Keeping His Feet on the Ground
Ant Thomaz Music
By James Dixon
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Glasgow-based singer-songwriter Ant Thomaz to talk about the release of his latest single, Feet on the Ground. It’s an excellent song, reminiscent in part of some of Jon Batiste’s more soulful work, with perhaps a touch of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s melodic gentility.
Thomaz is constantly on the move, though you wouldn’t know it from his slightly reserved, calming demeanour. He does a lot, balancing being a father and husband with a number of projects: funk rock ensemble DopeSickFly, Union of Knives, an electronic indie outfit, classical crossover work showcased at venues like SWG3, and community work. His work is also busy, or at least eclectic, drawing on funk, soul, pop, rock, and folk. Feet on the Ground is therefore something of a statement piece, summing up where he is right now: grounded, grounding himself, trying to stand still and catch his breath for a moment.
It’s a chance, he says, to leave everything ‘at the door.’
Family and place are important in his work. Life with his actress wife and their seven-year-old daughter, the energy of Glasgow, and the ability to leave the buzz behind at the end of the day (they live out in the countryside where the air is a bit fresher, life a bit calmer) all informed him as he wrote it.
‘Trying to find the light in things,’ he says simply, describing both the mood of the song and the wider outlook he has worked to cultivate in himself and his work.
A sense of stability has become increasingly important to him in recent years. I asked him if the title reflected his mindset, where he was right now.
‘A hundred percent,’ he replied immediately. ‘Finding self and being inspired by life.’
Becoming a father has impacted his approach to songwriting. ‘I’m more conscious of what I’m saying,’ he explains. He considers every lyric, every word, more carefully now. ‘It’s more than just entertainment.’ His daughter, now seven, even contributes at times – she had a say in writing the uplifting song ‘Believe.’
Community is very important in Thomaz’s musicianship.
A key example is We Are One Song, a collaboration with Karen Dunbar that has brought creative workshops to areas including Govan and Springburn. There, women who had never performed before found themselves writing poetry, rapping, and eventually stepping onto a stage. The project culminated in a community recording – ‘We Are One’ – produced with DopeSickFly in 2022.
Rooted though he is, Thomaz is also a product of Glasgow’s restless musical culture. The city, he says, has ‘had a massive impact’ on him. Coming up in funk and indie rock bands, he learned quickly that Glasgow audiences won’t accept anything less than full commitment. ‘Glasgow is an honest place,’ he says. ‘They can tell when you’re not trying, especially live… if you’re trying 100%, they will give you 100%, if you don’t, they won’t.’
Looking ahead, there’s no slowing down. A new single, ‘Flying,’ is due out in the next few weeks, followed by a full album in spring. He has already finished it, recorded and mixed at a studio in Giffnock.
Ant Thomaz is therefore as busy as ever, juggling family life (we had to delay our interview a couple of days: he couldn’t make the first date and time I suggested as he was dropping his daughter off at school), his many projects, and the new record waiting in the wings. However, despite all this movement, he keeps coming back to the same idea: finding light, letting each song be part of an ongoing process of growth, and more than anything else, staying with his feet on the ground.
