It’s been a long climb to the top for The Lottery Winners; the group formed in Leigh, Greater Manchester back in 2008, fronted by Thom Rylance along with Robert Lally (guitar/vocals), Katie Lloyd (bass/vocals), and Joe Singleton (drums), and finally released their debut album in 2020.
Having recorded tracks for their planned first LP back in 2011, the project went under the radar and they continued to work on music, putting out a run of standalone singles throughout the following years, before attracting the attention of bosses at Modern Sky UK and setting to work on their first official long-player in 2019.
After inking a deal, the four-piece released the single Hawaii later that year, followed by their self-titled album in March 2020 – the week the world went into lockdown. “I was in TK Maxx and the announcement from Boris [Johnson] came over the tannoy. I just started crying right in the men’s knickers department,” laughs Thom, who admits: “It felt catastrophic! We’d waited 10 years to put an album out, we finally picked the right time to do it and then the whole universe collapsed.”
Promo plans for the LP were scrapped but the group put up a good fight, hitting No. 23 on the UK charts. “We had this real choice of whether to wallow in self pity and give up, or do the opposite,” he reflects. “And we chose the opposite…”
At the height of lockdown, the band – who isolated separately in their respective homes – began a number of creative endeavours: writing new material, recording cover versions, and launching a weekly online series of interviews with stars including Rick Astley and Frank Turner.
“That’s how I met Frank,” adds Thom, with the pair collaborating on the 2021 single Start Again, which features on their new record. “Loads of people came on – like actual celebrities – because they had nothing better to do.”
During that time, they released the covers collection ‘Sounds of Isolation’ (2020) and returned the following year with the aptly-titled ‘Something to Leave the House For’ (2021). Released ahead of the Christmas rush, it narrowly-missed the Top 10, peaking at No. 11 on the charts, igniting a fire in the band to go bigger and better this time around.
“If there was a silver lining to the whole thing, I think it gave creatives a little bit of space and time to breathe and reassess,” he reflects. “I had a lot of thinking time, obviously, and without that I don’t think the band would be doing as well as we are now, because we built a big fan base through that time.”
This month, the group unveils their latest LP ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’, featuring the Shaun Ryder collaboration Money and recent single Let Me Down featuring Boy George. The Culture Club frontman got involved with the project after Thom reached out to him multiple times on Twitter, telling him he’d written “the best song you’ve released since the eighties”.
“I noticed that he followed us and I wasn’t sure why,” Thom chuckles. “I just got in touch and was just like, ‘Oh, hey, I’ve written this song,’ and he ignored me. And then I was like, ‘No really, listen to this song,’ and he ignored me again.”
Several messages later “he was like, ‘Send me your number,’ and I was like, ‘Oh fuck, I’m gonna get a bollocking off Boy George,’ but it was the opposite. He was like, ‘Darling, I love the song, let’s get in the studio and do it.”
After recording the single, they once again joined forces for a neon-heavy music video, with Thom admitting: “It was just fucking incredible. He’s one of my favourite people on earth and he’s //so// interesting. He just seems special when he talks; you can tell that he’s a special person.”
Reflecting on his biggest inspirations, Thom names Freddie Mercury, Oasis and Nirvana; a melting pot that captures The Lottery Winners’ overall style. He adds: “I’m really intrigued by the idea of an icon. Liam Gallagher is iconic. Kurt Cobain is iconic. Boy George is iconic. Morrissey is iconic. I love him – well, I love his music…
“There’s something about me that wants to be that. I don’t care – I’ve always wanted to be stood where Freddie Mercury stood at Wembley and have everybody looking at me. So to actually work with some of those icons is incredible.”
Another big-name star Thom worked with early in his career is The Smiths’ Johnny Marr, who wandered into the young musician’s first-ever studio session. “He told me, ‘Make sure you always sound like you and don’t try to follow the trends,’ and I’ve lived by that,” he remembers, revealing the chance meeting took place when his grandfather gifted him £3,000 and he quit his job to pursue a career in music. However, he made a big faux pas: “I booked the studio session and Johnny walked into it. He was digging it and listening to my music, then I took a picture of him from the back of the room and he was just like, ‘Mate, that’s not cool’.
“It was a horrible experience. It’s one of the worst ones in my life,” he shares. “But it was all fine. I found him afterwards, apologised, and he gave me this big hug and all this advice. He said, ‘Keep going, I really liked what you’re doing,’ and that was mental because he’s my hero.”
Marr’s words of wisdom have served him well so far and when it comes to ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’, the group is aiming for the top spot. In fact, Thom has the Official Charts trophy, awarded to artists that hit No. 1, as the background on his phone – “My friends The Reytons recently got a No. 1 and when we went on tour with them they all had this on the background of their phones,” he reveals. “They said, ‘We look at this every day to remind us why we’re doing it,’ and I thought, ‘Genius!’” – and they have big plans for the future too.
With a UK tour booked through May, he reveals: “We’ve got some very big, scary venues pencilled in for the future. By the end of this year, we’ll hopefully be playing pretty ridiculous venues,” Thom smiles. “There’s a stadium in Leigh Sports Village and I want to play it; that would be the moment I’d feel like I’ve made it if I play my hometown stadium. The only people that have done it are Elton John and Lionel Richie – so I want to be next!”
Buy ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ on CD.
Buy ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ on Vinyl.
