Local Calgary band Thomas Thomas, was originally scheduled to appear as extras in the top Netflix show My Life With the Walter Boys—but that’s not the way the music played out.

Instead the band is now a certified part of the My Life With the Walter Boys story, after appearing as themselves in the latest season of the show in episode four.

Shannon Thomas, who alongside Thomas Englund forms the eponymous name for Thomas Thomas, said that the journey to being a part of the show began with an email the duo originally thought was spam.

“The opportunity sounded too good to be true when it first landed in our inbox—but it was real,” she said.

The band quickly searched out who the email came from and found that music supervisor Natasha Duprey was the real deal.

“After speaking with our manager and doing some Googling, it turns out Natasha’s like a superstar music supervisor. She works on some big Hollywood movies. So, of course, we emailed back right away and said, ‘yeah, big time, we’ll be part of it,” said Englund.

Her ask for Thomas Thomas to be cast for the show originally came about as a result of the band joining the non-profit Alberta Music (AM).

It’s something Englund said was now the best pitch for any band to join AM.

Song released during the pandemic finds long-life on screens big and small

My Life With the Walter Boys wanted to use the band’s song Right Place Wrong Time, which is itself no stranger to having gone international.

Thomas Thomas’ song was picked up by Starbucks in 2023 for use in one of their advertising campaigns, proving that at least for the band, their quiet release of the song during the pandemic online was the right place right time.

“After that first initial email, the first pitch was just that we would be just the extras in the show. The other thing, the other rub, was that the lead singer was already cast, because he has lines in another scene. So, they’re like, ‘we’re gonna use this song, and then you guys will be the background band, and someone else will be singing your words,’ which sounded hilarious,” said Englund.

“We were on board, but as we went along, the writers were like asking, ‘do you mind if we just use your band’s name?. Then, as we went along, they were like, ‘do you have logos? You have T-shirts?’ We’re like, ‘yeah, we have all this stuff.’ They were down to use it all.”

Netflix even went so far as to produce a giant Thomas Thomas logo for the scene. It’s something Englund said alongside the magnitude of the filming, was surreal.

“I knew it was a big production, but you don’t really appreciate it until you’re there. We walked in to drop off our gear, and they had the stage all dressed already with a giant Thomas Thomas sign they manufactured. Then they whisked us away to our own individual trailers—we each had our own dressing rooms with the names on it, and then hair and makeup. and they’re bringing us craft services,” he said.

“It was just, it’s like a caricature of what you want it to be when you’re on the TV set.”

Englund said that there was also a real sense of excitement to have a band on set, and to do a live performance.

“It’s just it’s very trippy to be embedded in the universe of the Walter Boys,” he said.

That exposure on the show has doubled the number of online listeners that Thomas Thomas has, and has gained them new fans from South Africa to Spain.

“We’ve been fortunate to play around Canada a lot, and a little in the UK and stuff. But now we get, yeah, we’re getting a little. The reach of the Walter boys was vast,” said Englund.

Thomas Thomas is now planning on giving Right Place Wrong Time a proper release party, with a re-released deluxe edition of the song along with two alternative versions. One of which is the first time that any Thomas Thomas song has been remixed by another artist.

“It’s by producer Dempsey Bolton from Calgary. Here. He’s more like a pop dance music kind of energy to the song, and it’s very fun. I’m really excited. Yhen the other version is this kind of dark, folksy version that this trio, Cotton and String, did locally. It’s a fun listen for us, because it’s our original song, and then it’s just the same song but it’s in three very different tastes, and we love it,” said Englund.

Right Place Wrong Time (Deluxe) will be on streaming platforms starting on Sept. 12, and the release show will be on Sept. 13 at Modern Love Rooftop.