FEATURE: Thomas Molander & Isaac Symonds Come Full Circle For Surprise EP ‘Tom and Isaac: Five Songs’

Isaac Symonds, formerly of JUNO award winning indie rock group Half Moon Run, has been spending his time diversifying his sound and exploring new avenues sonically. Ambient, orchestral, and collaborative are all clear descriptors of his current interests, including an experimental/ambient record with Yaehsun and a stunning orchestral collaboration with Loryn Taggart on “Carved Into Stone“.

“I’ve been chiseling away; defining and refining my voice in a musical sense”, he shares. “There is no well-trodden path, but there is a compass. The dream is simple: to release music that I’m proud of, and to be prolific. I’d like to accumulate a hefty discography. Working in collaboration has really amplified that process.”

And while he is planning a solo album of his own, Isaac and long-time friend/accomplished multi-instrumentalist Thomas Molander (Tha Retail Simps) have teamed up for a surprise EP Tom & Isaac: Five Songs which has the pair looking into the decades of the past for inspiration. The collaboration grew organically overtime, with the pair swapping demos over email and embracing their mutual appreciation of pop music from the ’60s and ’70s.

Leading the announcement is the ’70s-inspired tune “Somebody Else”. Bridging together harmonies with serene folk-tinged instrumentation, the pair incorporate elements of Simon & Garfunkel, Harry Nilsson, and the Beatles for a humble and dreamy tune about the passing of time.

Isaac notes, “We tracked ‘Somebody Else’ in Tom’s basement studio. I remember being impressed with how the two acoustic guitars ended up sounding together; each part with its own voice and pocket; nicely bubbling along. This song is the fourth track on the EP; a perfect resting moment amongst the other high energy tunes.”

Isaac continues, “Tom, (brother to Half Moon Run’s Conner) has got a knack for songwriting, lyrics and melody, which bodes well with my skill set. We share a similar taste in music: late 60s, early 70s era – The Beach Boys, The Kinks, The Beatles, Harry Nilsson. Yet, I found that Tom would always be sharing b-sides that I’d never heard of. My earliest memory of Tom was competing against him in a local battle of the bands show. He was in a Beatles cover band, and I was in a band playing Slayer and Iron Maiden. His band won. Little did I know that 17 years later, we’d release Tom and Isaac: Five Songs.”

Check out the video for “Somebody Else” below, and read through an interview with the pair just past. Five Songs can be streamed here.

From your perspective, what is Somebody Else about?

Tom: What “Somebody Else” is about has shifted for me over the past few years as I’ve whittled away at the lyrics. The title itself is kind of a vestigial organ. It comes from an extended coda the song had in an earlier iteration, where the lyrics repeated “last night I felt just like somebody else” over and over and over.

To me the song is driving at the melancholy feeling of being aware of time running out or something coming to an end, and not stepping in to interfere. A sad but accepting mood, which is the feeling the chord changes and instrumentation give me, as well.

In addition to the lyrical bits about a dying sun, a final morning, and frosty goodbyes, the song has sounds I associate with the ‘60s also, which gives the feeling of an awareness of time passing.

How does Somebody Else fit within the new EP – and why a surprise release all at once?

Isaac: “Somebody Else” is the fourth track on our EP, and works perfectly in my opinion as the resting moment. Both sonically and energetically, this subdued track has a beauty and warmth to it; where as the other four tracks are higher energy, somewhat manic, and more jagged sounding by nature.
I guess I felt like the whole slow-release strategy (releasing a single, followed by another single, then having the EP/album drop, etc) felt a bit tiresome at the time when we made that descision. It’s not to say that I’ll never use that technique again –it’s pretty well the industry standard, I think – but it sort of felt less pompous, just to release it all together, rather than trying to intentionally hype the “machine”.

How would you describe the connection between the animation style of the video and the song?

Tom: We recorded this song—and the rest of the EP—ourselves, and this particular song was recorded in my low-ceilinged recording studio beneath the apartment I live in. And so for me, the recording has associations to a cozy home feeling. In a way the recording process was like putting together a really extensive, comforting meal.

So I wanted a video that captured the domestic feeling of this song. The animation—created by my friend Laura MacNeil—really achieves this feeling for me, with its welcoming sense of simplicity, its hand-drawn frames, and its really particular homey details. Watching the video does give me the same feeling I had when Isaac and I were quietly strumming and plucking our acoustic guitars in unison during the recording process.

How does this new EP fit within the rest of your respective discographies?

Tom: This EP represents a leap forward in my discography in that many of the releases I have worked on have been from behind a drumset, concerning myself largely with the rhythmic elements of tunes.

My previous solo release, The Walk from 2020, was recorded in somewhat ramshackle fashion, on a reel-to-reel I was just learning how to use. I still like how that album sounds, but on Tom and Isaac: Five Songs, I had a chance to work in a sustained way alongside someone with plenty of songwriting experience in addition to extensive recording and arranging expertise.

Working with Isaac pushed my songwriting forward. He came up with or helped me develop lots of parts that I wouldn’t have ever arrived at on my own. So this release fits into my discography as my songwriting at its most polished state, like Elliott Smith’s Figure 8, maybe.

Isaac: I’m excited to have Tom and Isaac: Five Songs join my discography of music. Alone, I tend to write stuff that is softer sounding, and perhaps more on the moody side of things. But working with Tom, it’s a nice outlet for me to flex my “rock band” muscles; to crank up the amps, and record a ruckus on the drum kit.

Speaking of drums, one cool thing about this EP is that Tom and I switch up the musical roles on every song. For example, Tom is drumming on That’s Not Me and Thomas’ Life, whereas I park the groove on the other three songs. Can you hear the difference? When we’re sussing out a demo, we’ll usually switch around the instruments until the rhythm section really glues. Our drumming styles are so different, it’s nice.

What has been your favourite part of making music together?

Tom: Working on songwriting and recording with Isaac is a kind of musical education for both of us, I think. We gravitate towards similar kinds of ornate and surprising songwriting, and are always showing each other new old stuff we have become obsessed with. Specifically we both get excited about late ‘60s stuff with wild vocal arrangements in the same way.
And Isaac and I both play a number instruments with some degree of facility, and we swap between them, jumping back and forth depending on what most suits a song. And so our musical collaboration feels like a shared space of excitement and exploration, for me.

Isaac: Well, Tom is a great songwriter and lyricist. That bodes well with my skillset, and makes for a fast turnaround for our projects together. I love working with his demos, and I think we often share a similar vision for the music. I’d say we both have strong opinions, but are always willing to try out ideas, and be malleable. We both love the process of recording equally. The cool thing about recording with Tom is that, when we start, we don’t stop…It’s so focused, for so long. When we were recording at the chalet I rented last year, I remember we would start recording at noon, and finish our sessions at 4am, and repeat that process for days. When we were recording the background vocals for Somebody Else, I remember singing the words in the last verse “now so tired”; and that moment was funny because it was 3am or something, and I was literally so very tired. All considering, this project came together very fast. I look forward to the follow up…Tom and Isaac: 10 hits hahaha. joking!