The Maturation Of TA Thomas
Courtesy of Platoon
TA Thomas has had an involuted musical voyage. But, regardless of his travels, he's ready for the bright lights. All the proof he's needed is buried in the concrete roads he's traversed, fighting to retain the gift his God has bestowed upon him.
Over the past three years, Thomas penned a track with Chris Brown, became a GRAMMY-nominated artist, had a fair of rocky relationships, suffered the difficult loss of his mother, left his band, Next Town Down, fully committed himself to Los Angeles and signed to Platoon as a solo artist. Yeah. Take a deep breath.
However, prayer helped the artist comprehend that the ups and downs were intrinsically unified stories. The result is a pilgrimage, culminating in TA Thomas’ maturation—as much as it is a new body of work.
"It's been the journey. It's been the combination... It was all the bad sh*t that happened, all the stuff in between, and all the good stuff. I think it was trust in time," TA tells In Search Of Magazine, detailing what his life experience taught him. "God was growing me during those times. I was maturing. I was becoming the artist that I am now, and I'm very thankful. I have a lot of faith in God, man. I pray a lot, I meditate, and I think it's God that has made all of this make sense in time. And I'm very thankful that I'm able to tell this story."
TA Thomas sat down with In Search Of Magazine to talk about his new single, "W.I.A," his upcoming (very secret) debut album, and his journey as an artist.
In Search Of Magazine: When did you fall in love with R&B?
TA Thomas: I'm from Mississippi, so I was raised in church, singing. The sound in the South is called Southern Soul, a combination of gospel, R&B, and the blues. It's a local sound, and those sounds are what I was raised on. As I got older, I started ingesting a lot of music of the local R&B style in Mississippi. That's when I started falling in love with R&B. Because, at first, it was all church for me. Then when I started getting a little older, I got into the blues, which is R&B... It's all the same thing, man. That's when it happened for me.
I had to be eight or nine years old. Back in 2001, I did this youth service at church. My sisters always used to sing together, and we decided to do a little sister-brother duo. And I'll never forget. We were singing that song, [Mary Mary’s] "I Just Can't Give Up Now," and that feeling I got from being on stage. They said witnessing me singing was funny because I got an old spirit (laughs). Just really emotionally in it at a young age, and that feeling I got being on stage that day, being able to connect with the people in church emotionally, it was...I knew music was what I was going to do. And growing up in church...gospel music, I feel like, is one of the most moving things on Earth.
ISO: And it was around that time you learned how to play the piano and how to lean into your gifts. So it was an era of self-discovery for you.
TA: 100%.
Courtesy of Platoon
ISO: What was that like at such a young age, understanding and comprehending like, "Yo, this might be something that I can do for the rest of my life?"
TA: It would have to be the encouragement of people that were around me during the time developing that gift. I had so many people pour into me. My parents nurtured that gift and bought me many musical instruments at a young age. Being at church in my local town is like, you know everybody in this town, and when I used to go to these church services, and I didn't know how to play the piano at all, the keyboardist would stick around a little bit after the church and I'd sit and learn. And because of them, I could develop this gift and take such a less-traveled road. In the area that I'm from, it wasn’t only myself in this town just coming up. It was the community that [did it] with me.
ISO: You helped write "Talm Bout" for Chris Brown's Breezy, his album released a year ago this month. Between then and now, you became a GRAMMY-nominated artist, based on your IG, you've moved from Mississippi to LA, and you're embarking on an official solo career, signed to Apple's Platoon Label.
What has life been like over the last 365 days for you? Have you had a moment to process all of these experiences?
TA: This last decade, these last five years, even since the pandemic, has just been a rollercoaster of good sh*t and growing [pains] for myself. Sometimes I do sit back and I think. I don't know if you know, I come from a group, a group called Next Town Down.
And so, during the pandemic, stuff switched for us, and we decided to pursue solo endeavors. And since then, man, the rockets just took off right after. I jumped in the studio, discovering my sound and developing a plan of what I wanted to talk about and living life during that time. I had a lot of sh*t to... I lost my mom in the pandemic. It was tough for me.
So it's been a blessing. Working with DJ Camper, he really helped hone this sound. Harmony Samuels is another person that contributed to me finding my voice in music. It's a lot. I even hit myself across the head today, like, 'Yo, this sh*t is really happening. The people are finally getting the music from me.' My fans been waiting for a long time to hear sh*t from me.
ISO: Right, man, even on the upcoming track that you got, "W.I.A," you sing the lyrics, "You know what I've been through"—So with that attached to your last single, "June 15th," was there something that happened in your life that inspired the track's connected narratives?
TA: You're like, 'Yo, what the hell was you going through during that time?' (laughs). Just from being in relationships my whole life, from being a college freshman to leaving my parent's house for the first time, I felt like this project was a collection of all of those relationships that I've been in, and I felt like people could relate to these specific situations within the project. Each song is a moment in these relationships. "June 15th" was the day that I met somebody very special—
ISO: Very specific date too.
TA: Very specific date. I had to take it back to the first day, that first day that you meet a person. Ladies always document. I'm like, 'Nah, I got my calendar. I know it too.' (laughs) Yeah, bro. So [“June 15th”] spoke to the everyday struggle of trying to keep a relationship alive, being a young guy out in the world, grinding, finding myself, and finding my position in love. It just spoke to the tug of war, managing life, and being in a relationship.
And "W.I.A" is connected to that in a sense too, because we're not perfect. We come into these situations. I was listening to somebody speak the other day, and he said that relationships should start as authentic friendships. And he said, 'Friendships are an exchange of weaknesses for strength.' So we're always just growing and building together. And this song, "Where I'm At," is like, 'Listen, baby, if you want this to last, if you want this situation to work, or even if you want to be with T, you got to meet me wherever I'm at, in whatever situation I'm coming, just how I am.'
ISO: Talk to me about your relationship and friendship with DJ Camper, and how you two linked up for your upcoming debut album.
I met Camper through working with Next Town Down. We shared somebody that worked with us both on both of our teams. I reached out to him one day on IG. And he and my manager, Natasha, are from the same area. She reached out to him, and eventually, we talked, chatted, and texted, and he sent me a pack of beats. This one beat that he sent...the guitar, bro, the melodies, were stuck on me. I'm like, 'Yo, this record is crazy.' So I hit up my people, Jug, December, my girl Sage.
But when I sent him back that first record, Camper was like, 'Bro, we got to link up at the studio ASAP. I need to go in. I need to do the whole project.' So we got it in. We both relate to everything this project is talking about, those ins and outs of trying to keep a relationship alive in this day and age and being an artist.
ISO: And you described your debut project as a love letter to R&B; what can fans expect from that upcoming body of work?
They can expect a lot of vulnerable sh*t. This project is going to be very, very vulnerable, bro. I had tapped into a different side of my emotions to tell what I've been through. They can expect a lot of stories, a lot of relatable stories.
And if a listener listens to this project, they can apply one of these songs to a time or era in their life, or something they're dealing with right now. It's universal [regarding] the growing pains of trying to keep a relationship going, man. I can’t wait for the fans to hear it.
Listen to TA Thomas’ single, “W.I.A,” below.
