Inspired by the greats of ‘80s synth pop and cold wave – an era that married pleasure and pain, making chart-bothering stars out of life’s tortured outsiders – the music that William Barradale makes as A Thousand Mad Things finds similar solace in untempered expression. The project itself began in 2023 when a mutual friend approached him with an immediately inspiring set of ideas. “We really wanted to do something like Billy Mackenzie from The Associates and I loved that idea” he explains. “That twisted, operatic drama that he had, he’s so exposed at the same time. Billy is a huge inspiration for me."Barradale’s own voice treads a similar line of resonant, evocative melodrama. Across the six songs that now form A Thousand Mad Things’ debut EP, it’s both his greatest asset and his most singular quality. “Singing like this, it’s like I can utilise my diaphragm better,” he nods. “It’s my body’s way of telling me that I’m doing something right.”Melodrama, in itself, is crucial to A Thousand Mad Things. It’s the quality that makes A Thousand Mad Thing’s first EP soar into great heights that have already earned him a slot supporting childhood heroes The Human League in Brighton later this summer. And it’s the thing that adds a knowingness and levity to these tales, so often plucked from places of trauma and pain. For him it’s about finding the sweet spot in between it all.