybe not financially from the art or whatever, but I have rich and fulfilling interpersonal relationships that stemmed from being in bands.  Success is measured internally, not externally.  Until I get disgustingly rich, at which point success is measured by my Lamborghini and mansion.  Kidding of course!

SBS:  When you’re working on something brand-new, and something about it just doesn’t feel like it’s coming together the way that you think it should, how do you know when it’s time to give up on it, or how do you know that it’s time to dig in even harder and find a way to make it work?  Are there distinct red flags you can hear when something’s not working?  What are the signs you look for that tell you to stop forcing the material?  What would actually encourage you to keep going with the process instead?

Randy:  I think the sign to give a project a break, or even archive it, is whether or not it brings you satisfaction.  I’ve had plenty of projects of mine that I’ve released, and been proud of, bring me no joy whatsoever.  Joy I don’t think is a necessity for making art.  It’s definitely a bonus, but part of the process is struggling.  But when a project stops being satisfying, when it stops being a project about art and begins being a slog to check a box, dot your T’s and cross your I’s, that’s when I’d give in.  Sometimes it just doesn’t click, and you’ve got to accept that.  NEVER get rid of it though, just in case you find the secret to making it click.  You can always just wait for the moment you’d rather be doing anything else – if you can’t find a justification for a project other than “I have to get this done,” you should probably give it a break.  The saving grace is the spark – the flame that ignites the desire to work on it again.  Maybe it’s a fresh set of ears, maybe a new perspective personally, could be anything.  But something has to stoke that fire when you’re nothing but coals.

SBS:  One of the points of general consensus in the art of making music, is that we all get our sound from somewhere…we hear what we like, then more often than not, we take tiny pieces of what we love to find our own voice & approach to go on and make music in our own way.  Essentially, what I’m saying is that it’s absolutely natural to be inspired by other artists/bands, and almost every artist/band ends up having that inspiration show up in their own work in some way, shape, or form.  What the real key is though, is retaining your own organic perspective – you still wanna be original too, right?  So how do you go about doing that?  Are there artists or bands that you know have been an influence on your style & sound?  How were you able to incorporate that influence without becoming too noticeably derivative and still be yourself?  Should we embrace and celebrate our influences more than we do?  It’s almost like we try not to admit influences exist in the pursuit of being original, but it’s like, bruh…if it’s there, we can hear it.  We all borrow something from those that came before us to some extent, don’t we?

Randy:  Copy as much as you like.  Copy the greats, copy your friends, copy your dog and washing machine.  But leave those copies in the studio.  Use those copies as a way to define & refine your own boundary, not as a way to test whether or not you can bypass copyright.  I record covers all the time, some of them exist and many of them don’t.  But when I record, mix, and master a cover that’s completely for me I break down an entire song in my head.  I tear apart every piece of it and reconstruct it with my tools y’know?  It helps you understand the art you take in and better refines the art you let out.  Plenty of artists influenced me: Young the Giant, Arctic Monkeys, Streetlight Manifesto are the big three but I could go on an endless diatribe about bands I like.  Bastille, the Beatles, Walk the Moon, Johnny Cash, the Alabama Shakes.  It goes on forever.  Artists don’t “create” per se, we synthesize.  Everything enters my holes through one method or another and I shoot it out through my method.  Be as derivative as you can!  But do it in service of bettering yourself and bettering your art.  I’m a derivative hack and I’m proud to say it.  If I didn’t, I wouldn’t understand song construction the way I do now.  How well do I understand it?  I still have to work two jobs to make a living, so, you be the judge.

SBS:  Has there ever been a time where you wrote something inside one of your songs…maybe it’s a lyrical line, or maybe it’s a riff of some kind…something that you did, where you surprised yourself?  I like to think we all have a moment or two where we can stand back and be amazed by something we created, and appreciate the fact that maybe, just maybe, we exceeded our own expectations of what we thought we could accomplish – you know what I mean?  Get as specific as you can so the fans out there know what they should be paying attention to when they hear it – what’s your favorite thing that you’ve written on the inside of one of your songs, and why does this particular piece resonate so much to you?

Randy:  I think there’s been a handful of moments like that, the most prominent I’d have to mention is on my EP The Aromatics: Greatest Hits.  I play a trumpet solo on the song “Balcony” that I actually kind of took the time to write out and figure out what riffs I wanted to incorporate be before I actually laid it down on track.  It was kind of the first time I did that on a record rather than just plopping out an improvised solo and calling it quits, and I think it shows.

SBS:  I’ve been having a lot of great debates lately about whether or not everybody that’s making music has the right to be heard…and you’d probably be surprised by how different people seem to feel about this issue.  I know where I stand on it, and I think you can all probably get an idea of what my position would be from this free interview we’re doing here & the way we run things at sleepingbagstudios…but regardless, I’m putting this question out there to you, because I’m interested in YOUR perspective.  Just because you’ve made a song, does that mean people should listen?  If your answer is yes, do your best to explain why you feel that way & why we should make a sincere effort to listen to the music of others.  If your answer is no, explain why you feel that way, but also explain why people should still be listening to your music if that’s the case – what would make your music the exception, and not follow the rule?  Is there any value to an idea that’s not finished, or a song in its demo stages, or maybe something that’s not recorded in a top-shelf studio or with good equipment – somebody still took the time to make that song to the best of their ability with the means they had to create it – should that be listened to, or not?

Randy:  I think everybody deserves to be heard.  I think it’s as simple as the golden rule, y’know?  Treat others the way you want to be treated.  I try to go to my friends’ shows, I try to stream their songs, I try to promote and share their posts, I try to give people the same kinds of engagement that ultimately I want for myself.  Sometimes relationships like that can go one way, though.  Sometimes you meet someone in whatever scene you’re in who you really feel like you’d mesh with and they just don’t have the time or whatever to hang out and work together and you just gotta feel it out.  But, yes, I think that everybody deserves to be heard.  I think everyone with the ability to record their music, from voice memos to home professional deserves to be heard.  Maybe not major record labels though.  I wanna tear those guys to shreds.  But everyone else definitely deserves it.  The first Bandcamp page I ever had was recorded on my, like, 2014 Motorola Razr Android phone.  No mic or anything.  The first album I ever “released” was recorded with the mic from Rockband.  Everyone deserves to be heard.

SBS:  There are ups and downs in the dynamics of almost every album we listen to, with very few exceptions.  Even those exceptions, probably still come down to more of a personal preference about what we enjoy about music and how we personally hear it, rather than anything being completely and totally “perfect” – you know what I mean?  Does an album actually need to have some kind of up/down dynamics in terms of what’s appealing to the masses in order for the best of the best songs in a lineup to be fully appreciated?  Wouldn’t every artist & band avoid the ‘down’ side (less accessible/less popular for example) if they could?  Does the ‘down’ side represent something else perhaps, like the story of an album or journey of an artist?  Is the ‘up’ side of a record as potent or noticeable if it doesn’t have a ‘down’ side to go with it?  Would a completely balanced album somehow be boring if it didn’t have the ups/downs that most have?  Do we HAVE to like every single song on a record for it to be considered complete?  Are the dynamics of an album something anyone can really steer in the direction they want to, or are all artists & bands simply going with the strongest material they have created at the time?

Randy:  As a guy who is frequently billed as the downside of music, a sad acoustic artist, I think everything should be varied.  From personal preference, I hate listening to songs that just become a wall of noise by the end.  I love loud music, I even enjoy Metal here and there, but I hate songs that go nowhere.  Your brain just tunes it out, if there’s no fireworks or interesting stuff it just goes nowhere and it’s not very enjoyable.  That goes for both energetic “popular” music and less accessible “artistic” stuff.  The same thing but louder and more frequently just registers sonically very similarly to the same thing but quieter and slower.  I think the answer to this question is heavily dependent upon who’s getting asked, because some people think music for clubbing is the premiere art form in the world.  Maybe not me, y’know?  But someone does, and they think that consistency of volume and tempo for dancing is the upside and varied nature is the downside.  That’s pretty much the stark opposite of how I feel but that doesn’t make it any less a good answer, music exists for different reasons.  I make music to express myself.  I have friends who make music to do molly and pass out in the bathroom, which is also a form of expression.

SBS:  I wanna send out a shout-out to YOU from me personally – I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to talk tunes with me throughout the years, and I appreciate the time YOU have taken with this interview too.  Because this one’s a little different in the sense that it’s been sent out to multiple people and is a little more generic in that regard, I have no doubt whatsoever that we probably didn’t get to talk to you about something you wanted to talk about – so let’s fix that!  This final space is what we call the SBS Open Floor – a spot where you can say anything else you want to say to the people out there.  It can be anything at all…your main websites…something else you want them to know about you and/or your music…your favorite bands in the scene right now…the secret 11 herbs and spices to the Colonel’s secret recipe – you get the idea, and it’s probably best you choose something that suits you rather than take any of my suggestions, but feel free to take the SBS Open Floor for a ride.  Whatever it is you want the people to know, now is the prime time for you to tell’em!  Thanks again for everything – keep in touch!

Randy:  To anyone who’s reading this, Jer’s been a huge help over the years.  I’ve been interviewed very infrequently but knowing someone is there listening and keeping up and ready to open the doors after being very accessible for so many artists.  We haven’t talked much but we both know the other exists, and is working on art, and are willing to help each other out every now and again.  If you read this article, go pay the guy just for keeping up with old collaborators.  I was 19 when Jer gave me my first music review; I’m 26 now, it’s worth it.  I promise.

Also follow me on Instagram – @tomorrowwhenband.  I had a new song come out in May called “The Tide” and it’s pretty good.  Song of the summer.  Shout out Milkie’s on Elmwood, the bar I drink at.  Shout out my main man Steve.  He’s my road dog.  Shout out calling your mom.  She was nice enough to raise you, give her a ring every now and again.

Find out everything you need to know about Tomorrow, When at this multi-link here:  https://linktr.ee/permajr

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