Time On His Side

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Sunday 18 Nov 2007 (Michael Bugeja - The Sunday Times of Malta)

He isn’t a high profile artist on the Maltese music scene, at least not just yet, but time is on Thomas Hedley’s side. Slowly but surely he’s been establishing a foothold on the local airwaves, all of his radio singles receiving enough airplay and earning him a sizeable following in the process.

I first got to know Thomas years ago through singer Lawrence Gray during one of their regular ‘cabaret circuit’ gigs. Devoted to music, Thomas mentioned he was about to release A Wish For Christmas, a tribute single to Vince Laus, who many will remember as a prime force in Maltese country music circles up until his sad demise. Naturally, I was interested to know more, so we hooked up again for a more in-depth chat. Back then – and this was a few years back – Thomas had talked of his plans to shift his priorities onto a solo career with a more defined direction, but as I never heard from him again, I had assumed he had postponed his plans. This was in fact totally opposite to what he was up to. Juggling work commitments with every available spare moment, he started writing and recording the songs that he spoken to me about; songs inspired by his love of guitar music, past and present.

Thomas is Maltese by birth but his name reveals obvious British ancestry. The connection doesn’t end there either, as he admits feeling a strong affinity with some of the UK’s more influential artists, including The Smiths, Oasis and Franz Ferdinand. Brits aside, he’s also quite partial to the music of Crowded House, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Matchbox Twenty and Hoobastank, amongst others. This diversity of influences has more than helped him produce the brace of singles that, while touching base with several co-ordinates along the music spectrum, have also brought him to the Maltese public’s attention.

To date, Thomas Hedley has released 7 singles, the most recent of which is current title My First Love. While all of them bear enough of Hedley’s musical timbre, a couple of them bear a more pronounced pop accent than the rest. On a personal note, the songs that I feel embody the pop terrain Hedley is most comfortable with are last year’s Still Miss You So and this summer’s Is It Too Late; rock based tunes with catchy hooks and the ‘oomph’ that gives them their appeal. It’s a formula Hedley likes to revisit, naturally applying it according to the song he is working on at the time. The end result has, up to now, always come out quite different. Some will say it may be too different, and this could be why Hedley is not as big an artist as his more popular peers. “This could be true” he told me recently, “but I’m not after an instantly definable sound. What I want is to make music that is accessible across different genres – pop rock that can be remixed for the dancefloor, for example”. Hedley then, is not devoid of musical vision, even if his to-do list isn't one focused too far into the future.

Taking things one step at a time, Thomas is ambitious but clear-headed enough to realise that success in Malta may not be too overwhelming. “I’ve had a fair share of success locally, a strong presence on the radio and regular gigs. Abroad, my songs have been released on a Lakeland Records compilation and also on a special radio promo in the US and this year I’ve even been nominated for the Best Newcomer category in both the Malta Music Awards and the Bay Music Awards. Things are working out well. I can’t complain”.

Thomas Hedley at MySpace