Phil Thornalley On His New Album “Now That I Have Your Attention,” Working The Cure & Other Greats, Songwriting These Days & More

Now That I Have Your Attention — as released via the Lojinx record label in September 2022 — is the new album from musician, songwriter and producer Phil Thornalley. In performing a quick scan of the many records Thornalley has worked on, and you will quickly spot some of the biggest names in popular music, including Bryan Adams, Thompson Twins, The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, XTC, Duran Duran and Paul McCartney. Thornalley notably co-wrote and produced Natalie Imbruglia’s 1997 worldwide smash “Torn,” in addition to global hits by Pixie Lott (“Mama Do”) and BBMak (“Back Here”). That bass line on The Cure’s “Love Cats”? That is the playing of Phil Thornalley indeed.

On his latest solo album, Now That I Have Your Attention, Phil Thornalley steps out of The Swamp — the name of his North London studio — to unveil 11 catchy and brand-new original songs; the CD edition of the full-length also features three bonus tracks. On Attention, Thornalley appearing to be celebrating the fine musicality and pure joy of Jeff Lynne, as he has gone on-record with the quote: “Maybe we should have called it the Traveling Phil-burys.” The album also features contributions from Jimmy Hogarth (on the songs “Hell Bent On Compromise” and “High On Your Supply”) and string arrangements of Sally Herbert, although Thornalley was solely responsible for the lion’s share of what he has referred to as the “strumming, banging, plucking, crashing, bashing, and warbling.”

I had the pleasure of speaking with Phil Thornalley via Zoom on September 29, 2022, as embedded below. Beyond Now That I Have Your Attention, we talked about his decades of writing and producing important music, working with The Cure, future career goals and plenty more. Additional info on Thornalley and Attention can be found online by clicking here, here, here, here and here.