The double life of Tom Rowley as he finally steps out alone
Tom Rowley was living a regular life in Yorkshire in 2013 when one phone call from an old gang of mates would lead to him headlining Glastonbury months later, changing the trajectory of his life and putting any potential plans for a solo album on hold.
That phone call came courtesy of Arctic Monkeys, who he’d known since they were kids and rose up together in the Sheffield music scene.
While Rowley’s band, Milburn, had enjoyed reasonable success during the indie boom in the late noughties, they’d disbanded by this point. He’d moved on to form Dead Sons, but music was no longer a full-time gig, and his old mates Arctic Monkeys had gone stratospheric.
Reflecting on where he was in life when that phone call came in, Rowley shares over Zoom, “I were working at the time, PAT testing, which is very boring. I can remember having to go to work the next day after I got that phone call, and I had to finish the week off that I was doing in this grotty factory, I think it was in Leeds. I was very grateful they asked me to do it.”
At this point, Arctic Monkeys were about to headline Glastonbury for the second time and had been the biggest band in Britain for more than half a decade, with AM about to make them a worldwide phenomenon.
Realistically, they could have sought a best-in-class keyboardist to join their ranks, but preferred to take a mate along for the ride. While Rowley “definitely wasn’t that comfortable with it (the keyboard) to start with,” he was aware that “they wanted someone that they knew and were comfortable with,” which he fit the bill for.
Vitally, he’d recently bought a keyboard, which Arctic Monkeys knew he’d purchased, and that was enough to seal the deal.
After his final week in the grotty Leeds factory was over, Rowley’s “surreal” adventure began, and he flew out to Los Angeles, where he “learned all the songs in a week”, which was also the first time he’d even been to the United States. Before he knew it, the Pyramid Stage beckoned.
A few years earlier, when Arctic Monkeys headlined the same legendary festival, Rowley got a taste of what it was like, as he was watching from the side of the stage next to the unlikely duo of Paul Weller and Take That’s Mark Owen, which he clarifies was a “coincidence” rather than a bizarre bromance.
During that Glastonbury performance in 2013, just months after joining, Rowley admits that the thought running through his head was “don’t fuck up” throughout, but does caveat this by saying, “It helps being around them because they don’t care about that kind of stuff anyway.”
Understandably, this took priority in Rowley’s career, and he felt no desire or urge to embark on a solo career. But, during the last couple of years, while Arctic Monkeys have been off the road, he’s finally got round to giving it a go, with his first studio album, Moses and the Drones, arriving on April 24th.
“I knew there was going to be a lot of time doing nothing after this last Monkeys thing finished, so it just felt like the right time to the right time to do it,” he explains of the timing.
Coincidentally, it was back to Los Angeles, where his first rehearsals and show with Arctic Monkeys happened, where Moses and the Drones was partially recorded under the guiding hand of Loren Humphrey, one of the most in-demand figures in indie right now.
Humphrey’s stacked co-production credits include Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal, as well as Arctic Monkeys’ latest release ‘Opening Night’, tracks on Tame Impala’s latest record Deadbeat, including the international hit ‘Dracula’. He’s also worked as an engineer on the last two Arctic Monkeys and Geese records.
The pair had been discussing the solo album for some time, and when Humphrey’s busy schedule had a free week that allowed for recording, Rowley had no choice but to finally bite the bullet.
Rowley has nothing but superlatives to say for Humphrey, especially when it comes to capturing the desired 1970s-tinged retro sound, sharing, “He likes to do everything to tape, and he just knows what I wanted it to sound like. It was perfect for this because he wanted it to sound like how they did it back then. He’s perfect for that. I can’t speak highly enough of Loren.”
While Moses and the Drones is Rowley’s debut solo offering, songwriting is nothing new to him, confessing, “I’ve always written, and kind of got to the stage where I had an album, but then didn’t have the bollocks to do something about it.”
Rowley estimates that he’s previously aborted albums on five occasions, but proudly says this is “the first time I’ve actually gone that extra step and done it”.
Bringing these songs to the stage was another giant leap. It was also somewhat of a culture shock, waving goodbye to the bright lights of stadiums like he’s grown accustomed to and returning to his roots for his first headline show at Crookes Social Club last year.
The aforementioned Sheffield show also saw Arctic Monkeys’ Nick O’Malley, who Rowley thinks was just “happy to get out of the house,” deputise on bass. As much as the gigs themselves have been “great”, he admits, talking about playing these kinds of shows, “It’s everything else that comes with it, being sat in a van and moving everything about and stuff like that, but it’s very humbling.”
O’Malley isn’t the only Arctic Monkeys member to have got his fingers involved in Rowley’s project; frontman Alex Turner also wound up co-producing the track, ‘Something Strange’. “I didn’t convince him. He just got involved. And then, that’s probably why it took so long, actually. He wanted to try something different with that,” he adds of Turner’s involvement in the song.
In a further sign of how their collaborative partnership has grown since he was invited to be a touring keyboardist, Rowley had two co-writing credits on The Car, more than anyone else in the band apart from Turner. Regrouping to record ‘Opening Mind’ in November was “great” for Rowley, who refreshingly noted that it was “just good to see everybody again and nice to hang out”.
He’ll also be reuniting with Milburn this summer for a handful of anniversary shows, including at Don Valley Bowl in Sheffield, but admits “there’s no desire to do anything new”, before explaining, “It’s 20 years since everybody’s first album isn’t it this year, everybody’s doing it, aren’t they?”
While he’s got his fingers in many different pies, both old and new, it’s this long-awaited solo venture that’s at the heart of his creativity and his biggest step yet.
The shows in the summer can wait for now; Rowley’s mind is firmly focused on Moses and the Drones, and basking in a record which is a huge achievement in itself after more than a decade of failed attempts at getting a solo album off the ground.
Moses and the Drones is available to purchase here. Tom Rowley will also be headlining Crookes Social Club in Sheffield on April 25th and YES in Manchester on April 29th.
