Hello and happy new year! My name is Jeremiah Johnson. I met Thom yesterday and I asked him some Q's concerning the nomination and 2008 in general.

J- Thom, you have been nominated in the categories for Best Male
Artist and Best Music Video('My Heart Is Longing For A Soul'). Congrats and well deserved I might add. How do you feel about all this?

T-'Well, this is first of all a great honour and of course it feels good to be recogniced as an artist. If I win or lose, either way it is undoubtedly the highlight of my career so far.'

J- You talk about recognition. Have you felt the lack of that before?

T-'In a way, yes. Don't you remember just one year ago? Nobody wanted to sign us, I didn't even have a distributor! It was like we were having these signs stuck in our foreheads, saying:UNWANTED'

J- Ha-ha, I remember some of the meetings I had with the majors, trying to make a record deal and noone was interested in signing you. Good Lord, it wasn't easy. I wonder how they feel about all of this now? You know, seeing how well it went with your album and probably wondering if they have lost the ability to discover good music forever?

T-'Maybe..probably, but I think something good came out of it.

J- Like what?

T-'Well, we had to struggle real hard for this one and the major labels and their closed doors sort of inspired me to kick their butts, pardon my french. Not literally of course, but in making a great album.'

J- Do I sense sweet revenge?

T-'I don't know what you are sensing, but I think we'we established that 2008 was a good year.'

J- Oh, yes. It was a very good year.

T-'Two-thousand-and-great!'

J- What do we call next year?

T-'Oh, I can manage through two-thousand-and-fine'