Tom Tikka & The Missing Hubcaps are a group fronted by (you guessed it) Tom Tikka, and we’ve been following their journey for a while now. Based in Finland, Tom has been a staple of the music scene for decades, and the prolific multi-instrumentalist is a true artist in every sense of the word.
Finally finding the time to sit down and chat with us, Tom speaks about what it was like being in two successful bands, his brand new collaboration with WILLJACK, and which of his lyrics he’d want to be printed on a T-shirt. Please give a big welcome to our friend Tom Tikka!
Hey Tom, I’m honoured to finally get the chance to interview you! My journey with your music came back in 2021 when you released the upbeat and infectious ‘By 2022’. The tune now has over 150,000 plays on Spotify. How on earth does that make you feel?
Well, it’s a great feeling. Obviously, that’s what you always want, that people find your song and it touches them. With ‘By 2022’ it seems to have happened. It’s gained streams gradually though, but lately, it’s been picking up speed. And I’m happy about that because I always thought of it as a very catchy and clever pop song, one of my better ones definitely.
It was written as a hopeful song to welcome the coming year. I had this idea of a New Year’s resolution almost. I read an article about happiness that claimed that if you tell yourself in your head that you are happy enough times, you will start to believe it no matter how miserable you are and eventually even feel it. It has not really worked for me but I did get a good song out of chanting my happiness mantra time and again. I’d go for my morning runs and keep saying to myself, “By 2022, I’ll be happy.” I said it over and over again. After I had done it for a few months, I went, “Oh bloody hell! This isn’t working.” But I also thought that there was a song in all of that and that’s how ‘By 2022’ was born.
You are well known for having been involved in two pretty successful Finnish acts; Carmen Gray as well as The Impersonators. What made you decide to go solo?
Well, no matter how great being in a successful band is, it’s also hard. Whatever ends up on the album is always a compromise. There are egos you have to deal with when you find success and living out of your suitcase has always been stressful for me. Carmen Gray recorded for Sony/BMG and it was very exciting because we got to learn from the very best as we cut our records, and I’m very proud of what we achieved. My brother and I wrote the group’s entire catalog and I have many wonderful memories of us writing songs eyeball-to-eyeball.
The Impersonators was always a different undertaking. It was a group of two songwriters, rather than a fully-fledged rock band. I wrote the melodies and Antti Autio wrote the lyrics but I’d be the only one playing and singing on all the songs. Antti is not a musician, he is a poet and a damn good one. It was just that our make-believe duo was a bit hard to market. In many ways, the world was not ready for us. The labels thought we were mad. “You can’t be in a band if you don’t play or sing,” they’d say. We stuck to our guns and as a result, they’d promote our records saying, “From the songwriter of Carmen Gray.” And that was confusing to the listeners. They couldn’t find the music on Spotify or iTunes. Also, every interviewer would always ask why Antti was in the band since he wasn’t part of the music-making process. It got tiring and in the end, I gave in. I found the courage to go solo once The Impersonators gained momentum and hit #1 with ‘Rodeo’. This was in 2020.
Your brand new track sees you joining forces with WILLJACK who you’ve labelled as “one of the best-kept secrets of the London music scene”. Was this your first collaboration as a solo artist and if so, how was the experience?
It wasn’t my first collaboration. It’s my second! My first one was with a Norwegian artist mAncient a year ago. We release a song called ‘Chakra 10 (Let’s Pray)’, which by the way did pretty well on the UK Top 100 Electronic Chart, rising to #9. It wasn’t the hit ‘Overnight Sensation’ has been but it did well. ‘Overnight Sensation’ charted both in Canada as well as the UK. In Canada, it went all the way to #3 on the Top 100 Rock Chart. And it’s received amazing reviews. In fact, Will and I are both at a loss for words. We’re thrilled.
It’s great working with Will because he is a fantastic singer and a brilliant songwriter and a cool dude. From the very first time we spoke, we connected. And it became evident pretty quickly that we have great musical chemistry. ‘Overnight Sensation’ was a challenging song to finish because, in its first incarnation, the tune was a rather long rock song. I must have rearranged it about a hundred times until I finally decided that we’ll go for this more gospel-like approach, which by the way suits Will’s voice perfectly. His voice sends shivers down my spine. He has a magic set of pipes.
I’ve always wondered who your influences were/are. Who would you credit for helping shape your overall soundscape?
My influences are The Beatles, The Stones, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Go-Betweens, The Beach Boys, Elton John, and REM … that’s the type of music I go for.
I think my sound has shaped over the years into what it is now. I found it when I was still in The Impersonators. I remember recording a track called ‘Cloud Nine’ and thinking, “Yeah, this is me!” With Carmen Gray, we had the Sony/BMG producers deciding what our sound should be. I learned a lot from them but let’s face it, those records, with the exception of ‘Gates of Loneliness’, do not really sound like me. They sound great though and I wouldn’t change anything. It was a wonderful experience.
We’re always intrigued with artists’ creative processes, and how they take an idea and transform it into a finished product. Could you tell us a bit about your creative process?
I write one complete song every day and record an acoustic demo of it. After it’s been sitting a year on my phone, I return to it and see if it’s any good. I need that distance to tell which ones are really good ones. I’m now listening to demos from a year ago. I’ve chosen two songs from last May that I like a lot. I’ll start recording them next week. It’s a slow process for me because I want to be sure of the song’s quality. And in my experience, only time will tell.
Which of your lyrics would you like to see printed on a T-shirt?
What’s hurt ain’t broken (from ‘By 2022’).
I think it really says it all. We get hurt in life and we can decide to be numbed by all the bad stuff that happens to us or we can simply shrug, get up and say, “What’s hurt ain’t broken.” It was my dad’s motto in life. He’d always say, “If you are not dead, get up!”
You’ve been given the chance to collaborate with any musician or band. Who do you choose and why?
I suppose Paul McCartney. He’s my musical hero #1. I can’t think of anybody better. In many ways, he has written the soundtrack to my life. If he turned me down, my next choice would be Brian Wilson. Brian’s amazing and I grew up listening to his albums. My dad was a Beach Boys maniac and played ‘Pet Sounds’ and ‘Friends’ constantly. He had all the Beatles albums and all the Beach Boys albums from ‘Today’ to ‘Holland’. It’s a hard choice. Those two dudes are both geniuses and just to meet them would be a dream come true.
Tom, it’s been an absolute pleasure chatting to you! Just before we let you go, what comes next for Tom Tikka & The Missing Hubcaps?
The pleasure is all mine. This was a treat!
A new single, ‘Fire and Ice’, will come out on August 18 and a brand new twelve-track album will follow on September 29. Also, another collab with an artist called SchizoFranic is on the way. She and I have a track coming out on September 8. It’s called ‘Angel’.
