All aboard the Humane Train… Yes, Thomas Truax is back and with all pistons pumping on this brand new single.
With it full steam ahead towards the release date of what will be Thomas’ ninth full-length solo adventure All That Heaven Allows (out 2 Feb 2018, via Psycho Teddy Records), the Inimitable musician, inventor and all-round polymath returns with this peculiar, yet powerful protest song Humane Train.
Perhaps as close to a straightforward peace-preaching rock anthem that this wonky-pop maestro has ever veered towards before, it seems that radical times perhaps call for radical measures. Speaking about the track’s gestation Thomas says:
‘It took form early last year. Trump was elected. I didn’t yet have permission to stay in the UK with my new wife, I was stuck in Germany after our Honeymoon awaiting paperwork, and I didn’t want to have to go back to America. Every day the news everywhere was horrifying… I’m one of those idealists that believes if people work harder to get along with each other and with the other life on this planet -be it plant, animal, or mineral- that we will all have ourselves a better situation. And in this song, I’m just shouting that from the rooftops.’
Indeed, putting these ideals into motion, Humane Train was very much a collaborative and co-operative effort from the lone-wolf performer and loop-pedal virtuoso. With the blueprint of a blazing psycho-billy pumping, gospel-choir gorging call to arms in mind, Thomas assembled an array of close friends and skilled musicians to bring his vision roaring into life. Multi-tracking his own voice to the nth degree, Thomas then called on the talents of German songstress S J Cora Himmelsbach, Swans man Paul Wallfisch, James Smith of Post War Glamour Girls, plus the notable amplification from one Gemma Ray (co-collaborator of the lead single Save Me), Humane Train, this winning formula soon packed the roof-raising punch of a Church congregation on steroids. ‘I had to trim it all down a bit in the end so the recorder didn’t explode!’ says Thomas.