Isaac Symonds and Thomas Molander have teamed up for the surprise release of an aptly-titled collaborative EP, Tom and Isaac: Five Songs — out today.
The fruitful partnership between the lifelong friends is largely owed to Montreal's acclaimed indie rock outfit Half Moon Run, in which Symonds used to play alongside Molander's brother. Both prolific creatives in their own right, Symonds announced an ambient project with Toronto's Yaehsun last year, while Molander released his debut solo album The Walk in 2020.
"Tom has got a knack for songwriting, lyrics and melody, which bodes well with my skill set," Symonds said in a statement. "We share a similar taste in music: late-'60s, early-'70s era — the Beach Boys, the Kinks, the Beatles, Harry Nilsson. Yet, I found that Tom would always be sharing B-sides that I'd never heard of."
He added: "My earliest memory of Tom was competing against him in a local battle of the bands show. He was in a Beatles cover band, and I was in a band playing Slayer and Iron Maiden. His band won. Little did I know that 17 years later, we'd release Tom and Isaac: Five Songs."
The collection is led by the soft effervescence of folk-infused single "Somebody Else," a swaying '70s groove reminiscent of the sun-kissed, complexly layered arrangements of epochal pop classics. There's sense of warmth and familiarity, but a slow descending bassline and modulations into minor chords maintain a melancholic unpredictability — and the duo are unafraid to follow where the wave of emotion may lead.
"We wanted it to sound kind of like the strange songs Harry Nilsson made in collaboration with John Lennon in the mid-'70s — an example, for us, of a dynamic partnership that yielded surprising results," Molander explained in a release.
Watch the animated video for "Somebody Else" and listen to Tom and Isaac: Five Songs in full below.
The fruitful partnership between the lifelong friends is largely owed to Montreal's acclaimed indie rock outfit Half Moon Run, in which Symonds used to play alongside Molander's brother. Both prolific creatives in their own right, Symonds announced an ambient project with Toronto's Yaehsun last year, while Molander released his debut solo album The Walk in 2020.
"Tom has got a knack for songwriting, lyrics and melody, which bodes well with my skill set," Symonds said in a statement. "We share a similar taste in music: late-'60s, early-'70s era — the Beach Boys, the Kinks, the Beatles, Harry Nilsson. Yet, I found that Tom would always be sharing B-sides that I'd never heard of."
He added: "My earliest memory of Tom was competing against him in a local battle of the bands show. He was in a Beatles cover band, and I was in a band playing Slayer and Iron Maiden. His band won. Little did I know that 17 years later, we'd release Tom and Isaac: Five Songs."
The collection is led by the soft effervescence of folk-infused single "Somebody Else," a swaying '70s groove reminiscent of the sun-kissed, complexly layered arrangements of epochal pop classics. There's sense of warmth and familiarity, but a slow descending bassline and modulations into minor chords maintain a melancholic unpredictability — and the duo are unafraid to follow where the wave of emotion may lead.
"We wanted it to sound kind of like the strange songs Harry Nilsson made in collaboration with John Lennon in the mid-'70s — an example, for us, of a dynamic partnership that yielded surprising results," Molander explained in a release.
Watch the animated video for "Somebody Else" and listen to Tom and Isaac: Five Songs in full below.
