I spoke to 23-year-old Tom Hawkes, who’s determination at pursuing a dream career in music has allowed him to work alongside Mallory Knox, Neck Deep and at some of the UK’s biggest music festivals such as Download, Slam Dunk and Reading and Leeds. Amongst being a guitar technician, tour manager and driver for his company Road Hawk Touring, we talked about Tom’s dreams of his recent band Led by Lanterns becoming a success and what motivates him to carry on doing what he loves day in day out.
Everybody’s wanted to be in a band at some point in their lives, to be the leading frontman and steal the show, and since I’ve known Tom – from the days he tried to teach me guitar in secondary school – he’s always been an enthusiastic music fan. He explains: “I’ve been singing since the age of 5 in the Welsh Eisteddfods and I was always very involved in school productions, but it wasn’t until I started playing guitar at 11 that all I wanted to do was music. At 16 I had a stage where I debated joining the military following in family footsteps, but decided against it. And I’m glad I did.” He’s been touring since and adds: “University was on the cards but this was the turning point where I felt I couldn’t not pursue it, and I don’t regret a thing.”
Having taken on so many different jobs inside the music industry I asked Tom what his main focus is right now, and admittedly I didn’t expect any other answer: “My dream will always be to play on stage, hopefully that will never change. The band is definitely my main focus. Eventually one will have to over-take the other and in all honesty I hope it’s the band that does the over-taking.” Although he remains determined on making the band work he understands the reality of wanting to pursue such a difficult dream: “The only problem is, the band doesn’t pay the bills, yet, touring does! I’m still trying to find the right balance between the two.” Admittedly, Tom points out that he refused to get a crappy 9-5 job and goes on to say: “One of the other main reasons I got into tour managing, teching, and driving was to gain experience on the business side of music, ultimately I believe I’m a lot more clued up than I was when I was just playing a band. If the situation arose in a few years that the band wasn’t going anywhere, with the touring business I’d at least have something stable that I enjoyed to come back to and carry on with.”
No matter what you do in life there’s always going to be challenges you’re going to have to face, but Tom has no regrets at the path he’s chosen to taken: “I haven’t really questioned it, that’s not to say there hasn’t been obstacles. Age I think can sometimes be the biggest obstacle for young people in the music industry, older people tend not to take them as seriously. I like to try and make an impression that would make the person think ‘You know what? It really doesn’t matter how old you are.’ It’s definitely more about your personality and your work ethic in this industry.” Even with six years of experience, there’s still so much for him to look forward to: “It’s a cool feeling when people are shocked at how young you are because you’re doing well at something you love, it’s a subtle hint that you’re doing something right.” As all rock’n’roll stories go when it comes to relationships Tom falls straight into the category of unsuccessful ones “I’ve always struggled with it because every time the music comes first, although, I don’t regret it, I’m still young and I’m building something that I’m proud of.”
Coming from a small town in Mid-Wales and anybody who’s also come from there can agree there’s a little chance of striving in a career of music, but sometimes it can be hard to just up and leave. Now living in Birmingham Tom claims it couldn’t have worked out better: “I always knew I was going to move someday, I just didn’t know when that time would come. I started doing the tour driving when I was still back in Wales, it was ok but it was just awkward to get anywhere and it sometimes put people off with me having to drive all those extra miles to pick them up.” Although Tom and fellow band member Chris were the first to make the big move, their drummer Shaun soon joined and now the whole band resides under one roof: “The mix of people we have in this band is great, a lot of bands wouldn’t be able to stand living together but it’s been good for us so far, and in all honesty I don’t think the songs we’re writing would be anywhere near as good if we couldn’t stay up until 6am writing them then stumble to bed 2 doors down the corridor. Another benefit is its made me love my hometown more – I really look forward to visiting home, whereas before I couldn’t wait to leave. ”
With friends, family and a positive circle of people, Tom emphasises he’s been lucky enough to be surrounded by those that push him to keep going. Unfortunately there’s always going to be a few who will always question what you’re doing but he illustrates those are those back in the small town of Tywyn “It’s those that spend all their wages in the pub and will probably never leave the place, I definitely don’t lose sleep over that.”
An expansion along side Road Hawk Touring is Tom’s group ‘Band pads’ which now has over 2,000 members across the country and is becoming well known as ‘The College’ across the world. “The whole putting bands up is great, and as stupid as it may sound I’m really passionate about it.” This now well-connected community happened as result of past experience: “I was looking for tour accommodation one day last year and I just realised there was no where people could help each other out with places to stay whilst on smaller budget tours. Staying in hotels every night just isn’t an option when you’re getting paid pennies for a show. People have been letting us crash on their floors for years, so for us to now be able to do it on a whole other level is insane!”
Unfortunately, its the harsh reality that if a band isn’t successful they have to take on day jobs alongside practising: “We’re all different ages and we all have jobs outside the band, but we’re in the process of turning our hobbies and passions into careers. Between us we have a good little touring crew; we have a tour manager/guitar tech/driver, a videographer a sound engineer. When I can, I try and help get them out on the road with me or with other people because as mentioned earlier being on the road makes you more business minded and at the end of the day you have to treat being in a band like a business because that’s the reality of it.” I asked whether he thinks this can sometimes dishearten people who are trying or have been trying for years to get somewhere “Yeah, definitely, there’s been times in the past before I started the touring job where I’ve thought about sacking it all in.” Positively he then says “but those feelings are only temporary and if you’re made for it you’ll always come out the other side with a new idea or a new way to get over it. People need to stop wasting time asking “Why?” they haven’t made it yet and think “How?” are they going to go about it this time?”
Although Tom’s learnt a lot as the years have gone by and he’s by no means an expert in the industry he does have some advice for those who are passionate about what they’re doing: “just take a risk and do what you have to do before it’s too late. Life is far too short to sit around worrying when you could be out there doing what you love.” Talking specifically about the band side of things he mentions how important patience is: “so many people are caught up in getting all the fancy merchandise and going on loads of ‘tours.’ Ultimately, it boils down to how good the songs are, make sure the music is what you want it to be before even considering showing it to the world. Knowing your surroundings is always a great advantage. I’d say I’m definitely a lot more hesitant to taking up show and tour offers now then I was when I was 18.”
Carrying on from this, I subtly asked what was next for him and Led by Lanterns “We’re releasing a new single in the next few weeks which is part of a really inspiring campaign which is aimed at fighting knife crime, I don’t want to give too much away yet but hopefully you’ll be seeing and hearing it about.” Referring to the subject of touring he states the band are happy how they are in this moment in time and are in no rush to get out there : “I don’t really see a point until we’re offered the right tour that will benefit us. We toured so much in the old band, we had an amazing time, but we lost so much money in the long run and no one is in the position to do that anymore. Every band goes through it at some point, you’re naïve when you first start out, you can’t just skip the local band stage. All in all, I think we’re being more cautious and clever this time around. We have this conversation about the balance between the love of the music and the money a lot in our band.” He quickly responds to being offered rammed shows for pennies by saying “Of course I would, the most important thing to us is gaining fans and you’re not going to do that by not playing your music to people, whether it be online or live. It’s all about finding the right balance I guess, you have to put the graft in, but also need to be smart about not getting messed about.” With the passion and determination these guys have I have no doubt their future is looking like a bright one.
Check out Led by Lantern’s video for their first single ‘Recovery’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdOlno47z54
You can also find them on Facebook at Led by Lanterns
https://www.facebook.com/ledbylanterns/
thelvecollective.wordpress.com 