“I was surrounded – really, from birth – with what I would consider to be the greats,” she says. “The Dylans and the Neil Youngs and The Beatles and all that kinda stuff – I grew up with that sorta music in my ears.”
As a child of the ’80s, her parents’ quality control meant that she didn’t fall victim – musically, at least – to the decade that taste forgot.
“I guess I was lucky in that I did bypass what most of my generation were listening to. You know I’d go to school and lots of people would be listening to New Kids on the Block or, occasionally, the more radical ones would talk about Paula Abdul.
“They all thought I was completely cracked for listening to what I listened to and maybe I did as well,” she continues. “But when you’ve got a choice between Bros or Bob, there isn’t really much of a choice.”
And clearly, it’s a choice that’s paid off. For her part, Thea Gilmore has attracted the kind of critical acclaim that’s usually reserved for the legends that she reveres. While the London Times describes her as “a sharp social observer with a Dylan-esque turn of phrase”, she’s also been attributed such accolades as “the most prolific and intelligent wordsmith of her generation” (The Independent), and – one that she finds particularly hard to digest – “the Joni Mitchell of her generation”.
“Sometimes it annoys me and I find it a little bit lazy – because I’m a girl and I’ve got maybe a slightly white, possibly folk voice, so let’s call her Joni Mitchell.
“A lot of the time it’s flattering to think that people think of you like that, but I certainly don’t. You couldn’t think of yourself like that, you’d be a completely arrogant arsehole if you did.
“Joni Mitchell’s such an amazing writer, and to me there’s kind of like an upper echelon of songwriter that isn’t reachable, and that I don’t think will ever arrive again. She’s one of them, and the others that I’ve mentioned – they’re all up there as well. It’s partly because they’re so talented and its partly because the industry and the timing will never be the same. You’ll never have that same spirit of revolution and newness to a music industry that they did then.”
On further probing Thea reveals that she is, in fact, quite partial to the aforementioned Abdul. “I did get into Paula Abdul but kinda after she was big,” she admits. “I used to cover ‘Straight Up’ – well I still cover ‘Straight Up’ – ’cause it makes me laugh and I do actually like the song.”