We had a chat with Drew Thomas about his thoughtful and hard-edged new single ‘Soda Friends’
A new release that explores the intimacy and profundity of times you spend quickly becoming friends with people that you will probably never see again, Drew Thomas‘ excellent single ‘Soda Friends’ is a track that continues to capture the urgency and relatability of the artist’s compelling pop rock sound.
The artist’s brand of “grit-pop” does a great job of taking the brash and hard-hitting nature of alternative rock while giving it a sleek poppy edge, and this new track pushes the confines of this style to its most hard-hitting and riffy edge, making for these huge, climatic moments that feel anthemic and festival-ready. We love the new release, and had a chat with Drew to find out a bit more about it and the story of how it came together.
Hey! We love your new single ‘Soda Friends’, what more can you tell us about it?
‘Soda Friends’ was written after a trip to New York last year. I had a night out in Brooklyn where I ended up spending the evening with a bunch of strangers. We became instant friends, drank way too much and spoke about some of the deepest things. In the moment, I thought these people would be friends for life, but when I woke up the next day, the whole interaction felt like a dream. In my head, they became “soda friends”, intense, fizzy friendships that only exist for a night before turning into a memory.
What was the process like putting it together?
I ended up writing the whole song with my mate Matt in Cardiff. I’d had the riff and chorus bouncing around my head for weeks beforehand, but once we sat down together, it came together incredibly quickly. I always think songs are like clouds passing by. If you catch them at the right moment, they feel like magic. If you miss them, you can spend months trying to force something that just isn’t there. From the beginning, this felt like it needed to be a big, energetic rock song, and I can thank Matt for the ridiculous face-melting guitars in the bridge.
What were your biggest influences when creating it
Lyrically, it was influenced by a conversation with a girl I met that night in Brooklyn. She was telling me about her life and how I reminded her of an ex, but at the same time she seemed strangely distant, almost like she was used to making these fleeting, surface-level connections on nights out. The lack of effort in the interaction weirdly inspired me. Musically, I grew up listening to Muse, and I think that influence has found its way into a lot of my songs. This one also has a lot of Nothing But Thieves and Don Broco energy. It’s probably the rockiest song I’ve released to date.
How do you feel that your distinctive grit-pop sound is evolving over time?
As an artist, I’ve always felt like I exist in the in-between space of everything. Too pop for the rock kids, too rock for the pop kids. I’ve always hated the question, “What do you sound like?” because honestly, I have no idea. I write songs about my feelings and experiences. They usually start as emotional, dramatic ideas written on an old guitar in my bedroom. “Grit-Pop” solved that dilemma for me. It feels like my sound, a chaotic mix of nostalgia, massive choruses and huge guitars. It’s basically just my brain in genre form.
What else do you have planned for the near future?
My only real aim has always been to soundtrack people’s lives. The idea that my songs can be played at parties, accompany someone’s daily commute, or become a refuge for them is the reason I’ve always done this. I’m planning some big headline shows for later this year and I’m also working on a debut album. I have no idea exactly what that will look like yet, but it’ll be big, fun, rocky and probably pretty dramatic. Very on brand for Drew Thomas, if you ask me
