Thomas Isbister | Te Ahi Top 10

Taking out the top spot on the latest Te Ahi Top 10 is Ōtautahi musician Thomas Isbister with his song ‘Eggs’. The track is a groovy slice of indie rock featuring a range of electric live instrumentation. ‘Eggs’ appears on Isbister’s recent album #5, which is his fifth full-length project released since 2019.

We caught up with Isbister to chat about the track, his prolificness and his recent album.

Check out the conversation below.

Congrats on taking out the top spot on this week’s Te Ahi Top 10 with your song ‘Eggs’, can you tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do?

I’m a musician type person from Christchurch writing and producing songs and sounds for various projects, including a series of solo albums exploring the endless musical possibilities that be.

The song is quite a groovy slice of indie-rock, can you tell me more about the track itself?

‘Eggs’ was written during a longish drive through some farmland. The song came together very quickly, it’s very simple so a lot of thought was put into the instrumentation – vibraphone, violin, trumpet etc. 

Did you play all of the instruments across the song?

The song was written and performed by myself with help from Greg Knowles on trumpet, recorded by Josh Logan at Loho Studios.

I love the running artwork across your discography, they all feature bright bold colours and look like they’ve been painted. Can you tell me a bit more about your artwork?

Making paintings for my album covers seemed like the only thing that felt comfortable – photo’s didn’t seem to match the music. I have a few large bathroom tiles that I paint on. This means I can keep painting over the same tile for each new album.

‘Eggs’ features on your recent album #5, can you talk to me about the project as a whole?

Album #5 was recorded at Loho over 4 days, long hours of tracking and chucking down parts until it felt about right, you win some and you lose some…

You’ve been pretty prolific over the past couple of years, releasing five albums in numerical order #1 through to #5. Talk to me about your process there?

I’ve always made songs and tunes as far back as I can remember – my process is simply to pursue an idea to the point where it sounds somewhat like a song. It’s one of the most rewarding things to do for me.

Do you have any shows coming up that we should know about?

No shows coming up – just more albums.

What does the rest of 2021 have in store for you?

2021 will see the release of albums #6, #7 and #8.

You can check out ‘Eggs’ below.

The Te Ahi Top 10 is our weekly chart as voted by YOU, our audience! Presented live every Thursday 3 – 4pm on RDU 98.5FM. 

To vote for the Te Ahi Top 10 simply download the RDUnited app and click the like icon for a track you love when it’s played on air. The tune with the most likes each week will be crowned the winner! Simple as that.