Review Fix Exclusive: Thomas Wilby Gang’s Guy Thomas Talks Origin in Music And More

Photo by John Jowett

Review Fix chats with Thomas Wilby Gang’s Guy Thomas, who discusses his songwriting methods, goals for the band’s new vinyl and hopes for the future.

Review Fix: How did the project start?

Guy Thomas: I’d been in a band with Simon and Becca before but the project ended when our drummer moved away. I started writing songs that were a lot more in line with traditional American genres — blues, country, folk, gospel, etc. I played a few to Simon and he had some ideas of his own in the same genre and that’s pretty much how we started. Then we managed to rope in Becca on bass and Gaz on drums quickly after that. Not long after that, we heard Liz singing at a family event and we were blown away. We convinced her to do some backing vocals (she was really nervous, bless her) and from that point onwards she’s been a key part of the band. Liz is actually singing lead on more songs these days which I really like. It gives me a chance to concentrate on guitar. I also really like writing a song for someone else to sing. On our new album, “Wasters Regards”, Gaz sings lead on the track “Calder” and his voice really suits the track.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Thomas: For song writing it varies. Sometimes I write a song in my head on the train or in my car or out walking the dog. Other times Simon comes up with the bones of a great song and I just have to come up with lyrics and a melody. When it comes to arranging songs we just jam and experiment until it sounds the way we want it to. Sometimes a song will sound completely different by the time the band has finished arranging it.

Review Fix: What’s your standout song? How was it written?

Thomas: On our new album we have a really great track called “Cursed” where it started off as us jamming in the band — I love it when something happens really organically with us all contributing.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2019?

Thomas: If we can sell out our Vinyl that’d make us super happy — that way we can fund the pressing of our next one. Maybe I’m a lazy person but personally I don’t like to set goals with music as they make everything less fun. We just want to write and record and then repeat that process as much as possible.

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

Thomas: When I was fourteen years old my dad played me Exile on Main St by the Stones. I hated it. But for some reason, I couldn’t help but listen to it again the next day. After a while, it became my favorite album and I still play it to death today. If I wanted my music to affect a person, I’d love it to do that.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Thomas: We have a tonne of material that still needs recording so maybe we will do a single, an EP or possibly just move straight onto the next album.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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