The Lottery Winners singer Thom Rylance was in his boxers when he accidentally hung up on Boy George.
The ‘Let Me Down’ indie rockers have teamed up with the Culture Club legend on the track from their upcoming new album ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ – which is released on Friday (28.04.23) – and frontman Thom has reflected on the “weird” phone call after “mithering” the pop icon on Twitter until he agreed to appear on the song.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: “He asked for my number and then phoned me and his words were, ‘Darling, I love the song, it’s amazing! Let’s get together and do it!’ I was like, ‘Yeah ok!’
“And then actually my signal went, I was like, ‘I just hung up on Boy George!’ I was panicking so much, literally in my boxer shorts in my living room going, ‘oh my God!’ So weird.”
Thom – who has “told everybody in the world” that he has George’s number now – admitted collaborating with the ‘Karma Chameleon’ hitmaker never felt “real” at any point of the process.
He said: “Even when I was in his studio with him I was still like, ‘Yeah but this is obviously some kind of prank. It’s not gonna actually happen!’ And then when he turned up to the video I was like, ‘Yeah but it’s still not gonna work, it’s not gonna happen.’
“Even on the day of posting it I was like, oh s***, that happened! That actually happened!”
Describing working with George as “watching a documentary in real life”, Thom has been grateful to learn from people like him, as well as artists like Shaun Ryder and Frank Turner, who appear on ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ singles ‘Money’ and ‘Letter To Myself’ respectfully.
When it comes to his own songwriting tips, he urged budding artists to “be authentic” and avoid creating something they don’t believe in.
He explained: “Be authentic. Don’t worry about what you think people want, only write what you want and then it was resonate so much more with people than if you’re trying to tailor some trendy version of what you think everybody wants.”
That honesty is clear in Thom’s lyrics, and he admitted pouring his emotions into the band’s songs is cathartic.
He added: “I think if I didn’t have the outlet and the release that I get from putting it down, writing it down, making it into a song, I don’t know what’d happen to me. It’d still be swirling around. I exhale all those emotions when they come down into song. It’s therapeutic – it literally is Anxiety Replacement Therapy.”
The band are hoping they will land their first UK number one with the record, and have told fans that they’re getting close.
Thom doesn’t want to get carried away, but he does have a photo of the trophy as his phone background which he looks at “every day” as motivation.
He said: “Once I’ve got that trophy, and I carry it with me everywhere – in the shower, sitting on the toilet holding my trophy! I don’t know man, we might not get it. I think that’s the stressful thing.
“It’s a very difficult thing to achieve and there’s some big artists releasing the same week as us – the idiots, what have they done that for?!
“But we can only try, and I feel like you’ve got to be positive – PMA and all that.”
The Lottery Winners’ new album ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ is out 28th April on Modern Sky UK.
They tour through April and May with festival dates throughout the summer. Visit thelotterywinners.co.uk for full dates.