I’m happy to share my first interview of 2024, with none other than popular indie singer-songwriter Tom Tikka! I recently reviewed the single Hieroglyphs taken from his latest album Rainbows and Dead Flowers and I got to know a lot more about him during this in-depth interview. Read more to learn more about Tom and his music.
Please share your musical journey from the very beginning. How did you become a number one hit singer-songwriter?
I’m not sure if one becomes a number one hit songwriter through anything else except luck. Obviously, you have to be very good and you have to have the ability to write memorable tunes, which is a skill of its own but be that as it may, nobody is anything without knowing the right people and rubbing shoulders with the folks holding all the cards. In that sense, I believe number one hit songwriters are made. It’s only through connections that you might get lucky enough to be included in high-visibility projects. Maybe you get to write for an artist that has a huge fan base. If that happens, then obviously you stand a chance for hitting that number one spot.
But hitting number one is really just a testament to how hard the label promotes your tunes. If people don’t know about the song, they won’t find it and if they can’t find it, they won’t buy it and well … that’s that then.
I was six when I discovered Paul Anka’s music. He would have been oldies even for my dad but for some reason, we had his greatest hits in the car. Once I heard “Lonely Boy”, “Adam and Eve” and “Crazy Love” I was hooked. My life changed. I picked up the guitar I had gotten for Christmas as soon as I got home and have ever since written a song a day. I was six so my first song was called “Coca Cola Song”. It was a ghastly ditty but it was a start. The worst part is I can still remember it!
Do you play any music instruments?
I play guitar, bass, drums, piano, harmonica and I sing. First and foremost, I am a singer and a guitar player. But I love playing the drums and bass too. I love making records. You have so much control in the studio to get every little bit right. You can have countless retakes. It took a long time before I figured out what I want the bass to do in “Hieroglyphs” for instance. I don’t mind that. I don’t drop tracks every month. It takes me about three months to finish one song.
Which instrument is your go-to for song writing?
The piano and guitar. Those are the instruments I write on. It used to be just the guitar but you get different type of songs if you write on the piano. It’s quite handy actually to alternate between those two instruments.
You are part of a band called ‘Missing Hubcaps’. How did this connection transpire?
The band is me, myself and I. Hence the name. The band is missing! So “The Missing Hubcaps” don’t really exist. I don’t play everything myself though on the final product. My producer Janne Saksa shares the instrumental duties with me. I play the guitars and sing the lead on all tracks but other than that, it could be either one of us on bass or drums.
The band name was also chosen to honor my late father’s memory. I once accidentally busted one of his hubcaps when I helped him put on winter tires. This was when I was a teenager. He was a bit cheesed off with me as he was convinced that it happened due to my not paying attention to what we were doing. He was right! As usual, I was writing a song in my head.
The fondest memory of that incident is my dad walking up to my room before I turned in. He wanted to apologize for yelling at me, so I’d know that we were good and everything was fine. Upon leaving my room, he jokingly suggested that I should call my band “Tommy & The Missing Hubcaps.” I thought it was the lamest name ever at the time but lo and behold after two and a half decades, it sounded pretty damn original and good.
You’ve recently released your third album Rainbows and Dead Flowers. It has such a unique title! Please share the story behind the album.
Well, it was long in the making. I started working on it in 2020. In fact, some of the tracks date back to 2018. “This Is My Happy Face” and “Better Man” both came out first but only because they were more straightforward records to make. With ‘Rainbows and Dead Flowers’ I wanted each track to have a life of its own. Not just production-wise and musically but also lyrically.
I suppose the album is about broken relationships, failed endeavors and missed opportunities. In your forties you realize that life is very short and that none of us can really afford dozens and dozens of mistakes, especially when it comes to choosing life partners for ourselves. I’ve told my kids to not stay in dead-end relationships. The truth is I’ve always known almost from the get-go if someone will make me happy or miserable. I’ve never been wrong in my predictions. We should learn to trust our instincts. It either works organically without constant drama or it doesn’t. My one biggest regret is spending too much time on people who haven’t really been good for me.
As you mature, you also realize that life is very seldom like Disney movies, where everything gets neatly wrapped up at the end. In reality, sometimes life gives us rainbows and sometimes it serves us dead flowers. But you see, the beauty of it all is to learn to enjoy every day regardless of which ones you get.
A friend of mine once said that life is like monster waves. Sometimes when you are at the bottom of one of those, you think you’ll never be lifted up again, until eventually you are riding the crest once again. The trick is, I was told, not just to enjoy the crests when they happen but also to focus solely on them. I haven’t learned how to do this yet but maybe I will one day. I don’t think there is a short cut to happiness, whatever happiness is.
What’s it like being part of one of the biggest music labels, Sony Music?
I was a Sony/BMG songwriter and Carmen Gray recorded for them. It was of course wonderful. A huge label has huge resources. It’s completely different than releasing music on your own. It’s the opposite. Nothing is out of reach.
But it also means that you don’t have the final say on anything. They choose the songs for your albums and they produce them to meet their standards, which is probably the reason why mainstream albums sound wonderful and most indie albums really don’t. My brother and I always knew how to write, so that was never a problem for us. In fact, they had us write stuff for their other artists! I am very grateful for those years. I learned the trade inside out thanks to them. And I keep doing what they taught me. I don’t want full artistic control. I always consult my collaborators and my producer and the label (I’m now with One Media). If everyone tells me that a song I want to release is crap then I offer them another one and see what they think of that.
The problem with the music business today is that there is very little quality control. Anybody can release stuff through aggregators. It results in substandard music, which in my opinion a big chunk of independently-released stuff is. Having said that, I must concur that I have also come across indie artists that are absolutely brilliant.
A lot of indie artists that I have previously interviewed, often describe their sound in comparison with other artists. How would you describe your music?
Melodic pop/rock in the broadest sense of the word. It’s hard for me to label my own music. It’s a mixture of so many influences, everything from Rachmaninov to Metallica. Many critics say that my songs sound like R.E.M. or The Kennedys … I don’t know if I agree but I like both of those groups.
Who are some of your favourite artists?
Too many to list. The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Stones, R.E.M., U2, Rooney, Nirvana, The Doors, The Go-Betweens, The River Detectives … to name a few. I have a few thousand CDs and I love them all.
What’s next on the agenda for Tom Tikka?
Well, “Hieroglyphs” off “Rainbows and Dead Flowers” will come out on February 9. And then I have another single coming out on March 8, a collaboration with The Star Prairie Project called “California Smile”. I’m really looking forward to that one. We had a great time writing and recording that. Nolen Chew Jr. of The Star Prairie Project is a riot to work with. We just might do one more down the road.
Thanks so much Tom, for your time and for sharing so much 😊 you can follow Tom Tikka across the popular social media platforms and music platforms.
Jem Girl at the Piano 