Michael Greig Thomas was born and raised in Stoke-on-Trent, a post-industrial town in the North of England. After being accepted into Columbia University in New York, he moved to Barcelona, where he worked in finance for three years, saving up money for his move to the US. Once at Columbia, Michael crafted an interdisciplinary major within the film and journalism departments with a concentration in business, graduating with a Non-Fiction Filmmaking degree.
Post-grad, Michael lived in the Bay Area for three years, working in tech companies within the world of vinyl record production. After making the move back to the UK, Michael crossed paths with the founders of Athens-based vinyl-pressing plant, Kindercore, in the summer of 2020. When they offered him a job, Michael moved back across the pond mid-pandemic. What started as a three-month consulting contract turned into a year and a half working at Kindercore.
In 2022, Michael founded Echo Base, a vinyl fulfillment company, with Brandon Page and Drew Beskin. After its first two years doing logistics and project management for other companies, Echo Base evolved into the vinyl manufacturing company that the founders had been dreaming of all along. With a focus on locally-grown and independent music, Michael and the team at Echo Base are currently working towards their vision of more sustainable, ecologically-conscious vinyl manufacturing.
Michael is a life-long musician, and currently plays bass for the Athens-based band The Air Condition, with Eric Shea, Michael Bentley and Ken Manring, which he describes as “shoegaze meets country.” He lives with his partner, Amelia, her daughter Georgie, their dog Fig, and their cat, Delilah.
What’s your favorite part of your work?
I think it’s getting into that trench with an artist and saying, “let’s look at what pieces you’ve got and see how I can help you put them together into the next natural step in what you want to do.” People don’t come to us knowing what they want. It’s a very consultative thing. As we all know, vinyl is a very anachronistic technology, and a lot of the knowledge of it has been lost. I feel like my parents would be deemed as audiophiles by my contemporaries because they know about records and equipment. We don’t have that anymore. So what I really enjoy is the educational aspect, of not just the medium itself but the business side of it which is asking questions like “Have you thought about distribution? Have you thought about retail? Have you thought about where you can put this product and make it successful as a project?” So yeah, I think the education is the most enjoyable part about it. The actual creation of the project is pretty cool, too. The branding of it is as involved as the production.
When you’re not working, what are some of your favorite things to do in and around Athens?
I love going to restaurants, it’s a really big passion– food, cooking, enjoying other peoples’ cooking. Puma Yu’s is definitely a favorite spot. Actually, one of my favorite spots just to go, not necessarily for culinary excellence but a nice place to go as a family is Ted’s Most Best downtown. We have kind of a routine of going downtown, going to Ted’s and maybe going to Ciné and having a walk around. Record shopping is something I enjoy doing as well. And of course playing football (soccer for your reader’s sake) at the YWCO and canoeing up in the mountains.
If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?
I’ve been for a long time really curious about Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, that part of the world. I feel like my friends all took that opportunity in their twenties to go there, it was like the backpacking thing at that point. Maybe I missed that window where it was not necessarily commercialized. But I love food from those specific Eastern cultures and I would love to spend time there. My dream is actually having a motorcycle and driving it through Thailand.
If you could see any band, anywhere at any time, who would it be and where?
I’m incredibly predictable as a British person. I don’t shy away from being a Beatles fan. I think I’d just have to go with that very obvious answer. In particular I’m fascinated by George and John, who sadly are the two Beatles we’ve lost. But I got to press records for Paul McCartney while we were at Kindercore which was, you know, bucket list. But I would love to have seen The Beatles live. I’ve been able to see The Rolling Stones, which, you know, is up there. But definitely The Beatles. At Shea Stadium. Or actually, at The Cavern in Liverpool, where it kind of all began. It’s a really magical little dungeon, for lack of a better word. It’s a pretty incredible little venue, very intimate.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Don’t take yourself so seriously is probably the biggest one. I think growing up, of course we all want to have success in life, but I think that we teach our kids that success, as an outcome, is the target. But actually, there’s all these things that if you just do them, success will follow. Doing something you love, focusing on having good routines, having humility and kindness, if you do those things, everything else will follow. I was definitely putting the cart before the horse in my twenties, trying to figure out how to build a business and things like that, without getting the basics down. I think a lot of that is putting on the pressure of ego– what does it look like, what I’m doing now? When I started Echo Base, we were basically incognito for two years, and there was this blissful peace in that where we could really figure out what we wanted to do before we talked to the world about it. And yeah, I think a younger me would’ve been on social media on day one and talking bigger game than we necessarily had.
Do you have a favorite book, or one that you often reread, gift or reference?
A book that I still return to is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I picked it up in my younger teens, and loved the narrative style and suspense; it is a series of letters and written correspondence from the perspective of different protagonists. It really opened me to the broader gothic genre which is my go-to when I want to read or watch to escape.
Do you have a favorite movie, or one you alway rewatch?
For nostalgia, I’ve always loved watching Home Alone. Growing up, it’s what made me want to live in America. There was that Chicago suburb thing in the first one, but then he went to New York in the second one. So Home Alone 2 is probably the one. I was very fortunate, my mum and dad, when I was 12, I have an autistic sibling and so all of our vacations were very geared around what made sense and what was simple. And when I was 12 they managed to arrange care for my sister for a week and they asked me, out of anywhere in the world, where I wanted to go. I said New York. So they flew me to New York; this was before 9/11 so I got to see the Twin Towers and experience the city and we stayed in the FAO Schwartz, the hotel from Home Alone. We did the whole thing. So that was my favorite movie. If I was trying to be more high-minded I’d say Big Fish, just because I love how it talks about storytelling in a way where there’s these two conflicting things: don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story, but also being authentic and true to yourself and all those things. Those are great themes, I really enjoy that movie.
If you could put any message on a billboard, what would it be?
Did you ever watch Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure? This phrase always stuck with me, in the vein of Bill and Ted, it was from a friend who sadly passed away when I was younger. It was: “Be excellent to each other.” I would love to put that on a billboard. We need a bit more of that, always have and always will. Being kind and being on the front foot of helping others.
If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and where?
Well, in keeping with my predictable music tastes, I would go with the “fifth Beatle”, George Martin. To be the behind-the-curtain producer of their stratospheric early success has to have some secret sauce. I have so many questions for him from the musical arrangement decisions to the actual management of a group of such distinct creative talents.
What words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word home?
Rural. I grew up in a very rural part of Northern England, surrounded by a lot of greenery, and a lot of farmsteads and that’s where I feel most at peace. It’s one of the things I like about Athens, it’s got a really good kind of city-center, with lots to go and do, it’s very accessible. But you really don’t have to try hard to get out of that. Community is also huge for me. I grew up in a very tight-knit community where, well, to our frustration everyone was in everyone else’s business. But when things weren’t going well, there was always someone there to help you pick up the pieces and reach out and care.
