THE SUPERSONIC ARMY

Born and raised in Blackburn, North West Lancashire, Tom Waddington’s musical influence started at a very young age. His Father was himself, a musician and spent a number of years playing the working men’s club circuit as one half of a duet with his brother in-law. These are among some of Waddington’s first musical memories;

"Music has been around me for as long as I can remember, my Dad was this duo with my Uncle, they were called 'The Next Best Thing'. They would cover various songs from the 60's and play in lots of pubs & working men’s clubs. They probably got 6 years of regular weekend gigs out of it. They had some moderate success and got to play a number of seasons in Blackpool amongst other places. I used to sit there and watch my Dad setting up all his gear and then practice some of their songs in our backroom. He is a self-taught guitar player, and like me couldn’t read any notation, everything was done by ear. It was all spot on too. I guess this is where my first musical influences came from yeah."

As a young boy, Waddington, known as 'Tomlad' to his friends, main musical interest was the late Michael Jackson;

"I grew up around lots of older kids, I was the
youngest on my street but i knocked about with
kids that were alot older than me. I had a next door
neighbour who was 3 or 4 years older than me, and he introduced me to all kinds of things that have pretty much stuck with me all my life, one of which was Michael Jackson. I used to love his music videos and his concerts. He went out there and just rocked an audience like nobody else. I used to dance around my living room with a little hat and do all the moves. Or at least try! Id still say there hasn’t been an artist before or since that put on a live show like Michael. He was one of a kind."

But it was Waddingtons older cousin who introduced him to a band he grew to idolise; The Prodigy,

"Some of my cousins lived round the corner, so we all practically grew up together. I used to go round to their house and spend time with my oldest cousin; Chris. He was a bit of a raver and his musical tastes influenced mine permanently. I credit him for pretty much my entire musical taste. I would sit flicking through his record collection and find all kinds of artists that were a bit leftfield and unorthodox, but one that really stuck out was The Prodigy.

When i was about 8 or 9, I remember being amazed at hearing 'Fat of the Land' for the first time. Whilst all my friends were obviously listening to the top 40 chart type artists and the Spice Girls, you would usually find me jumping about my room, smashing the place to bits with my Prodigy tape on."

He continues,

"I have a text book somewhere from when I was in year 4 at school and there’s a little page of my favourite things to do at home; 'Playing on the Mega Drive and listening to the Prodigy in my bedroom'. Im sure my teachers found that weird for an 8/9 year old to be doing!

I think at first I was initially drawn to the swearing on tracks like 'Funky Shit' and 'Smack my Bitch Up'. But as I got older, I started to really appreciate the tracks musically and I was interested in how they were made. It didn’t sound like the stuff my Dad played anyway! "

It was this curiosity that eventually led 'Tomlad' to creating his own 'tracks' on his PlayStation, and later on his family PC,

"I had this game; 'Music' on the PlayStation and I would sit there for hours putting together all these little tracks and then saving them onto my memory card. It used to drive my friends mad. But I was well into it. I eventually got 'MTV Music Generator 2' as well and spent hours just sequencing all these loops together. I thought i was a bit of a superstar at 12/13 years old with all these 'tracks'! (Laughs).

A year or so later I eventually found my way onto ‘eJay’ on the PC and that was similar sort of software, but much easier to use. I was banging out all these 'tracks' on pretty much a daily basis. It was at this point that I realised I wanted to make the tracks from scratch and I went about finding out how I could do it on my PC.

My best mate Damo got me a demo copy of Reason, for me to try out and if im honest, I didn’t have a frigging clue what i was doing with it. So for months I just sat there trying to figure out how the program worked. I eventually started finding my way about the software and started doing some basic sequencing and sampling. The tracks were all shit, but with each track, I learnt something new. By the time I was 16, I had basically figured out how the program works to the point where my tracks started getting more in-depth and sounding like the stuff I had in my head."

It was in 2005, when Waddington was 16 years old and had just left school, that he started taking a more serious approach to his music. He no longer wanted it to just be a hobby and wanted to expand his creative options. This was achieved by investing in the full version of Reason and pairing it with a USB midi controller. This meant spending the summer working and saving the money he earned to take things a step further,

"I busted my ass for a while and managed to save enough money from doing odd jobs for friends and family to buy myself a copy of Reason and an M-Audio Oxygen 8 midi controller. I remember buzzing for it being delivered! I knew this was the next step in me taking my music further and giving myself more creative freedom in the software. I spent the majority of that summer just writing simple tracks and experimenting. The first proper song which got to a finished state was 'Demons'. Its still the darkest piece of music I’ve ever produced and to this day, I get people telling me they enjoy it more than anything else I’ve written! Listening to it almost 6 years later, I think its musically pretty good, but production wise very representative of that time for me."

Now he had the basics covered, Waddington went about learning how to properly build and structure his tracks and of course, how to mix and produce them to a more polished standard,

"Once I had learnt how to build and (I guess) 'write' songs in Reason, the next part was learning production techniques. It took me another 3 years of producing and experimenting before everything finally clicked and I started producing more professional sounding music which I felt stood up well against alot of the stuff my mates on the net were making. That has definitely been the hardest part of all this; the production.

I put a couple of wannabe e.p.'s onto the net for free download; Mary Bobbins is Poppins E.P." & "F*ckin with the Boombox E.P.

Both were pretty shit, but I think the people who downloaded it still enjoyed some of what was on there. A few of the tracks have stood the test of time better than others and those that did ended up on my '5 Year Sentence' download in 2010.

I eventually started dipping into other genres like 'Hardcore Breaks' and managed to get some internet airplay on 'Fantazia' Radio and on Damage Inc.’s show on 'Remaniss Radio'. I think at one point there was some talk of releasing 'Breezeblock' onto some 'HCB' label but that never materialised. I still play tracks like 'Mysteria' and 'The Crew' live now in my sets. Along with 'The Ruff' which I now use in a 'Dubstep' style jam. It was a productive time for me that, yeah. Good buzz."

For the next few years, 'Tomlad' spent countless hours writing and producing his own material and eventually putting it online for free onto various internet forums and his 'MySpace' page. For Waddington though, this wasn’t enough.

By 2009 he wanted to expand his fan base and take things to a different level. For him, the next logical step forward was to do a live show. This was something which he had always wanted to do, but never felt like he had enough quality material to fill a 45-60 minute set,

"For me, I had to take my music live. I wasn’t going to gain any new fans sitting around and spamming 'MySpace'. I wasn’t prepared to approach any record labels, so the live arena was the next step forward for me.

I always knew I would do a live show, but I just never knew when. My main issue was having enough quality material that was effective live. Even though I had never played a live set, I always wrote alot of my music to have maximum impact on big soundsystems. By mid-2009 I felt like I was in a good position to make the transition from my bedroom to the stage.

I got in touch with the 'Jilted Generation' who are the world’s only tribute to The Prodigy. I was aware of them from a couple of their members posting on the online forums id visit. I knew they were well into what they were doing and a good place to start when I was looking to get a set. It made sense for me to be supporting them with the similarities in the music. So I sent them a MySpace message and within a couple of weeks, I was booked to support them at The Soundhouse."

The date was set; 1st August 2009. The venue; 'The Soundhouse' in Bolton, Lancashire,

"I managed to buy myself some extra gear and a synth stand and went about making sure the tracks sounded polished for that gig. I was buzzing for it and it thankfully went without a hitch. I managed to get a couple of mates to come along and support me which helped. I wasn’t really nervous, just more anxious to see how my music was received to strangers. The venue was pretty full, couple hundred people or so and they all seemed to enjoy it. I was more excited at hearing my tracks on a massive soundsystem than anything I think. That blew me away for sure."

The gig was well received by the people there that night, the promoter and more importantly, the 'Jilted Generation',

"They were well into what I played that night, yeah. I took a couple of phone numbers and said id keep in touch. I had only intended the gig with them to be a one off thing and I would probably look elsewhere for places to play in the future. Turns out that the Jilted lads enjoyed my tracks more than I realized and within a few weeks, they had got me booked all over the place!

It wasn’t something I asked for; they totally did it out of respect for my music. Before I knew it, I had support slots lined up all over the country, even in Scotland! The next few months were non-stop for me; I did some serious mileage on the M6!"

His relationship with the Jilted Generation grew from business to friendship quickly, something which he feels helped him relax on the road and learn how to present himself and his music in a live show,

"By the time I had met the Jilted lads, they were already becoming veterans of the game. So any questions I had, they were all able to help me out. Their presence on stage is amazing; you can see their passion dripping off them each and every show. It’s very inspiring to watch. I have no idea if I would have ever done another gig if they hadn't of taken me under their wing. I owe them bigstyle. I will always credit them with helping me break into the live scene. Totally."

Various live shows followed over the next year, in venues such as 'The Revolver' in Birkenhead, 'The Golden Cross' in Coventry & 'The Forum' in Aberdeen.

In mid-2010, Waddington released the '5 Year Sentence' as a free download on his website. It was a compilation of the best tracks from his first 5 years producing as 'The Supersonic Army'.
The release was well received by fans and has been downloaded more than 700 times from www.supersonicarmy.com

10th June 2011 sees Waddington release his new E.P. 'Sunset' worldwide. The concept of which he had been thinking about for years,

"'Sunset' took me about 10 months or so to complete from start to finish. I had this concept for an E.P. that starts off nice and light, you know, chilled like, that gradually gets harder, deeper and darker. I managed to write the music I had in my head really well actually. The feeling of tension is really clear in the last track; 'Dusk'. I wrote 'Sunset' to be like a journey, so from start to finish you can really get lost in the music. It was also difficult balancing the tracks so they played almost as one continuous mix, but people could also listen to them one by one without feeling like their missing the beginning or end of it.

Alot of people probably expected me to make a party record which is similar to my live show, but if im honest, out of the 8 tracks on 'Sunset' only 3 of them are playable live. The rest just wouldn’t work. 'Sunset' is designed for people’s iPods, car stereos, laptops and hi-fis. Not really for parties or DJ's.

It’s a big deal for me this release. It’s been a long and expensive process for me getting it completed & online. From sending it to the digital retailers, to paying for promotion and copyrighting each song and getting the artwork done. Speaking of the artwork, it was done by Eddy from the Jilted Gen. It’s a perfect representation of the entire E.P. Oh sorry, I’m not allowed to call it an E.P. as its longer than 6 tracks isn't it! Best just call it 'Sunset' then eh?! (Laughs). Still, that front cover is the bollocks isn't it!"

So where does Waddington want to take his music from here and what are his goals?,

"Well for me, the festivals is where it’s at. I want to be bang in the middle of the carnage see you at places like Glastonbury, V, T in the Park, Carling weekend etc... I think the prospect of walking out to 10-20,000 people who have little idea of what im about, and getting them moving to my music is something I strive to experience. That’s when you know you've got something good. When a mixed audience of Indie fans, Rap fans, House fans, Pop fans, Rock fans etc... are all moving in unison to my style of dance music. That to me would be the ultimate buzz and I know I will have made it when I get to that point. Im determined to give all bedroom producers inspiration to go out there and make a name for themselves in the live circuit and in this industry. There’s such an opportunity out there for us all at the moment with the whole internet download thing. Showing that success can be achieved without major label muscle behind it is what im aiming for with ‘Sunset’. And of course, always making sure im moving forward with my trax without loosing what im about & keeping my edge. They are my goals."

Tom Waddington was speaking to Ian Blanchard for this interview for supersonicarmy.com. April 2011.