Exclusive Interview: Tom Mann And Barclay Beales Talk Touring And Life Since Stereo Kicks
Were you crying on your bedroom floor when Stereo Kicks split up? If so, you’ll be happy to hear that the guys are still gigging around the country as solo artists. Last month, we chatted to former members Tom Mann and Barclay Beales before their concert with ViewMyGig in Manchester!
After interviewing Tom and Barclay, we can tell you one thing – they’re incredibly down to Earth. They may joke about being ‘screwed’ but they’ve certainly achieved a lot in the past year. The music industry is a competitive world and the guys have lots to be proud of. Not many singers can say that they’ve played on stage at massive arenas across the country but the guys did just that with Stereo Kicks as part of The X Factor Tour earlier this year.
In our exclusive SuprTickets interview, Tom and Barclay spoke about: life on the road, Tom’s new EP ‘In The Blink Of An Eye’, Pokémon, their plans for the future and much more. They also gave some advice to the contestants on this year’s series of The X Factor. You can read some highlights and listen to the hilarious interview in full below!
Tom – you recently released your new EP ‘In The Blink Of An Eye’. For people who haven’t yet heard it, how would you describe the EP?
Tom: “I think it’s quite honest. It was from a perspective of not having to write like ‘I’ve got to write this song at this tempo in this key.’ I just wrote it. There’s no real structure to it; I wrote it because it’s what I feel and what I did feel at the time. So expect some honesty and some heartfelt songs and lyrics.”
Where did inspiration for the title ‘In The Blink Of An Eye’ come from?
Tom: “I really wanted to use that as a song and I actually thought, with Stereo Kicks, if we ended up ever recording an album then that would be a great album name because it was just in the blink of an eye; everything that happened for us was in like the click of a finger. Bam! It changed from being a soloist to going into 8 members of a boyband overnight and being touted the next One Direction. Then going to judges houses, live shows, doing a tour and doing a single. It was all in one breath. That sort of sums up my past year.”
You both did The X Factor in previous years too, didn’t you?
Tom: “Yeah, yeah we did. (*laughs*) Why are you laughing Barclay?”
Barclay: “Yeah, I was there.” (*laughs*)
Tom: “We actually did, when we were at boot camp, we had a challenge one and a challenge two. In challenge one, you do like a sing-off. It’s like three guys and they’ll either put all three through or two through or one through or none. Me and Barclay were in that category together so we sang.”
Barclay: “But they didn’t show it.”
Tom: “They never showed challenge one for some reason but we sang ‘Treasure’ by Bruno Mars. It was me, you (Barclay) and another lad. It was like together but we were technically against each other. But we both got through.”
Did you keep in touch before Stereo Kicks got put together then?
Tom: “A little, here and there. We saw each other at the audition but we were never as close as what we are now.”
Barclay: “Tom was a bit too big man. (*laughs*) He’d kind of be like ‘You alright Barcs?’ before he’d swagger off and leave.”
Tom: “You know when you’ve got that number in your phone and you’re just like ‘delete’. (*laughs*) If he’d have got to judges houses, I’d have kept his number just in case.”
We’re obsessed with ‘Always Love’, the first song on the EP, and it’s currently climbing the iTunes charts – can we expect more tracks like that from you in the future?
Tom: “Thank you. Yeah, I think so, it depends if I go on to produce and record stuff for myself. My passion is songwriting but I like doing it as a job for other people. So I don’t really know what I’m doing as a solo artist at the moment but I really enjoyed writing that song and producing that song. Like you say, a lot of people seem to have taken to that more than the other two.”
‘+1’, the final track on the EP, is a love letter to your girlfriend Danielle. How did she feel when she first heard the song?
Barclay: “Is that what it’s called?”
Tom: “It’s called ‘+1’, yeah.”
Barclay: “Oh, is it? You didn’t go for the original then.”
Tom: “No, I didn’t go for the original.”
SuprTickets: “What was the original?”
Tom: “Danielle. (*laughs*)”
Barclay: “When he first recorded it, he sent me a demo and it was just called ‘Danielle.’”
Tom: “That was another track that we thought about using for Stereo Kicks. We were gonna do, mid-way through this year, a big launch celebration party for the single but we didn’t manage our time very well so we had to cancel it. That was going to be a song that we were going to include in our set. So that was more of a song that I’d written but I didn’t want to throw it away so I thought I’d use that. So yeah, it’s very wet and very soppy.”
You’re currently touring with ViewMyGig – what’s your favourite thing about playing live shows?
Tom: “We don’t actually really know yet, as soloists, we haven’t done it for ages. I used to love being part of the band and travelling with all of our mates. When playing a show, I felt a lot less pressure than what I feel now because you’ve got seven other people to pick you up when you screw up. Now we’re on a stage where, if we’re gonna screw up, it’s just our fault and now I’m even more nervous for the show.”
Barclay: “Here’s my other issue; I’ve got my tracks on WhatsApp. So if my phone rings, half way through my set, it’ll just stop. Then I don’t know what I’ll have to do.”
You released ‘Love Me So’ as your single with Stereo Kicks – how did it feel when that entered the top 40 of the charts?
Barclay: “We were gutted.” (*laughs*)
Tom: “All the promo was great, it was a good laugh. We always enjoy doing it. Like the CD signings, that was a first for us. The in-store stuff was really good. I just remember it went it at number 12 which was a great start.”
Barclay: “We were obviously expecting it to do quite well. then we got the news that it was like 31.”
Tom: “And we were like, ‘oh, we’re screwed’. It was a weird week but I guess, when you look at it, there was no label. We didn’t have a label, there was no major radio play so we can be proud of something I guess. It’s so hard.”
You both recently announced a project together as a duo – can you tell us more about Crosstalk?
Tom: “It’s sort of an on-the-side project for now because Barclay’s got a couple of things going on. It’s with an agency down my way in Southampton and that was mainly because we’re still up for playing live but we enjoy each other’s company. Within the band, we were like better mates of the eight and we said then that we don’t actually enjoy performing alone as much. So we thought we’d just see how it goes. We’ve already taken some bookings so I think that’s mostly next year.”
Barclay: “We just decided to create a kind of like an event band; so if people want to book us. We went down and recorded a few tunes to put on the website, we did a mini photoshoot and we’ve got a few gigs booked in the pipeline. We’ve got to rehearse for them. We’re going to learn two hours of stuff and then we can pick what stuff we should sing for what events. Depending on how Tom feels, we could start writing stuff together as well which I’m sure will happen soon.”
The X Factor is back on TV at the moment – what advice would you give to this year’s contestants?
Barclay: “Just be confident. Even if you’re not confident, look it. Because if you look nervous then people see right through you and it kind of ruins the performance. I’m a fine one to talk because I look nervous all the time but that would be my one piece of advice. Oh and song choice as well – make sure you pick the right song.”
Tom: “For the show in general, you’ve just got to enjoy it. Take it all in because out of hundreds of thousands of people that audition, only a certain amount of people get selected to be shown on TV and make that final 12 or wherever you want to make. It’s a massive opportunity so you should feel very grateful if you get in that position and just enjoy every moment of it because, I know for a fact that I didn’t. Especially the first year, I didn’t because I was so nervous and I was so worried about what people would think of me. Would I look alright on camera? Did I sing every note in tune? I was paranoid because it goes out to the nation so I’d say just relax your shoulders a bit, really enjoy the experience because it is once in a lifetime. If it goes well, great. Just be yourself.”
And if you could leave a message for everyone who’s supported you on your journey so far, what would you say?
Tom: “I would just say thank you so much for sticking with me and obviously, there’s fans from The X Factor the previous year – before Stereo Kicks – so thank you if you followed me through that journey as well. I hope you can stick around for the next part and the next chapter of the journey. I always love stuff like this – seeing people come to it and doing the meets and greets, things like that. So thank you so much.”
Barclay: “I’d say thank you to everyone that’s supported me so far. You’ve been amazing and I couldn’t dream of having support like we’ve had so thank you.”
At their concert in Manchester, Tom and Barclay played a mix of original tracks and well-known covers. It’s safe to say that they had the crowd in the palm of their hands. We’re glad Tom sang our personal favourite song ‘Always Love’ and Barclay smashed his cover of ‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri. The pair performed alongside several other talented artists on the night and we’d definitely recommend that you buy tickets to one of their next ViewMyGig shows.
Make sure you follow: @TomMannMusic, @BarclayBeales and @ViewMyGig on Twitter to find out where they’ll be heading next. Current gigs (including one in Paris) are listed on their social media and more details will be posted as and when new gigs are announced. Tom will also be touring with his former Stereo Kicks bandmate Casey Johnson in January next year; you can see where they’ll be heading here. That’s one not to be missed.
Tom’s incredible new EP ‘In The Blink Of An Eye’ is available here on iTunes and you can, of course, also purchase a copy of ‘Love Me So’ by Stereo Kicks here. We can’t wait to see what the future has in store for Tom, Barclay and the rest of Stereo Kicks. Hopefully there’ll be new solo music and lots more gigs too.
