The Lottery Winners' Thom Rylance talks KOKO, classism and cats

Two years on from their first Official Number 1 album Anxiety Replacement Therapy, The Lottery Winners are hoping to secure a second chart-topper with brand-new record KOKO.

The fourth studio LP from Thom Rylance, Robert Lally, Katie Lloyd and Joe Singleton includes collaborations with Reverend and the Makers, Nickelback's Chad Kroeger, Frank Turner and Shed Seven, and showcases the band's most vulnerable lyricism to date.

To celebrate its release, we catch up with Thom to talk humble Leigh beginnings, his 'therapist' Robbie Williams and an ADHD diagnosis all too long in the making. 

Alright, Thom? How's it going?

I'm good, thank you. I'm tired - we've been working hard! I'm not sure where I am. I keep looking around the room for clues. I think it's Germany.

You're in Berlin or somewhere close to it, mate. We just Googled your touring schedule.

I think so. It looks nice outside!

Brilliant. Happy KOKO release week. How are you feeling?

I'm so nervous and scared. It's come around so fast. It's like that build up to Christmas where it feels ages away then, before you know it, it's Christmas Eve and you've bought no one any presents.

But I'm excited to get the album out there. It's also quite vulnerable to put out an album when it's all of your deepest inner emotions and thoughts put down into a record. But I'm ready. Let's go.

This record feels like your most vulnerable to date but, in typical Lottery Winners style, the lyrics resonate universally...

That's really sweet, thank you. I could only ever write about things that were really important to me, and I think that if you're going to be honest and genuine, then that's going to resonate with people.

There's nothing worse to me than a disingenuous song. There's a place for that, I'm sure, but I'm a chronic oversharer. That's my problem. I'm just going to over share everything all the time. I'd love to be mysterious, but I just can't shut up.

That's not a problem! It makes for some great material...

I just want to be mysterious for once in my life and not just say it, you know?

Thom, never change. It's a superpower - you're a band from humble Leigh beginnings now playing in the big leagues.

It's crazy, isn't it? I had this secret suspicion in the back of my mind that maybe all this would work out. Then, the rest of me was like 'obviously not, but let's try anyway.'

You started off playing the pubs of Greater Manchester; a local band with a dream. Did you face any obstacles along the way?

Being from a working class background in the north of England, it's always it is a struggle to become a full-time musician. That's a block in itself.

You can't make mistakes, and you have to sacrifice a lot financially. There really was a lot of sacrifice, and there were years of real struggling; not having any money at all and trying to get pub gigs to pay the bills. Running open mic nights, just doing whatever we could to keep the dream alive.

It took us a long time, and I think that was a big blocker.

You know, we've been dropped from record labels. I was told that I was too fat to ever make it by quite a reputable record label. I always thought, 'well, who cares about my waistline? Surely it's about what's going on in my head and what's coming out of my mouth?'

It's something that I'm passionate about now, so I go into schools and talk to kids from from the same background as me about how to get into the creative industries. There aren't many people from where we're from in these kind of creative jobs.

That was obviously hard, because it was like 'when should we give up this dream? We have to get jobs now, we need to have a roof over our heads and food in the fridge. We're going to have to give up this dream.'

But we didn't. We persevered and got through it, and that was scary.

Robbie Williams and I were chatting about about fear and he said, and this has really resonated with me, that my biggest talent and his biggest talent isn't writing songs, performing or being a singer, but it's being brave. It's getting scared.

That fear never shows on stage, through the 'frontman' facade...

I'm so scared to get up on stage in front of 40,000 people. 'Hi, here I am for 45 minutes. I hope you like me!' It's really scary, but I do it anyway.

I played open mic nights, doing as much as I could. That was always scary, but just doing it anyway was always my biggest talent - and then look where it's led!

MORE: See where every The Lottery Winners song and album has charted in the UK

It's an inspirational story, for sure. Sam Fender also spoke out about classism in the music industry recently - it's the uprising of the working class heroes!

That's sweet! I do think I should be the hero of the working class, haha! I should be the face of it.

Seriously, though, I've been into a few schools recently to talk to music students. The facilities are crap. It's so bad. I'm so passionate about it. There's no funding to get people in and, like, buy guitars that don't hurt their fingers. I picked up all the guitars and I was like, 'well, obviously no kid is wanting to do this job because it won't play. It's awful, like it hurts me to play it.'

I think we need more funding, because art and being creative is important. It's really important. Music is important, and it's not disposable. We sell albums physically, and I feel like that's because we've got a fan base that doesn't see music as disposable.

The album title's an acronym for Keep On Keeping On. Why does that phrase resonate so strongly?

The album is very reflective. I got my ADHD diagnosis, which was a long time coming. The waiting lists are just crazy. Everyone knew I had it, but when I finally got confirmation written down it was like, 'Yes, this is it. This is the reason why you couldn't do school. This is the reason why you thought you were stupid and you got taken away, expelled, excluded and removed from your friends This is why you felt like an alien.'

I had all the guilt lifted off my shoulders. I felt...absolved. yeah. But then I had this mourning period where I was like, 'well, where was my support?' This is why I'm passionate about going into schools, talking to kids with ADHD.

I was expelled from school, and in those times my grandma used to say 'keep on keeping on, Thom.' That's been my mantra through it all.

It's hard to believe it's been two years since your first Number 1 album Anxiety Replacement Therapy...

I've literally not stopped going on about it. I tell everyone, every day, 'oh, did you know that I've got a Number 1 album?'

It's the single greatest achievement of our lives. I really want us to do it again, man. We've always had the Number 1 Award as our phone background; I look at it and remember what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.

Getting that Number 1 album changed our lives. It opened doors and it's amazing that people started to take us really seriously once we got a Number 1 album. That's why I want to do it again.

I feel like the when we first got that Number 1, a door opened into the music industry, and now there's a seat at the table, but I'm not quite sat there yet. I feel like, with a second Number 1 album, I'll be sat at that table, looking round like, 'will you pass the salt, please, Bono?'

Brilliant. You've got a huge year ahead, too. You're going on tour with Robbie Williams, for crying out loud.

It's crazy, isn't it? I FaceTimed him to congratulate him on his 15th Number 1 album recently, he was really chuffed. It means a lot to him.

Robbie's like my therapist. He checks in with me all the time. I can't believe he's got the time to know what I'm up to and to care be like, 'oh, I know you've got that show coming up today. How are you feeling about it? Are you okay? Are you feeling burnt out?' And he's just so incredibly funny.

So you've got your current tour, the Robbie tour - what else does 2025 hold?

What else? I've not got the time to wash my underpants! It's absolutely crazy. I've forgotten what my cat looks like. I miss Rex so much.

He gets so angry with me when I've been on tour for a bit, and I go home and for two days he won't look at me.

Probably because you replaced him with the Number 1 Award as your phone background...

Haha! I genuinely did. But then I'll give him some biscuits and everything's forgiven.

What goals are still on your bucket list, what do you want to tick off?

I want a second Number 1 album. I want to do that, and I want to headline a stadium. Headline. I don't want to be a support. I don't want to be the bridesmaid. I want to be the bride, in a stadium.

The Lottery Winners' KOKO is out now via Modern Sky.