{"id":197296,"date":"2024-03-26T11:37:25","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T11:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=197296"},"modified":"2024-03-26T11:42:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T11:42:03","slug":"no-one-understands-the-pressure-of-being-labelled-as-a-hit-songwriter-then-somebody-puts-you-in-a-room-with-strangers-and-theyre-like-hey-i-need-a-smash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/no-one-understands-the-pressure-of-being-labelled-as-a-hit-songwriter-then-somebody-puts-you-in-a-room-with-strangers-and-theyre-like-hey-i-need-a-smash\/","title":{"rendered":"‘No one understands the pressure of being labelled as a \u2018hit songwriter’, then somebody puts you in a room with strangers and they\u2019re like, \u2018Hey, I need a smash!\u2019’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MBW\u2019s World\u2019s Greatest Songwriters series celebrates the composers behind the globe\u2019s biggest hits. Here we meet Grammy-winning writer Theron Thomas who describes his journey from the Virgin Islands to the top of the charts and what he’s learned along the way. World\u2019s Greatest Songwriters is supported by AMRA<\/a> \u2013 the global digital music collection society which strives to maximize value for songwriters and publishers in the digital age.<\/p>\n

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Young Theron and Timothy Thomas are rehearsing in their third-floor apartment in the Oswald Harris Court housing project in St Thomas on the US Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n

Downstairs, their friends are playing kickball in the Caribbean sun and calling them to come and join in. But the brothers know they can\u2019t do that until their performance has impressed their father, Miguel \u2018Kiebo\u2019 Thomas, enough for him to get out of his chair.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Dad taught me and my brother everything,\u201d smiles Theron Thomas, as he thinks back to those days. \u201cHe used to make us rehearse for two hours every day before we could go outside to play. We had to make him stand up. He\u2019d be like, \u2018I\u2019m your Dad, if you\u2019re boring to me, imagine how a stranger feels\u2019. He was my true hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theron\u2019s father sadly didn\u2019t live to see it, having passed away suddenly in 2020, but his son recently brought a much bigger room to its feet.<\/p>\n

And when Theron Thomas picked up the second-ever Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical Grammy in Los Angeles in February, delivering an emotional tribute to his Dad \u2013 who had predicted his son would one day win a Grammy \u2013 as he did so, it was the culmination of a long, hard journey that began thousands of miles and a whole different world away.<\/p>\n

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Indeed, when Theron was a kid, he would ask his father whether the people in the far-off, glamorous locations he saw on TV \u2013 London, New York, Paris, LA \u2013 knew anything about St Thomas and its people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to just live in the world and die and have no one know I was here,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted people to know my island is here and to know that I exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Theron is close to mission accomplished on that ambitious plan is testament not just to his talent, but also his tenacity. He and his brother \u2013 who would first find success in the band R. City (aka Rock City, the local nickname for their hometown) \u2013 became well known for their music in St Thomas, but nobody expected that notoriety to extend beyond the Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from my parents, there was never anybody that believed this could happen,\u201d Theron says. \u201cThey\u2019d say, \u2018Nobody\u2019s ever done it, so why would it be you and your brother? What makes y\u2019all so special? This isn\u2019t a thing that people from where we\u2019re from accomplish\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desperate to prove them wrong, the brothers moved to Miami in 2000 with $35 in their collective pocket, sleeping on floors and making connections, until a musical opportunity took them to Atlanta a year later.<\/p>\n

At the time, artist stardom was their priority. R. City signed first to Akon\u2019s KonLive Distribution (Akon gave them their first writing credit when he used their song\u00a0The Rain\u00a0on his\u00a0Konvicted<\/em>\u00a0album) and, later, Dr Luke\u2019s Kemosabe Records.<\/p>\n

R. City had a Top 10 Billboard hit with\u00a0Locked Away\u00a0<\/em>(featuring Maroon 5\u2019s Adam Levine) in 2015. But it was the songs they wrote and produced for other people along the way that really had an impact: Sean Kingston\u2019s\u00a0Take You There<\/em>, Iyaz\u2019s\u00a0Replay<\/em>\u00a0and, crucially, Pussycat Dolls\u2019\u00a0When I Grow Up<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat gave us a lot of confidence,\u201d Theron grins. \u201cThe Pussycat Dolls won an MTV Award and I\u2019ll never forget Nicole saying, \u2018Thank you to R. City\u2019. \u2018Nicole Scherzinger said our name on MTV \u2013 oh my God, we\u2019re going to be famous!\u2019 That purity is something that kept us going for a long, long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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