1. Gibson.com - You are instrumental in this years Hotel Café Tour which will see you perform dates in Nottingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol and London. What is The Hotel Café Tour all about and how did it originate?
Tom McRae- The Hotel Cafe is a tiny venue in LA, where I used to play and hang out when I lived there. It's a thriving scene for singer-songwriters, without the pretension, small-talent-but-huge-ego syndrome that usually goes with that territory...so it seemed a natural extension to take a group of those people on the road and introduce my audience to some new music that perhaps they otherwise might not get a chance to see live. The tour started in the states 3 years ago and this is our second time in the UK. It's growing bigger every year.
2. Gibson.com - Your last album released in May 2007 "King of Cards" was highly acclaimed by the countries leading music critics. What have you been up to since you completed your last tour to support the album?
Tom McRae- Life these days is lived constantly in motion, touring and travelling to and from New York and London, but I'm trying to stay in one place so I can concentrate on the new record and various other projects that I'm involved with on both sides of the Atlantic. I'm working with a choir and a film director, and performing guest vocals at festivals for a band called 'Ian Wills and The Willing'... as well as writing new songs for myself and others, but you have to keep busy these days now that all music is apparently FREE!
3. Gibson.com- You have been busy recording tracks for your new album. Is this due out later this year? What can your fans expect from this highly anticipated fifth studio album?
Tom McRae- I honestly don't know what to expect, so I can't tell anyone else. I'm recording and producing it myself which is always fun, so with my concentration levels at their usual 'mayfly' setting I expect it to be fairly low-fi and full of the sound of next door's baby crying and planes taking off and landing.
4. Gibson.com- Gibson Guitar is sponsoring the European Hotel Cafe Tour 2008, you are photographed with a Gibson Dove Acoustic guitar. Will you be taking this guitar or any other Gibson Acoustic out on the road with you?
Tom McRae- We're taking as many as we can carry, the Dove in the picture proved so popular we fought over it most nights, until Brian Wright ran off with it. I've paid someone to find him and kill him. Catherine Feeny has a vintage Gibson, so I'm having her killed as well.
5. Gibson.com - Your music has been compared to that of Nick Drake and Tim Buckley. Was either artist instrumental in shaping your early musical style and sound?
Tom McRae I listened a lot to Nick Drake when I was younger, but came late to Tim Buckley - although I would be happy with the comparisons, but I don't really hear them myself. The reason I sound the way I do - whatever that is - is due to the fact I was crap at copying other people convincingly. I always preferred the comparison to Marianne Faithful. Bizarre but cool.
6. Gibson.com - Did you select the line up of artists on the Hotel Café European Tour? Who do you have performing on the US Hotel Café Tour this year?
Tom McRae- It's crucial that everyone on the tour is great at what they do, and that they're good to tour with. It's a lot of hard work and everyone has to pull their weight, sacrifice their egos and generally do whatever I tell them! So I hand pick them all and then hope the ingredients are right for a great show. It's also vital to establish who snores the loudest, as this determines which bunk they get on the bus. People hoping to be on the next tour will have their chances greatly increased by learning to sleep on their stomachs. This time we have Cary Brothers, Jim Bianco, Greg Laswell, Catherine Feeny, and Brian Wright, as well as special guests including Eddie Reader and Turin Brakes. They all snore like freight trains. I make no sound at all.
7. Gibson.com - One Amazon.com customer says of your music "A Tom McRae album is a must in any music fan's collection as it demonstrates better than most the sheer brilliance of simplicity. Melancholy is the way that good music has always been, why change that. Tom McCrae - I tip my hat to you sir. Mesmerizing" - Any comment to add to that?
Tom McRae- I would change that to 'ALL' Tom McRae albums are a must, but I'll settle for that. I particularly like that my name is spelled wrong, which it is in on most dressing room doors and club posters. I expect my funeral flowers to spell out the name 'Tim McAre'.... it won't surprise me.
8. Gibson.com - What does the rest of 2008 have in store for you?
Tom McRae- Work, work, work, fishing. In that order. I'll be playing in the states in Autumn, finishing the new record and then finding somewhere to relax and fail to catch fish. It's not very rock and roll, but it calms me down - which apparently makes me tolerable to be around. The band are happy when I leave the bus for a day.
9. Gibson.com - If money were no object, which vintage and rare Gibson Guitars would, you want to own in your collection?
Tom McRae- A 1930's L-00 will do quite nicely thank you. The smaller body guitars are great to play and record really well. And if you can get me Neil Young's Blackie that would be nice. I'm a big fan of the one note guitar solo - which played with passion on the right guitar beats any amount of widdling.
10. Gibson.com - Which bands or solo artists would perform on your dream gig line up and what would the venue be?
Tom McRae- The venue is easy, L'Olmpia in Paris. You can keep Madison Square Garden or Shea stadium... this old Parisian theatre has a great history, I've seen some of my favourite gigs there and played some of my own. It's large enough to make you feel like a star, but small enough to still be intense. I'd headline - obviously - Joni Mitchell can open, followed by Dylan, then Springsteen, then Neil Young - and I'll close the show with my band. And if Kate Bush wants to dance behind me, that'd be fine by me.
11. Gibson.com - Tell us something interesting we do not already know about you as an artist?
Tom McRae- I was once cast in an independent movie playing the ghost of Gram Parsons... but the money got pulled and all that remains is my screen test. I could have been HUGE!
For more information on The Hotel Café tour and tour dates please visit www.thehotelcafetour.co/
For more information on Tom McRae please visit www.tommcrae.com
Photo Credit – John Rahim