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\u201cI didn\u2019t have to ask them to come up and perform. They wanted to support me, and that\u2019s a big thing,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThis industry can be filled with a lot of fake love, and I\u2019m just really blessed to have friends who are unbelievably talented, who care about my journey and who want to support and show the world that I have something to give this industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
That\u2019s a mission Thomas has taken to heart since he embarked on his musical career. The Brooklyn native was by raised a vocalist mom, an opera-singing grandfather and a stepfather who played guitar for blues legend B.B. King.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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At a very early age, Thomas, a former Broadway performer, was surrounded by the music of old-school R&B, soul, rock and funk artists \u2014 from Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder to Prince and D\u2019Angelo \u2014 all of whom would inspire his solo pursuits. But breaking into R&B, after his pop-centric days on \u201cVictorious,\u201d posed more obstacles than Thomas anticipated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt was horrible,\u201d Thomas remembered. \u201cWhen I first started producing, I was going under my name, and people were Googling me and being like, \u2018Nah.\u2019 So I changed [it].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
That\u2019s when he became half of a now-Grammy-nominated production duo with songwriter Khris Riddick-Tynes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe called it The Rascals so I could hide behind the music we were making,\u201d Thomas continued. \u201cEven when I dropped [my first project,] \u2018Genesis,\u2019 I knew some people would\u2019ve seen me from Nickelodeon, so I didn\u2019t even put my face on the cover so that they could just actually listen to the music.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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It took a while for Thomas to get comfortable being a solo music act, but another acting role helped the former child star embrace this new chapter. He had a brief recurring part on Issa Rae\u2019s \u201cInsecure,\u201d playing one of her romantic flings, Eddie, aka \u201cNeighbor Bae.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt was my first time that I had a sex scene with Issa Rae, and I was going viral, and the girls were showing love. It felt like, alright, we have finally graduated from that one thing \u2014 from the Nickelodeon phase \u2014 and I started feeling more comfortable being a little bit more outside,\u201d Thomas said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Still, it\u2019d be a few more years before the singer\u2019s internal <\/span>confidence matched his career\u2019s progress. \u201cI\u2019m still doing that work now,\u201d Thomas added, but he\u2019s beginning to see his investment pay off with the success of \u201cMutt.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/675a311919000018001dd253.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale\")
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In conversation, Thomas recalls how he brainstormed the concept behind his “Mutt” album.<\/div>\n
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The story behind \u201cMutt\u201d is a peculiar yet oddly relatable one. It begins with Thomas\u2019 dog, a German Shepherd and Husky mix named Terry. The dog was \u201ca product of my last real long-term relationship,\u201d the singer noted \u2014 also a prime source of inspiration for his most recent projects.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
\u201cMy dog is a trip,\u201d Thomas laughed. \u201cHe\u2019s a good guy, but he\u2019s definitely mischievous, and I was inspired by how he has great intentions but sometimes may do the wrong thing.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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That observation became the concept for \u201cMutt,\u201d which, at its core, is a record about Thomas\u2019 outlook on dating and how it\u2019s shifted since his last breakup. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s really just a metaphor for control in relationships,\u201d he explained of the album\u2019s theme and title. \u201cI think there are a lot of women out there who date high-powered men, and they spend most of their time just trying to get their significant other to \u2018sit down.\u2019 I thought that was a cool way to explain some of what I was going through \u2014 \u2019cause trying to journey into my evolution into, hopefully, finding my long-term partner, I\u2019m still figuring it out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cMutt\u201d is a survey of where Thomas is at in life right now, both musically and personally. It\u2019s part of an accidental series chronicling different phases of his adult love life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIf you look at my last three projects, it\u2019s kind of like a trilogy,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cYou go through \u2018Genesis,\u2019 which is a young man finding himself and just a super gentleman. Then you go through \u2018Electric Dusk\u2019; I\u2019m a little broody, I\u2019m going through it, and then I fall in love and go through a crazy breakup. \u2018Mutt\u2019 is the aftermath of that, thinking you found your person and then having to build from scratch again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Having \u201cLucid Dreams,\u201d about an ex, wondering about the \u201cFar-Fetched\u201d notion of love and marriage, putting \u201cFeelings on Silent\u201d just to turn around and say \u201cAnswer Your Phone\u201d \u2014 Thomas\u2019 14-track album is a candid portrait every ex or current lover can relate to. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI definitely wanted [\u2018Mutt\u2019] to be the soundtrack to not just the lows, but also the highs that we go through trying to find your person in this time period,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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He used his new LP to push his artistry even further, too, experimenting with a soundscape that blends his R&B roots with jazz and rock influences \u2014 acts like Miles Davis, Art Blakey, the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m constantly searching for new ingredients, new chemicals to put together to make something special,\u201d the self-described \u201cmusical scientist\u201d said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Though many fans now regard Thomas as one of modern R&B\u2019s latest ambassadors, the singer doesn\u2019t want his musical strides to stop there. He has dreams of stretching the genre to new heights.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited that people are still associating and vibing out with what I\u2019m cooking up because it is experimental in certain respects,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cI\u2019m a big fan of R&B from all generations, and I just hope that whatever I\u2019m cooking up next can still be revered as an evolution of what was done before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Thomas](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/675a314114000016003d6c04.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale\")
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Thomas dishes on his upcoming career plans, from a forthcoming deluxe version of “Mutt” to international tour aspirations.<\/div>\n
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Thomas is <\/span>always<\/span> in the lab cooking. Now that the hitmaker\u2019s latest album \u2014 which received six Grammy nominations on Friday \u2014 has had a chance to sit with fans for a bit, he\u2019s gearing up for his next phase, which includes dropping a reloaded version of \u201cMutt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
\u201cI really want to drop a deluxe that helps breathe new life into some of these other songs,\u201d Thomas said, adding that some will be remixes with yet-to-be-named collaborators. \u201cI\u2019m definitely looking to do that pretty soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The multihyphenate is also working on his next body of work, where he\u2019ll be \u201cgoing back to writing how I started in the beginning: on the acoustic guitar and piano.\u201d He\u2019s remaining tight-lipped on other details, but said the project will feature \u201cgood songs that can live with the accompaniment of one instrument, then we\u2019ll build the worlds around [them].\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
In the meantime, Thomas hopes to strengthen his burgeoning fanbase with another tour, this time overseas. \u201cI want to break ground in Europe, the Asian countries, all throughout South America,\u201d he said. \u201cI gotta hit the road and promote as much as possible to get to where I\u2019m trying to go. I just really want to touch the ground and do whatever I have to do to help support that. But I know [the fans] are out there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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