Dylan John Thomas

MCD proudly presents

Dylan John Thomas  
+ special guests
Friday, Dec 6th 2024
The Academy Green Room, Dublin 
Doors 7:00pm
General Admission: €19.90 including booking fee 

Armed with a clutch of self-compositions, Thomas took to the streets of Glasgow to try and learn how to be a performer. It was a baptism of fire but gradually, day after day, he learned how to win people over and further sharpened his skills as a writer and performer. “The only reason I started busking was because I knew I was shite and the only way I was going to get better was for me to be playing in front of people every single day,” Thomas recalls. “I got up at five in the morning and played every single day for years. If it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t be able to go on tour and play in front of people. If you can deal with that, then you can play in front of anybody.” It was around this time Thomas met Gerry Cinnamon, then himself still an aspiring songwriter running live nights in a local pub. Cinnamon took Thomas under his wing, bringing him on tour when Thomas was only 17 and offering something more than just being a musical mentor: friendship. “He became like an older brother to me,” says Thomas. “I could talk to him, not just about music, but about everything.”

Building his fanbase from the grass roots up, Thomas’ own career began to snowball through word of mouth and good old-fashioned graft. People he’d won over playing support slots started coming to his own shows, the venues got bigger, culminating in a headline show at Glasgow’s fabled Barrowland, and so did the supports as both Ocean Colour Scene and Liam Gallagher invited him to open for them. As 2019 rolled along, Thomas’ 2019 debut single Nobody Else bore the fruits of his dedication: a beautiful, wistful tune floating over a mesh of delicately plucked acoustics. Just as things were starting to come together, however, lockdown slammed the breaks on everything. Yet, Thomas – as he’s always done – spent his time focusing on his songwriting and dug even deep into himself. 2021’s resulting, self-titled EP displayed an enormous leap forward. From the Madness-inspired ska skank of Jenna, through the breezy When I Get Home, it boasted songs that came unfiltered from Thomas’ life. Feel The Fire’s anthemic strum-a-longmasked a raw, lyrical darkness while the deeply personal Wake Up Ma detailed Thomas’ childhood with heart-breaking honestly. Last year’s EP2, meanwhile, further widened Thomas’ palette, including Battle Of Alesia’s Morricone-esque atmospheres and the tumbling The La’s-like melodies of Fever.

It was precisely those newly hones talents that led judges to award him the prestigious Breakthrough Artist at The Scottish Music Awards in 2022, where he took to the stage to perform Fever and What I Need. All the while, Thomas continued to grow an ever-more dedicated and fervent fanbase through his shows, winning over audiences across the UK and Ireland, playing the main stage at TRNSMT, Glastonbury and culminating in his debut performance at Reading and Leeds Festival last summer in front of a rapturous crowd, followed by a sold out headline tour in the autumn including a further 3 dates at Barrowland due to high demand. It feels like everything up to this point has been building up to the release of his debut album. Recorded in Liverpool with his band - Cam Robinson, Liam Cassidy and Steven Liddle - and produced with Rich Turvey, Thomas’ wit, wisdom and freewheeling spirit sparkle through a set of life-affirming tunes and choruses than cling to your heart. Thomas’ growing sophistication as a lyricist and writer is apparent throughout. Champs-Elysees has a narrative worthy of a film. Rich Boy skews a classic prince and the pauper narrative with a sly wink and a killer chorus, while Melancholy’s Cure mixes an irresistible, upbeat tune any milkman within 15 yards could whistle with what soon reveals itself to be a far less straightforward tale of lost love and heartbreak.

“I love the juxtaposition between lyrics and the melody,” he says. “It’s like Feel The Fire; the lyrics on that wouldn’t be out of place in a Nick Cave song, I’m singing about some of the darkest things I’ve ever felt, but when I play it people are always banging about to it. It makes me laugh.” Sonically too, Thomas’ sound stretches out over more horizons than ever before. Both the aforementioned What I Need and heart-swelling Lovely Day boast melodic sophistication The Beatles would be proud of, while Up In The Air is a Mexican standoff thundering over a ridge of ska beats before landing in a reflective acoustic lament. Yesterday Is Gone, meanwhile, brings in new shades and colours as Thomas underlays twinkly synths underneath his bittersweet vocals. The raw honesty of Wake Up Ma - represented here in a spine-tingling live version recorded live in Glasgow - is further explored on Now and Then. Redolent at times of Jackson C. Frank’s aching Blues Run The Game, it addresses Thomas’ relationship with his late father with a directness that is both startlingly unsentimental and heart-wrenching. It’s a remarkable piece of songwriting. “It was the first time I’d really written about it and what happened,” he says, before reflecting on how turning his own experiences into songs has struck a chord with listeners. “So many people who have grown up in care or work in care homes have gotten in contact to say how much the tunes have helped them,” he says. “For me, to be able to talk about things that other people have experienced, that means more than anything else. What matters the most is that people can relate to these songs.” Relating to these songs is precisely what people are doing and one day - maybe sooner than you might think - they’ll be sitting down to talk about them in just the same way Thomas talks about the music that changed his life. You’d put money on it, in fact.