Review Fix Exclusive: Jom Comyn Talks ‘Change Your Mind’ And More

Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter Jom Comyn, who discusses his origins in music, creative process and new single, “Change Your Mind.”

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music? 

Jom Comyn: My dad is a working musician, and he got me my first guitars and microphones and everything. I always made songs and recorded on my own in the basement when I was a kid, but I didn’t start playing live until after high school, I met my good pal Mike Kropiniski, who was in a band at the time. They needed a bass player, and that was the beginning, how I met my first group of music pals in Edmonton. 

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like? 

Comyn: It usually starts with a rhythm, from walking somewhere, a certain moment lends itself to a certain rhythm, and from there, a sound is waiting to be made, or a phrase comes or a melody, and when I get home to a guitar I can start building it up. 

Review Fix: What inspires you? 

Comyn: It’s impossible to tell what moments are going to come together into a song and which ones won’t. It still feels like I’m learning from square one each time. 

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Comyn: I usually just say I’m in a rock band, but if I have to get into it, I come up with weird, farfetched things like “snowcrust” indie rock, because I don’t really know how to talk about it. And then there are the recordings I do where it’s a specific genre, like jazz or noise or country or soul or whatever. 

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work? 

Comyn: In a recording, you can do anything, but at a show, unless I want to commit to a huge band, or a lot of backing tracks and samples and triggers and stuff, then I have to confine myself to what can be played with a 4 piece band, except for some special occasions. I’ve never counted, but I bet there’s a 1/3 or 1/2 of songs I’ve recorded that I’ve never played live. 

Review Fix: What inspired your latest single? 

Comyn: “Change Your Mind” was a sound I was playing with for years, it would come to me, but I always heard it as a really elaborate part with two guitars in weird chords fit together in a really clever way that would just sound amazing, but I could never figure it out. Then one day, I realized it was just a plain old A chord and G chord, and it ended up being one the most basic songs I ever wrote. Whatever works!

Review Fix: How is this album different from your seven other releases? 

Comyn: This was my first time recording on analogue. My pal Chris Dadge, the producer, works on a TASCAM 388, so we would do the basic rhythm tracks on analogue, and when we ran out of room, we would do the rest of it, the vocals especially, on the computer. Musically, this is one of my most cohesive albums to date, it doesn’t go all over the place like a lot of my other albums do. 

Review Fix: Where does it land in terms of your legacy? 

Comyn: Ha that’s over my pay grade.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2019? 

Comyn: 2019 is very much one foot in front of the other, focusing on giving this release and these tours the best that I can, to do right by this album Dadge made with me. 

Review Fix: What’s next? 

Comyn: I’d really like to play in the UK and also in the US someday, but I can’t even think that far ahead right now.

mm
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.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*