Tom Minor On the Making Of “It's Easy to Play Hearts”
What was the creative process like for this particular "It's Easy to Play Hearts?"
It started with the title, as it often happens to me. I used to come across these instrument guidebooks called "It's easy to play Abba", "... piano", or whatever, and I started to toy with the idea of using that for something more universal from a human perspective. And what's more universal than the matters of the heart?, so there I had it. Someone playing lightly with another person's deepest feelings and creating heartbreak made for an interesting drama angle and a slightly darker tinge, juxtaposed with something being 'easy'. But I also wanted there to be a somewhat hope-inducing ending, like saying "sod it, and sod YOU, you fickle person, I'm out of here for something better!".
Musically, I knew from the beginning that it had to be an energetic uptempo track, in order to create a more uplifting vibe than a traditional 'sob ballad' would do, reflecting the inner contrast in the lyrics.
Can you talk about the recording and production process for "It's Easy to Play Hearts?"
Once I had the music and lyrics down, the arrangement fell into place quite naturally, it kind of wrote itself. I knew I wanted it to sound a bit like a typical early-sixties Motown dance number, and my producer Teaboy Palmer helped a lot in putting it together the way it ended up sounding. So props to him for that!
What has been one of your favorite memories along the path to making this song?
I have this hobby when I'm out walking: if I hear something interesting I bring out my mobile phone and try to record what I hear. And then later on I tend to listen back to what there might be. While producing It's Easy to Play Hearts we discovered this recording I had made outside a tube station. There was a street preacher with a megaphone touting his passionate message, which still to this day I'm not quite sure what it's about, but with a bit of editing it seemed to fit in perfectly with the middle part and ending of this one. I obviously don't know who the guy is, and he has no idea of ending up in my song. My apologies to him for stealing his voice. (My excuse being: I was ambitious and I needed 'the money'!)
How did you get started in music, and what inspired you to become a singer-songwriter?
I was a rock and pop fan from a very early age. I always liked the energy of a good solid rock tune and great pop melodies as well, and I wanted to learn an instrument in order to be able to create similar kind of - more or less organised - noise myself. But I was always greatly into lyrical content as well and appreciated strong lyrics with a bit more meaning than your average top-40 hit usually has. And never being able to master an instrument (in my case guitar and keyboards) well enough to shine solely with my playing, I started leaning more towards trying to write "the perfect three-minute mini-operetta" in the form of meaningful melodies and narratives over and over again. It's Easy to Play Hearts is one of the more recent efforts of mine to achieve exactly that ever-escaping goal.
How do you balance crafting relatable stories with maintaining your unique voice as a songwriter?
I guess it's more than anything a question of finding a subject and a perspective that speaks to you personally first, what you yourself would like to hear in other people's art, and then trying consciously to put it together in such a way that someone else could get something out of it as well. It is undoubtedly a balancing act between reflecting your own personal emotions and creating something relatable to others at the same time. But in the end it's really no use trying to sound like someone else if you want to create something even remotely relevant in this world full of everything already.
