GUEST OF THE MONTH: BILLEN TED
This month we catch up with Tom Hollings one half of Hitmaker duo ‘Billen Ted’!
Hitmakers Billen Ted reached number one in the UK charts when their sea shanty remix ‘Wellerman’ became a lockdown TikTok sensation. They were also part of the writing team on this year’s UK Eurovision entry! We talk Death Metal, NFTs and the crucial tipping point.
Can you start by telling us a bit about Billen Ted? Who you are and where you met?
Tom I’m Tom, I’m half of Billen Ted. A bit about us – me and Sam, we used to be in metal bands. We actually met on tour, we were in separate bands for 15/16 years. And it just went from there, really. We were the kind of the guys in our separate bands that would always be on the tour bus, sitting on the back making beats on a laptop. And I think at the time it was mainly dubstep. It just kind of progressed. I think it must have been about six years ago that we played Download together and we always talked about doing a dance project together. I was out at the Tomorrowland Festival because at the time I was working for a few DJs, like Carl Cox and Seth Troxler doing their digital and social media stuff. I rang him on the way back from the Eurostar and just said, ‘mate, we need to do this’. And we did a couple of tracks got signed a couple of months later to Ultra and then away we went. So that was really the start of it. But yeah, we come from metal, we come from the sort of heavy, extreme form of music. And then we’ve kind of worked our way into Dance and Pop production. And it’s going alright!
Going very well, from what we hear! So you started your music career in Death Metal bands. How do you make the leap to dance and pop music to producers and writers? And what inspired you?
Tom Yes we did start in the Metal World and I think whenever we tell people that, they’re quite shocked. They’re like ‘wow it’s such an extreme form of music’. I think that’s kind of why we’ve got a slight difference in the sound and how we approach stuff. It’s coming from that extreme, quite technical form of music. I know it’s a stereotypical thing to say, but we did just just fall into it. We were doing dance and then working with people on sessions and enjoying writing music and by default, working with a lot of pop people and pop artists, other producers, DJs, singers. And we really did just fall into it. I can’t really make the link from it, but we were never into just one genre. A lot of people that are in the metal world will just listen to metal. And the metal fans are very loyal to the scene and to the music and definitely don’t really listen to anything else. But me and Sam were raised on classical, jazz and lots of different music. Just good music, really. We’ve always been listening to popular music. So it hasn’t been that much of a weird transition as far as we’re concerned.
So you’ve had quite a year, you recent remix of the sea shanty Wellerman amassed hundred and twenty million streams and spent two weeks at number one on the official charts. And how did the collaboration with 220 Kid come about?
Tom So, yeah, this year has been pretty crazy! The artist thing was something we tried a few years ago and we’ve been really working on writing and production. And then it was only sort of October time that we decided that we would do another artist project. But we wanted to do that in a bit of a cool way, we wanted to put a couple of records out on Defected or Toolroom and start really far left. Build before we crossed over and did any more commercial leaning tracks. Then with 220 Kid we worked with them a lot and collaborated together a lot. So it was all his idea, to be honest. And just very quickly we realized that it turned into something a lot bigger than we ever envisaged. And yeah, I think it’s number one in seven countries! One hundred and fifty million streams on Spotify, which is crazy. And it’s just blown up in a significant way. So it ruined our plans in terms of having a cool entry into the music world. But at the end of the day, a hit is a hit. And whether it’s a sea shanty remix or anything else, it still reached the top of the charts and resonates with people on a level. And I think the best thing about it is that actually we have so many messages from people just saying that it really cheered them up during lockdown. Lots of people’s kids listen to it. And I think that’s why it’s still streaming over a million streams a day, it’s because of kids running around asking Alexa to play Wellerman. My little boy is obsessed with it, he’s just turned three. And I can see why it’s so popular among kids as well. So hopefully it’s brought some joy to people. I mean, I’m completely over it. We hate the song. I don’t want to hear it anywhere. But, you know, it’s OK. We’re fully just on the commercial line now and have accepted that’s what we’re doing. We’ve got some cool records coming up and we’ve got the Gracie record out at the moment called ‘Got You Covered’ which is doing really well. It’s just been made track of the week on Radio 1 and we have a record coming out on the fourth of June with Mae Muller called ‘When You Were Out’. So that’s the immediate plans, a Little Mix remix of ‘Confetti’ just came out and a few other things in the pipeline… So, busy… haven’t stopped.
You’ve also just released Wellerman’s NFTs. Do you see NFTs as being part of the future of income generation formation?
Tom We did launch a collection of NFTs with ourselves and 220 Kid, and to be honest it’s been like a massive learning curve for us because, 220 has some involvement in crypto and he’s a lot more clued up. Whereas myself and Sam haven’t. But during this whole process, we’ve got to learn a lot about it. And I definitely think that, I’m not 100 percent sold on NFTs being an income stream that’s sustainable, but I think certainly the crypto world is going to come in. I think smart contracts and a lot of other things within that world are going to be useful to musicians and writers. There’s a more transparent payment system that can be used, certainly for songwriters and for collecting royalties, that doesn’t take a year or two years to funnel through from abroad. So I think with crypto there’s going to be lanes of revenue and of making things more efficient. With regards to NFTs, I’m not sure. I think people need to be a little bit more creative with them and actually figure out what it means outside of just presenting artwork. I think we’ll see over the next couple of years, if that kind of space evolves and how it works – whether it is just a phase people are going through. But we’re glad to do it, glad to be a part of it. And we try to make ours more than just a bit of art. We tried to do music, we’ve got password’s in there, which we’re going to use for later dates and bespoke music for each NFT that came out. So it was more than anything else, a big learning process. We’ll see if it lasts the test of time.
So how has the coronavirus affected you as producers and songwriters, and what steps have you been taking to continue working during that time? How important are platforms like TikTok?
Tom Coronavirus has had a huge impact on everyone, especially in the music industry. A lot of people had to adapt. I’m sure most people will say that they adapted and either worked on zoom and really liked it and got to work with people… but in all honesty, me and Sam did three zoom sessions in the last 15 months and didn’t like it. That’s kind of why we pushed forward doing an artist’s project. It was like, let’s get moving. We had plenty of stuff to be getting on with, basically a lot of people sending us production work to do, top lines, other things to finish. So we got busy if anything during the whole pandemic and consider ourselves really lucky in that respect that we did, because a lot of people have really struggled and didn’t take well to it. So I think we were really lucky that we just continued working, decided that we could go to the studio, had our own bubble between us and cracked on. And I do feel really grateful that we had the opportunity to make such good headway in the last year. I think without having that bubble and without coming into the studio, we would have been losing our minds a bit like everyone else. I’m sure there’s a lot of people that work in the living room or lounge or sofa, who are looking forward to getting back into an office and working space. But for us, it feels like we haven’t really left that. So we’re feeling very grateful for that.
You received Hitmaker funding in 2020. What made you apply to the fund?
Tom You know, I don’t think there’s any any shame in actually saying that it takes a lot of work, time and effort to actually get to a point where you can do music as a producer and writer in a full-time capacity – even with early publishing deals that you might get. Especially for someone like myself and I’m not in an unusual position, I’ve got a family, I’ve got a boy who’s three years old… And I think at the time (Billen Ted applied for Hitmaker) we were trying to push into that space where I didn’t want to be working, doing anything else on the side. I was lecturing for a little bit at Notting Hill Academy of music and I stopped doing that and was just wanting to push forward with with this full-time. And having actually applied for the Hitmaker Fund, which we were so grateful to receive, I think a lot of that was actually put into putting my boy into childcare a couple of additional days, so I could really get to the studio five, six days a week. I think actually having that time has allowed us to work more, to work harder and actually move to the next level. Without that sort of funding, we wouldn’t have been in the same position that we are now. So, you know, big up the Foundation!
You got the support because you were deemed to be at that crucial tipping point. And what was that point you were at?
Tom So I think at the time we were working with DJ Hugel, Alok, 220 Kid, we’d just done a single for Melanie C from the Spice Girls. So it was just the kind of time where things were happening and we really wanted to push on and try do more work with more people. So we had a certain level of success and the streaming numbers were good. We were getting a bit of attention. But I think it was definitely a tipping point for us. And receiving the funding did help. Without that, I don’t think we’d have had the opportunities or done what we have in the last year. We definitely had a bit of a buzz around this before and I think that the whole point of the fund is just for people that are at the tipping point – giving that extra nudge over with the hope that you build on it and achieve bigger and better things. So, yeah, I think it’s worked.
As a behind the scenes creator, why do you think that this fund is important?
Tom As a behind the scenes creator, this fund is important. It’s kind of a different situation for us maybe now as we weren’t intending to do an artist project. And I think, at the time of the application for the funding, I don’t think it was really on our radar. We’re perfectly happy just being in the studio and producing and writing for other people. And I think sometimes that writers and producers don’t get the credit they deserve. As an example, you know, even the Brit awards this year, it was very artist focused. I think writers and producers get left out of the limelight when it’s their incredible writing and production. They get a lot of the artists nominated for these awards there. So I think things like this are great. It gives the spotlight to producers, to writers that are up and coming. Decent PR can help get them in rooms with other people that they might not be able to get in with before that. So that’s why it’s such a kind of important fund. It’s made a huge difference to us. We’re so grateful for it. And I’m sure other people that have received the Hitmaker Fund as well, other writers and producers have said the same thing. So it’s a really great incentive from PRS Foundation and we’re very grateful.
What would be your top three tips for an aspiring creator wanting to be a full-time producer songwriter?
Tom I think just persistence is key for all of this, and every single creative person will tell you that you go through days and weeks and months of self-doubt and that’s completely normal as a creative. So don’t be disheartened if you’re having periods of lack of creativity. I think persistence and motivation, they kind of come into the same thing. So just keep going. Work harder than anyone else. It’s the most competitive industry in the world, so just make sure you’re putting the hours in. I think the ten thousand hours is a really good thing to work by. And, you know, if you haven’t quite done that yet and things haven’t quite clicked yet, maybe that’s why. It’s just doing more time, doing it for years, it’s not just something you can kind of do in six months. It’s quite rare, that it just happens like that. So work rate is probably the second tip I’d give. Just work as hard as you can. And third, Probably learn to network is really important. Grow your network. Relationships with people are really important. Like I said, half of it is how hard you work, half of it is how smart you work as well. The people, your network is everything in this business and A&Rs from publishing companies, from record companies. At the end of the day, they’re the people that give you work and so you need to know who they are. It’s not just going to fall into your lap all the time. So I think that would be my third one. And be nice to everyone. That’s important.
And so you’ve also recently dropped tracks with Brit nominated Gracie and Mae Muller. How do you find music creatives? How do you find people to collaborate with?
Tom So we’ve got a track out with Gracie at the moment. Mae Muller is coming in two weeks (4th June). And I absolutely love working with those girls – there’s not many artists out there who we don’t get along with and those girls are great. Such great energy. Collaborating with people, that’s what we live for, creating great music and music people ultimately are singing at home. And hopefully soon we’ll get to see them sing festivals and shows and gigs again. So fingers crossed everything goes to plan and we can see some shows and people singing a song about this summer. That will be good.
What’s next for Billen Ted?
Tom Just hopefully more hit records! Now we’re doing this whole artist thing properly, I think that’s what we want. We’ve got a track that we produced from Ray coming out very soon so, it should be coming out next month. Lot of things as well going on. More records, more music, more collaborations or remixes and hopefully some live shows.
