Soaring choruses are out – but cross-genre sounds and lyrics about mental health are in. The brains behind hits for Lewis Capaldi, Camila Cabello and more reveal all
Landing a No 1 single was a little different at the beginning of the 2010s than it is now. The songwriting and production team TMS – who have achieved both – fondly remember the limousine that was sent to pick them up from one of their mums’ houses and whisk them off to a West End party when they scored their first No 1 single with N Dubz rapper Dappy’s No Regrets in 2011. These days, there is less glamour. “It’s more like resetting the clock,” says Ben Kohn, laughing. “It’s kind of like you bought yourself another couple of years to not get a proper job.”
Kohn, Tom Barnes and Peter Kelleher have been writing songs together since they were childhood friends, starting in a garden shed. Today, sitting down to chat in their Richmond studio, they speak excitedly over each other’s sentences as they discuss their latest chart topper, the anguished Lewis Capaldi ballad Someone You Loved.