Q&A: Continuing to Be Inspired By Experiences, thom.ko Creates Texture With His Music
ALTHOUGH REFERRING TO HIMSELF AS “THE MOST NORMAL PERSON EVER” — there has always been a natural mystique about thom.ko from the very beginning. His sound is an organic, stripped-back version of the electronic genre, often accompanied by mundane yet dreamy scenes in his music videos. Originally a Seattle native, the Los Angeles-based artist recently wrapped his first tour along the Pacific Northwest coastline supporting the neo-soul artist Joshy Soul.
Looking forward, thom.ko is focusing on further developing his sound into a more personal one. As he approaches perhaps the first turning point of his musical journey, with music festivals and new releases on the horizon, the artist is taking it slow, figuring out his roadmap one step at a time.
In Luna’s conversation with thom.ko, we further discussed his evolving sound, plans for upcoming projects, and how visuals serve to inspire and complete his music.
LUNA: Did you just get back from a tour?
THOM.KO: Yes! We did a four-show run … supporting Joshy Soul. It was up in the Seattle/Washington areas, which was super fun [since] it’s where a lot of my friends are. That was two weeks ago — Thursday through Sunday — and [our] first experience being on the road. It was a lot of fun. It was me and a guitarist, Ben Hara, and this road trip [with] shows in Billingham, Spokane, Portland, and Seattle. It gave us a taste of what life is gonna be for a little bit.
LUNA: What was the most memorable moment for you?
THOM.KO: The first thing that came to mind was the Green Room on the first night. It was really small, kind of like a closet — no disrespect to the venue — for smaller venues; they don’t have the space and it’s okay. It just opened our eyes, like, “Okay, this is the start of our journey.” If we had a Hero’s Arc, and we look back at this when we’re playing bigger shows, it’d be really fun to look back and be like, “That was really fun.”
LUNA: I want to ask a little bit more about your personal style approaching live sets now — has it been very different from a few years ago? Did the pandemic give you a nice break from it? Or did you take more time during the pandemic to think about what you want to do on stage?
THOM.KO: I would say it definitely gave me time to re-evaluate a bit. Initially, I wanted to have a bass player and a guitar player. I think that worked the best for my music, but it would have complicated a lot of things and would have been more expensive, and we’re on the smallest budget imaginable. So it was just me and Ben, and we managed it pretty well. We pulled it together pretty quickly. It’s easy to be like, “Oh, let's keep adding parts, but also let's be a little bit more cautious with adding live parts.” But, yeah, getting a lot of guitar was awesome and added a whole different flavor to a lot of songs. Having somebody up the energy was just really great. After every show we would be like, “Okay, what [can we] improve?” and just honing in there when we play in different venues. Also, our critiques were different based on the venues and the crowds. So it gave us a lot of different ideas for the future. And I'm really glad I used to play around Westwood, LA. I would just bring my laptop and play by myself. I'm glad to take that next step, and it was a lot of fun to just be up there with another person's energy.
LUNA: I’m glad you guys are being spontaneous with all this. Also, your sound itself can be very experimental and spontaneous, like that one video you put up on Instagram during the lockdown where you were just knocking at different things in your house. What started that? And are you still going in that direction?
THOM.KO: That’s a question that I’m asking myself. I guess I would say I’m a little outside of that [the video] for now. I think those videos came up because I was doing online school and was just stuck in my parents’ house. I started doing things that I’ve thought about for a while. Even if it’s not exactly what I imagined, it would just be what it feels like the truest representation of where I’m at. I didn’t have anybody else there to tell me to tweak it. Whether it was ignorance or just me being lazy, it was just like, “Okay, that’s good enough.” It could have come off as laziness, but I think at the time it was just spontaneous, and it overshadowed the amateurish aspect. Again, I think that was a good question because I think I do want to balance both worlds — kind of spontaneous but also hopefully leveling up the sound a little bit. That’s kind of the goal for the next few years.
LUNA: Going off that same train of thought, can you use a few words to describe the feelings you want to achieve with the sound of thom.ko?
THOM.KO: Well, I’m kind of going for this idea of synesthetic, yet organic, with a lot of electronic elements [that are] generated on a computer for the most part. It’s really just this idea of spontaneity, free-flowing, a little bit more organic [in a both] grounded and floatin’ sense.
LUNA: Talk a bit about your music video production. What goes into the planning process? Do you see that process changing in the near future with your upcoming tracks and projects?
THOM.KO: Yeah! Going forward, that’s a very important, perhaps the biggest aspect to be addressed. In the past, those videos came about while I was in college. I was making music in a dorm and then various people would approach me with ideas and treatments, and they were all a lot of fun to make. I'm really glad that I have them and they've helped to build a little bit of this identity and the visual brand. I think going forward, however, I would love to have a little bit of personality within it. I think I was represented in those videos as this person that I am but not quite what I want my music to show. For this next phase of music, I’m looking to make it a little bit more DIY, a little bit less produced, a little bit more natural for myself. Maybe I’d frame myself into situations that are more realistic and more representative of what I would be; what I would do. Hopefully I can direct videos, [and] hopefully I get myself into a direction that feels organic and truly representative of myself. So I'm excited. And I think we've laid the groundwork.
LUNA: Who are you inspired by lately? What are some things in your normal day-to-day life that have been inspirational to you?
THOM.KO: Personally, I think the most basic thing that’s been very inspirational for me is this idea of maps and arts that are inspired by layered and textured materials. I would say I am actually a more visual person than a music person. It’s easier for me to be inspired and awestruck by visual works, which is weird, because I do music. So, yeah, recently, it's been a lot of these dense-in-texture, really intricate, natural visuals, especially with the topographic maps. Then I try to steal it and make it into very textured dance music. Then [in terms of] artists, always a lot of Bon Iver. I just got into Elliott Smith recently, and I listen to a lot of Paris Texas. They’re pretty cool — I like their stuff a lot. I try to keep a mixture of new and older music.
LUNA: I like how you describe your music: dense in texture, but also kind of light at the same time, even though there are so many layers, which is reflected through the covers of the songs. Are you the person who designed them?
THOM.KO: I designed most of them. The one for “Veins” I did with Bami Aleshe. We were like, “Let’s do one that’s [inspired by] the Pacific Northwest mountain areas; let’s try to make it kind of fragmented and pixelated.” That was really cool. Bami came to me with that idea, so all credits go to him. And then “Confusion” was me and Bami too’ “Silence” was me and Toby (better known as Karl Perkins). Yeah, and then the rest was just me. I think it’s just — you make a song then you would want a piece of larger visual aspects that can go with it, and then people would also associate the song with the cover, which is a cool aspect.
LUNA: What is the very next thing to check off on the list? What is on the general roadmap for the upcoming three to five years?
THOM.KO: I guess the next big day would be next Friday. I have a new song coming out called “Don’t Look” produced by apob, with a video directed by Toby that will come out hopefully a week after that. It’s definitely different — very upbeat — but it’ll be a lot of fun. And then in March, I’m playing a festival in Phoenix, which will be a lot of fun. We kind of plan the rest of the year around it, hopefully releasing a string of singles and packing it into an EP based around this idea of communicating through textures. The next three to five years? I mean, that’s just the next six months. I would love to spend more time outdoors, explore the world in the next five years and just be inspired by a lot of new things. I mean, I will always be making music. I guess the only thing you can predict for the next three to five years is just continuing to be inspired by a lot of new experiences.
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