Ten questions for Ten Tonnes

Are you a fan of indie rock? Yes? Then you’ll love Ten Tonnes. This lovely lad from England started out in pubs and slowly making his way across Europe now. Before his performance at this year’s RADAR Festival I got to speak with Ten Tonnes about his debut record, his relationship with his famous brother and Bob Ross!

I gotta ask Ten Tonnes is a super special name. I read somewhere that you came up with it while you did open mic shows and you wanted to have a name that no-one else has. But that doesn’t really answer where it came from, does it? 🙂

I don’t actually know where it came from. It just came out of no-where. I wish I had a better explanation than that! 🙂 I was at the pub and it came out of thin air. I’m sorry it’s not really a satisfying answer! *laughs*

*laughing too* It’s OK. It is what it is!
Annie Mac just named Lucy „Hottest record of the world“. That’s such a huge honour. How does it feel when your music get recognized like this?

It’s amazing! At the moment it feels like loads of people are checking out my music which is amazing. You want to hear people saying it’s possible so when it happens it’s great. A lot of hard work is paying off now.

You’ll be releasing your debut record this spring. What are you expecting or would like for it to happen with it?

Erm… you can expect… It’s a fun guitar record – a good indie rock record really. Good pop tunes with big choruses stuff like that.

I agree. I was able to had a sneak peek and I gotta say you are right.

You did? cool!
I don’t really know what to expect. I don’t want to have too many expectations in case nothing happens then I’ll be disappointed. But hopefully loads of people will hear it and enjoy it. Fingers crossed, touch wood. *knocks on the table* 😀

Can you tell me a bit more about the musical influence of your debut record?

There was always music in the house I was growing up in: Paul Simon stuff like that. When I was 12 or 13 years old I started listening to the Beatles. They kinda felt different to me. So I started playing guitar which I taught myself. From there the whole world of music is open to you. So I listened to everything. Spent all my money on records and CD’s. It’s kind of a mixed bag. There’s a lot of older stuff that I listen to mainly but more recent stuff would be like Strokes and Arctic Monkeys.

More like rock then.

Yeah yeah Elvis Costello…. Loads of stuff 🙂

Cool cool. So after the release you are touring it through the UK. Are you planning to expand the tour to Europe? A headlining gig in Zurich for example? 😉

Yeah yeah 100%. I really want to because I haven’t really played much in Europe. It will be this year in autumn time I reckon between September and November.

Something to look forward to!
Speaking of touring. What’s your bucket list venue to play in?

The biggest in England is Wembley Stadium. That would be amazing. Anywhere really though. I just really love playing live. Anywhere with a good crowd is pretty decent. It’s exciting to see that the venue’s are keep getting bigger and bigger. There not massive yet but fingers crossed they will be.

Well I mean it’s getting there! 🙂
Being at the start of hopefully a successful career. What would you say should happen that you can say „Yup, I’ve made it with my music“?

It’s going to sound a bit corny but I feel like I’ve already have to be honest. It’s my full-time job and that alone is nuts to be honest. I feel really lucky to be able to say that. So yeah obviously you want as many people to hear and appreciate your music as possible. But to me if I can keep doing it than that’s kinda successful.

I’ve asked this question to other artists before and they also say if they can keep doing what they are doing they’re happy.

Yeah exactly. It might not be as an artist but as long as I can do music I’m cool with that.

Fan questions:

Helga who obviously knows your back ground a bit asked how is your relationship with your brother? (Ten Tonnes’ brother is George Ezra)

Great! We’re best mates.

Follow up question: Would you say it’s an advantage or a disadvantage?

I don’t think it’s either really. I never really used it. I’ve been myself. So I didn’t have any advantage from it. As long as people don’t assume that I like do it because of him than that’s fine by me.

That would be weird.

Yes, exactly. ‘Cause it doesn’t work. I still have to be good because otherwise people wouldn’t listen to it. It’s annoying when people assume that. I don’t think there is really a disadvantage. He’s great and it’s cool that we both get to do as well. It’s very lucky.

Now I’m the one asking questions in the fan section *Laughs*. Do you think you’ll be collaborating?

Maybe. I don’t we’ll ever do something like George & Ethan but we might do…. I don’t know… I don’t know how it’s gonna look like…

Like a feature?

Hmm I don’t know. We might do a song but not in the near future maybe like 20 years. I want to get to a point where I am happy with my own thing.

And everyone knows that you are Ten Tonnes

Yes exactly. I would never say never. We’ll see.

Sandra asked how do you break the ice when you play in front of people that don’t know you?

I’m not really good at the chat between songs. My approach is just play really well. I’m better than I ever have been at the chat between songs. Sometimes you just can’t expect them to be going mental. People can enjoy it and just stand still. I needed a while to work that out. When I go to a gig I’m not going insane but I’m still loving it. I’m just chilling. So just play as well as you can and hope they enjoy it. It’s always about how loud they are when you finish a song. That’s always a good indicator of how well it’s going. As long as they are loud between songs then that’s good.

They shouldn’t be loud in between the songs….

I don’t mind. As long as they are singing the songs and not talking.

That’s exactly what I meant! 😀 Unfortunately in some venues in Switzerland we get a lot of talkers.

Lastly some one answer questions to get to know you a little bit better:

Beach or Mountains?

Funny. Shirley from Loads of Music asked me the same question. I said beach but now I’m going for mountains. Have you ever watched Bob Ross?

Yes! Love him!

I say mountains for Bob Ross.

Rain or Sun?

I like the sun but I don’t like being too hot. I love the rain as well. My tour manager always says “You are insane” because I really like bad weather. I think one of the best feelings is when it’s raining outside and you are warm inside chillin’ out. I go rain.

Good thing you’re from England then! 🙂

Yeah, exactly! 😀 I just got used to it.

Sweet or salty?

Salty.

Pub or massive arena?

For playing? Good question! It kinda depends what the crowd’s like. Massive arena is easier I think because you can’t see people’s faces. Those smaller gigs can be really intimidating. I used to play gigs looking down because if you look up you just got direct eyes so close to you. Arenas are good fun too. So either I can’t choose.

And going to gigs?

Probably pub actually.

Zurich or London?

I don’t think there is a right answer *Laughs*
I feel like I should say Zurich. I love London it’s where I live. So London’s great but maybe Zurich is too.

You haven’t been here right?

Yeah exactly, so we will see.

That was it. Thank you!

Thank you very much as well.

Ten Tonnes is a lovely lad from England who is a super talented musician. Annie Mac named Lucy hottest track of the world and we can listen to the whole record on May 3rd. My personal fav song of the track is “Better than me”. If you love indie rock make sure to check out the record and watch out for the gig this autumn! 🙂