ON THE RISE
AUSTIN, Texas — The artist known as SomeoneCalledSomeone spent part of his early adulthood living a dream to be a musician and promote his songs, but he also paid a steep price, battling addiction, problems with the law and failed relationships.
Now he’s determined to recapture the joy of making and sharing music without exposing himself and his new family to the temptations of the music scene.
SomeoneCalledSomeone just released the second EP in his “Moods” series called “Frequencies: The Moods Vol. 2” out on streaming service as of March 10, 2023.
SomeoneCalledSomone said the first EP, “Pensive: The Moods Vol. 1,” released last November, was the slower, more introspective album.
“Volume 2 is supposed to be, ok, we got to think about some deep stuff, now it’s time to have some fun,” he said. “Let’s roll the windows down, let’s turn it up and let’s just vibe out. So that’s kind of the whole concept and motivation behind Volume 2, this one is the feel-good EP.
“I'm pushing a decade from when I was last relevant in music. It’s like what do I sound like in today's market because if I go start creating music like I was doing when I stopped, it’s going to be outdated. I was asking who am I in this new landscape of music. I’ve been playing in different genres, different sounds and I noticed a pattern so I created the ‘Moods” EP series specifically around that.”
SomeoneCalledSomeone said he lived the music scene and lived the problems it caused for a number of years.
“I was a touring and professional musician for years,” SomeoneCalledSomeone said. “I was also a drug addict. I had two options. One was continue with music and probably relapse because that had been my pattern, get clean, relapse, get clean, relapse. Or walk away from music entirely and stay sober and have some kind of a livable life. So that was the decision I made and I walked away from music entirely for eight years.”
While SomeoneCalledSomeone thought he was done with music, his wife knew better.
“Two years ago my wife would still see me writing,” he said. “I loved to write whether it was journaling or poetry, wrinting what may or may not ever be a song. So my wife had bought me a little studio-in-a-box, the little PreSonas kits, with a mike, a pre-amp, monitors. When she bought it I was like I don’t know why you waste our money on that, I'll never use it. I have no interest in doing music anymore, that part of my life is over.
“Then about June or July I was bored, I was at home, and I decided, just out of curiosity I want to see if I can do it. So I made a song called ‘Days, Nights and Weeks,’ and it was about addiction. I posted it online under the name SomeoneCalledSomeone just to be anonymous and it got really great responses and it kind of made me think, you know what, this is cool.”
It was cool enough that SomeoneCalledSomeone decided to see if he could make and release music without dealing with the music scene. And he figured out the technology had changed enough that he might be able to release music and promote it without giving up his anonymity,
“I made the decision that I can, from the comfort of my own home and the privacy and anonymity of this online persona, create music and still scratch that itch, but maintain the life I've built, the family I've created and the sobriety that I now have that is closing in on nine years,” he said. “When I quit making music MySpace.com just started. Facebook was still for college kids. There wasn’t digital. Every single weekend, Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, I had a backpack on my back, I was standing on a corner on Sixth Street in downtown Austin with a CD players and headphones in my hand and approach every human that walked down the street sell them a CD for $5 or be out there promoting or pushing a show I had coming up.
“Now I never have to leave my house and all the promotion I do is online. It seems so easy like it’s a cheat code, but it’s not necessarily easy because everyone else is doing the same thing. It’s really interesting, I don’t know how to say which one is better, it’s just interesting.”
A new journey is now beginning. A new artist is molding and combining genre sounds and influences with the same deep and impactful lyrics which were once so highly regarded amongst fans. SomeoneCalledSomeone is the artist for anyone who has ever felt as though unfinished business beckoned for their undying attention.
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ON THE RISE
Blossoms caught up with NME to discuss competing with The Beatles and Johnny Marr for this week’s Number One album. With ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ in the running, the band also explained why making things themselves remains such an important part of their work as AI becomes more common.
The Stockport group put out their sixth album last Friday, October 2. By the midweek update, it was sitting at Number Two, between The Beatles’ expanded edition of ‘Rubber Soul’ and Johnny Marr’s latest solo album, ‘The Age Of Everything’.
“It’s mad, to be honest,” singer Tom Ogden said to NME about the chart race. “Liverpool on one side, Manchester on the other and Stockport in the middle. If you’d told us this 10 years ago, when we were releasing our debut, I wouldn’t have believed you. But I mean, we’re in good company aren’t we?”
Discussing the stories behind the album, Ogden described ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ as “about being married and all the everyday stuff that comes with it”. He married Katie Donovan, the sister of Blossoms drummer Joe, in 2021. Married life has since given him a new appreciation for what he describes as “the extraordinary ordinary”.
“Saying the wrong thing in an argument, losing your wife’s no claims bonus, crying at the Kardashians, it’s all in there,” he explained. “The album is named after Stockport Town Hall, which everyone round where we live calls the Wedding Cake, and it’s where I got married, so it couldn’t be much closer to home.
“The last album [‘Gary’, 2024] had a song about a stolen fibreglass gorilla, which everyone loved, and that gave us the confidence to bring the same playfulness to this one, just with more personal subject matter this time.”
Alongside tracks that came out of writing sessions with Declan McKenna in a hot tub, the album reflects the band’s desire to stay involved in every part of the creative process.
“It started with the recording,” Ogden explained. “We made the album with Shawn Lee, playing live straight to tape, and once you’ve done it that way you can’t really go and fake everything else. We sat down as a band and picked the colour palette, and everything visual followed from that. We had body scans taken of ourselves and cake toppers of the five of us 3D printed, put them on a real cake and photographed it. I’ve directed and edited the videos, and the sets are all built by hand, no green screen. For the pop-up shop on launch weekend, a local artist hand-painted the album cover for the sign outside.
“It’s more work, but you end up with a world that’s yours, and I think people can tell when a band’s had its hands on everything.”
With AI tools and digital effects becoming increasingly widespread, that approach feels particularly relevant. For Blossoms, though, the motivation is simple: “the fun is in the making”.
“Tape doesn’t let you cheat and neither does a real cake,” Ogden said. “If a set’s a bit wonky, it’s because one of us or our mates built it. I think the more stuff gets generated, the more people want to know a human being actually did it. We’ve been in this band together for over 10 years, five lads from Stockport, and that isn’t something you can ‘prompt’.”
Maya Jama also appeared in the video for the album’s first single, ‘Meet Me In Love’. Her appearance came shortly before the UK launch of Celebrity Traitors, where she took on the role of a traitor alongside a cast that included Richard E Grant and James Acaster.
“She was brilliant,” Ogden recalled of working with Jama. “We’d met her at the MTV EMAs in Manchester a couple of years ago, so we took a chance and sent her a DM …and she said yes. Next thing she’s in a theatre in Cheadle miming my vocals while a load of people dressed as me serenade her. She got the idea straight away and was a proper laugh about it.”
The conversation then turned to whether he thought Jama could take home the win on Celebrity Traitors.
Ogden joked: “As for Traitors, she spent a whole day pretending to sing my song and I almost believed her, so I’d say she’s got every chance.”
Fans can listen to ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ now. In November, Blossoms head out on a UK arena tour with The Royston Club. Tickets and further details are available here.
Before the tour begins, the group is also scheduled to appear on SNL UK on Saturday, October 24.
