“What I really want to do is just make a living out of it. That’s all that it boils down to. I don’t want to be playing Co-op live or anything. My goal is to just have a fun time doing it. If I can do it without digging up roads, then I’m happy with that”
Caesar of Cymatics is the Manchester based musical project of 17-year-old Tom Clegg (known as Caesar). Based in the local scenes of Manchester, Caesar blends traditional indie pop with elements of folk and post-punk. Already having found himself a loyal following online and in the Manchester music scene, Caesar is set to release his latest single ‘Unlovingly Lie‘ on the 11th of January. We had the privilege of speaking to Caesar last year, following his release of his EP ‘if it weren’t for them…’.
An Introduction into the World of Music
Caesar, like a lot of us has been into music from an incredibly young age, as he sits across from me he tells me, “I was listening to a lot of general dream pop and post-rock music that my dad would put on in the car” he continues on to say “I’d call it motorway music, because we’d always listen to it on car journeys and stuff, like on the way to Southport. That was my first memorable experience, sitting in the car listening to music”.
Then going on into his later childhood his dad “threw a guitar on [him]” telling him to “learn Songbird by Oasis”, resulting in him starting bands in school and eventually beginning to write his own music at 13. This venture into music as a young musician came to a point when Caesar was given the opportunity to record his first song, ‘It’s Plain Knowing’ at his dad’s friend Oz Cooper’s home studio. Caesar tells me about this time as he says “That’s when Caesar of Cymatics started, because I’d quit streaming, and I wanted something new to do. I thought, I’ve got this song here, so I might as well put it out”.
An Artist in the Online Sphere
This online side of Caesar of Cymatics, namely streaming, still plays a big part in his work and online presence. Caesar tells me about this side of the project, as he says “[people] seem to be quite enjoying the live streams . . . in this sort of world it’s harder to get out there as an indie musician – it’s all quite luck-based and getting your music heard [but] I can say to people, oh, if you like this, then you’ll like my music”.
As well as this Caesar has received a lot of attention in the past year from his online covers, getting hundreds of thousands of views across his social media platforms has gained him many fans interested in his musical journey. He talks about this aspect of his work as he says “I don’t mind doing the covers because they’re good in terms of getting people on board and it has worked, to be fair. There’s been a lot more people coming over”.
However, unfortunately due to the nature of our online world, not all the online attention is positive. “It’s pretty easy to ignore but it is kind of a shame because there are people who are really cool and they sort of get lost in the crowd” he says, talking about some of the negative online interactions he’s had. Continuing he says “I feel bad because when people start invading personal boundaries it becomes very much a thing . . . I’ve done many stories explaining my boundaries, if people don’t follow them, I’m just not going to interact with them”.
A Good Year
Nevertheless, this last year has been an incredibly good one for Caesar of Cymatics, especially with the release of his EP ‘if it weren’t for them…’. Talking about this release, Caesar tells me “It went pretty well . . . especially with ‘Where Have You Gone?’, that was a big step forward for me, because it felt quite anthemic. For me, it felt like a big step forward”. Caesar goes onto discuss the influences he had when creating the EP as he says “it was nice to take a bit of a step back from doing classic indie guitar rock and just sort of delving into a bit more of the intricacies of Nick Drake, Elliot Smith, Jeff Buckley and all those sorts of people. Just sort of having that folk influence”.
Caesar also feels like it was important to create something slightly different to keep people interested, he tells me about this as he says, “that was a big pusher for me doing more of a minimalist thing and also showing that I’m not just a one-trick pony”. Continuing he says “there’s a lot of bands which are quite one-trick, indie, same song over and over again. Nothing against that, but for me, I want to keep people interested and not be drawn away by having the same song over and over”.
The Future
Going into the future, Caesar obviously has the new single coming out, but ultimately Caesar tells me it’s “all going to be about the music”, he goes onto say “what I really want to do is just make a living out of it. That’s all that it boils down to. I don’t want to be playing co-op live or anything. My goal is to just have a fun time doing it. If I can do it without digging up roads, then I’m happy with that”.
Regarding his new single ‘Unlovingly Lie’, Caesar tells me “I really want to make this a really, really interesting single for people and I really want to take a big step up from everything that has come before it”. He tells me about how many times it’s been rewritten and how long it has taken to work on and record before saying “I think it is very much the best thing that I’ve written to this day”.
Ultimately Caesar is a wonderfully talented musician backed up by a fabulous band who have had an incredible year in 2024. Going into 2025 Caesar seems to be once again gearing up for a momentous year, beginning with a single that promises to elevate their work thus far to an even higher level. We can’t wait to see what Caesar gets up to this year, and we are just grateful to be a part of it. You can stream Caesar’s new single on its release on the 11th of January or alternatively catch him at Venture Fest on the 24th August.
All Photography by @seenbysharyn
Words by Benjamin Hacking
