Loud Hound is an organic enterprise for Tommy Florio.
While the creation of any musical nom de plume requires intentional thought and hard work, the truth is that the music fueling Florio's push as a recording and performing artist is all organic, a sort of stumbling forward into success as more and more listeners have turned into fast fans of his pop-forward approach.
What began as a hobby has turned into a small business known as Loud Hound, and his first EP is now available on streaming services everywhere. We were hooked from the first track, and to hear Florio tell his story, that's been the common refrain as Loud Hound has become something real after years of just writing and recording for the fun of it.
We recently sat down to hear a bit more about Florio's background and how it feels to get It's Okay To Be Lonely Part #1 out there to the masses.
Analogue: The release is right here. How are you feeling these days about getting these songs out there?
Tommy Florio: For the last four or five years, I’ve been releasing singles at about five tracks per year. Then the opportunity presented itself to maybe do a project, so I cherry-picked some of the older songs and hashed out some of the demos I’ve been working on for forever and decided to finish it. It’s definitely a huge sense of relief that it’s out and people are enjoying it and connecting with it. I couldn’t be happier, to be honest.
Analogue: I’d love to get a bit of background from you. Did you grow up in a musical family or have you been chasing music since you were a kid?
Tommy: It was never my focus, at least as a kid. It was just a thing I did. I’d started playing drums when I was 12 or 13 maybe and played all throughout high school. I’d try to be in bands but it didn’t work out. They were more like jam sessions. Then I didn’t pick up the guitar until I was 18 or 19, but as soon as I did, I fell in love with it.
It was ironic because people would tell me I should play guitar and I was like, ‘No, I wanna be a drummer.’ I was always rebellious and did the opposite of what I was told. Then they said, ‘Now that you play guitar, you should learn covers,’ and I knew in my head that I didn’t want to do that. So I made it a point to distinctly never learn a cover. I just wanted to write my own music so I taught myself guitar and tried to write songs, which went through many different phases.
I moved up to New York City to go to school and I kept writing more music. I got into producing and stuff and started playing bass and keys and now it’s to the point where I have a studio in the house that’s my own little haven.
Analogue: What was the moment you go from writing songs as a hobby to “I think I’m going to pursue this professionally”?
Tommy: To be honest, even in the earlier stages, I’d written thousands of songs. I can’t even tell you how many phone memos I have where I’m just singing gibberish. All of the space on my phone is just old voice memos or me playing guitar. But it wasn’t until 2016 that I started to really record stuff. A buddy in Brooklyn helped me bring some songs to a head. I was also producing on my own, but I always thought I wasn’t good enough to release the songs I was doing on my own, so I sat on them for two years before releasing them in 2018.
I had some more songs from a different studio that I was just sitting on. When I released the first song, “Fine by Me” back in 2018, I just put it out without thinking anything much of it. This is back in SoundCloud days when I’m making friends with artists all around the world. It just felt like there was a whole community of people like me who just wanted to put out music on the internet—without a label, just for the sake of putting it out.
I put it out and it got some traction. A lot of people gravitated toward this surf-rock song and then a major label hit me up, which I thought was insane. I thought, ‘Maybe I should put my craft out into the world more.’ I think the anchor to keep going has always been when I get a note from a fan that a song has created a solid moment in their lives while listening with their friends or significant others.
Analogue: So what are your hopes for getting this EP out there at this stage?
Tommy: I’ve learned to never expect too much life. Rather you just go with the flow. If it works out in your favor, that’s awesome. I think it’s important to work as hard as possible—blood, sweat, and tears—until you can’t do anymore. For me, that’s always been my mentality to keep going but also whatever happens happens. I want to reach as many people as possible and if that happens, that’s awesome, but I still want people to be able to connect and create these memories in their lives from these songs. So I’ll work as hard as I can. The rest is up to the universe. [Laughs]
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