Tommy B

Tommy’s first introduction to music was a series of enforced piano lessons from his Mum when he was around 10 years old. He played clarinet in his school orchestra for a while, but was thrown out because he kept skipping rehearsals. Who needs practice when you’ve got natural talent? As a teenager, he found an emerging and natural ability to sing, so performed in choirs and musical theatre productions.

At age 16, Tommy received his first acoustic guitar and, after working out that he was left-handed, made remarkable progress in teaching himself to play. ‘80s electronica pop, ‘90s alternative rock and ‘60s traditional folk (thanks Dad) were the flavours he learned to strum with. Think Duran Duran crashes head on with Sonic Youth with a “Hey nonny nonny” and you’ll get the drift. With his natural melancholic timbre and emotional voice, Tommy’s emerging songwriting style became one which combines disarming emotion, catchy pop hooks and unexpected song structures. His first electric guitar followed very soon after, expanding his musical vocabulary.

Tommy wasn’t a happy teenager. He would have been a goth but black just isn’t his colour. For years he was happy to keep his music private, sitting in his room for hours developing his songs, singing about all the things wrong with the world around him. He snapped out of it eventually. Good job too – he was in danger of becoming another Pete Murray (cheer up Pete!).

With the advent of Brit Pop in the late ‘90s, Tommy found a whole cultural movement that voiced everything he stood for and wanted to express; contemporary, upbeat, sarcastic, catchy social commentary. So after the new millennium hit us all, he put together a 3 piece rock band in Sydney, recorded an EP and started gigging all over the shop like a mad woman’s breakfast. After 3 years of hard work, late nights and little money, the band eventually fell apart and Tommy took some time out to recover.

Now he’s back in the bandwagon (get it?), with his first solo album near to completion. He moved to the Daylesford area in January 09 to become a country squire and has since been performing solo at festivals, pubs, hotels, private functions and rallies. Armed with his well-matured singing voice, a guitar, his trusty Teddy, 2 congas and a tambourine, Tommy lets loose with a combination of well-interpreted covers from the last 60 years (think Britney Spears or the Kinks), and his own pop-but-not material (such as his current anthem “All my friends are alcoholics”).

Never having had a guitar or singing lesson, Tommy is a natural musician through and through – flakey, self indulgent and gifted. Yer Mum would love ‘im.