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From the Sugar Mill to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, Michael Greig Thomas has spent his career at the intersection of music, manufacturing, and creative infrastructure. We sat down with the former Warrant Officer and lead singer of The Novellos to discuss his non-traditional path from NULS to New York City and the hard-won lessons learned along the way.
For many alumni of the mid-2000s, the name Michael Greig Thomas is synonymous with a specific kind of restless energy. Whether he was leading the Remembrance Day parade as a high-ranking Warrant Officer in the CCF or performing a high-octane set at a Rock & Jazz evening, Michael was never one to do things by halves. He admits now, with a laugh, that he was often “doing too many things that weren’t actually school,” a habit that led to more than a few summons to the Vice Principal’s office. Yet, looking back, it was exactly that immersion in the school’s extracurricular life – from first-team hockey to Shakespearean productions – that provided the foundation for a career built on courage and resilience.
“I was called into the Vice Principal’s office on many occasions,” Michael recalls. “I was doing too many things that weren’t actually school. I played for the first team hockey, for North Staffs club, and Staffordshire county; that was fantastic. I never really appreciated how great it was to have so many opportunities to try new things, practice and train. I don’t think there was a school play that I missed—whether performing, attending, or assistant directing. It was wonderful how the English department fostered and supported kids having a go; I remember just how enthused everyone was to audition, watch, and participate.”
Michael particularly recalls the modern edge brought to classic texts. “The English department at the time, would take Shakespeare plays and put them in more modern contexts. I remember performing as Angelo in a 1950s set Measure for Measure with so many talented classmates accompanied by a full student orchestra. It was taken for granted just how amazing everyone was and how committed they were to putting those performances on, because they were really high level.”
Beyond the stage, the spirit of competition and community left a lasting impression. Michael remembers the healthy rivalries of the house system with great fondness. “I really enjoyed all the house sports, even house cross country. I remember one of my teachers would, every year before the House Cross Country race, put on Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run in the house assembly. He was absolutely loving it. I think it terrified a lot of us every time we heard that song!” His leadership was not limited to sport and stage; his time in the cadets saw him rise to a position of significant responsibility. “I ended up being a Warrant Officer for the army section alongside my friend, Xanthe… one of my proudest memories was when I led the Remembrance Day parade for the whole school.”
Michael’s time at NULS coincided with a cultural explosion in the UK music scene. It was the era of The Killers, The Libertines, and a DIY guitar-band culture that made success feel entirely accessible. The school bus and field days were soundtracked by the likes of The Kooks and Razorlight, though one song defined the era for Michael’s cohort. “I remember The Killers’ album Hot Fuss, and in particular the song, “All these things that I’ve done” was the anthem of a sixth form leadership trip to Ambleside in the Lake District.
Inspired by older students who were already recording and selling CDs around school, Michael started his own band, The Novellos shortly after starting sixth form. “The first show that we played was the school rock and jazz evening. I think we played My Generation by The Who and a very loose version of My Sharona by the Knack. There were several school bands that I really looked up to, Louka and The Jacks inspired me to start playing music, back myself, and start to write music. Being signed to a label and that becoming my job was wonderful. I had four other part-time jobs to make it work but it was an incredible four years.”
The band eventually secured two spots on the UK Independent Charts and played shows around the UK and festivals. However, the music industry is notoriously fickle. When the label eventually went bust and the band reached a natural conclusion, Michael found himself in his early twenties facing a daunting blank slate. “The record label went bust, and the band broke up. I think that there were these conflicting ideas of what I was supposed to do and what I was supposed to have done, and I was worried and regretful that I hadn’t gone to university. I had a strong desire to go out and explore the world a little bit.”
The confidence to look beyond the UK for his next chapter didn’t happen by accident. Michael credits NULS with fostering a global outlook, specifically through the World Challenge programme. At 15 he travelled to Bolivia as part of the programme, then again at 19, he returned to to act as a school representative on the next trip to Chile, helping lead a group of Newcastle students through an incredible landscape.
“Those trips were vital,” he says. “They taught me that the world wasn’t this scary, impenetrable place—it was a pretty incredible opportunity. Immediately the year after traveling to Bolivia through the school, I travelled around Europe via the Euro Rail programme when we were sixteen. If I could navigate Bolivia and travel around Europe on the trains at that age, I felt I could do anything. I fell in love with the idea of moving to New York and going to university; it felt like a great potential vehicle to continue what I’d started with music and to go beyond what I already knew.”
This ingrained sense of adventure led him to a bold decision: applying to Columbia University. “I filled out the application to Columbia University whilst I was visiting New York – I went and got the application and filled it out mostly out in pen. I thought it was a pipe dream, but I had gone on to get straight A’s and my A levels, and I had a little bit of life experience, and I think that that’s favourable to these super-competitive US colleges.”
The transition to New York was anything but smooth. Michael remembers his first night in an old pre-war apartment in Harlem, surrounded by the noise of the subway and the realisation that he was very far from home. “I got there and just didn’t realise how expensive it would be. I had to take an immediate leave of absence after my very first semester to go and save up money to finish the programme. I don’t think anyone, least my parents expected me to complete it.”
Returning home on spring break, unsure if he would ever go back, a chance meeting at a local pub changed everything. Friends suggested he look into finance, and within weeks, Michael had landed a job in Barcelona working in an international financial advisory learning about stocks and bonds. What was meant to be a short break turned into a three-year stint in Spain.
“I ended up in Barcelona for three years working in finance, saving to go back to school. It was not a conventional, intentional, nor well-guided path. It felt a little bit like ricocheting off decisions on trying to figure out what to do. I never forget my first night living in New York City—it was dark, and there was a tremendous amount of noise from the subway. There was one moment where I was like, ‘Have I done the wrong thing? This is a long way from home.’ But after little time, it was like, ‘This is the best thing I could have done.’ But I made sure I learnt how to make oatcakes!”
When he finally returned to Columbia to finish his degree, he did so with a decade of life experience. He moved to the US permanently, eventually settling in Athens, Georgia, and founded Echo Base. His experience running large-scale factories had taught him that the vinyl industry was failing independent artists.
“Manufacturing at scale was much more suited to the major music labels like Universal or Warner, while smaller artists would frequently be pushed down in the order queue,” Michael explains. “This, along with my desire to create a holistic solution for independent artists, having been one, was my reason for starting Echo Base. My overwhelming sense from running a factory with a capacity of a million records a year was that smaller artists would be shunted around. We are also early investors and adopters in a UK start-up, Evolution Music, who are breaking ground in material science. We are rolling out our first full production jobs using their plant-based record pressing compound, Evovinyl. The goal is to move the medium away from oil based plastics, and to use more renewable resources to produce products for artists.”
For the current generation of NULS students, Michael’s advice is clear: don’t be afraid to deviate from the script. He is currently based in the United States and remains keen to support students and alumni interested in studying or working overseas, particularly those with an entrepreneurial spark.
“My biggest lesson is that you should trust your gut. If you want to try something, you should try it. Moreover – If you’re going to try something, be sincere and commit to it properly to see if it could actually work. That’s not just giving it a go; that’s seeing it through and building strong habits and consistency toward your goal.”
He also stresses the importance of viewing failure as a prerequisite for success. “I was nervous about having this conversation, because I had so much failure from being a teenager up through now, whether it be businesses or pursuing things that didn’t necessarily land as a career. But I wouldn’t change any of it. You just have to give these things a go. Trying finance, for example—I had an aptitude for it, and even though it wasn’t what I wanted to get out of bed for ultimately, Learned so much that serves me in my role today. I had a life in Spain and I learnt a second language fluently for three years. I now have a multilingual staff of over 30 employees that I can communicate with easily. Stay patient, and stay positive. Nothing great happens overnight, and consistency over time will always prevail.”
Thank you to Michael for being part of the Castilian Spotlight series and for sharing his inspiring journey. His story is a reminder of the value of trusting your instincts.
Louis Bond: “The site of the camp was much larger than I had ever expected. Much of the camp was destroyed, but there were the cabin like structures at the front of the complex which were tiny in comparison to the number of people who were forced to stay in them. At the rear of the
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