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Sounds like Tom Vek |
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Written by Neil Atherton
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Tom Vek's debut album is an adventure in lo-fi rock - a surprise in today's digitally-dominated music world. From his humble garage tape recordings, to corporate sponsored showcase concerts, the unassuming 24 year-old multi-instrumentalist from London talks about recording "We Have Sound" and the bits in between.
Why the lo-fi approach and what effect do you think this album has on the current music scene?
 Tom Vek DR
What is the technology behind the recording of the album?
I call my own garage set up the "spiritual home" of the record cos most of the recordings originated from there. We had a 16 track half-inch reel to reel tape machine. I won't suggest there's anything better or worse with using tape, it's just what I had available. My Dad had knowledge of recording equipment and we got hold of one from some guy that was overhauling his studio (ended up recording on 2nd hand reels, some of which dated back to the late 70s!)
I read about your Apple Store gig in London recently. Do you see a contradiction in promoting digital music with your style of raw, analog music?
I have to think of it as just promoting my music. The details of all these things can be interesting to dissect but its all pretty much the same. Very few artists can be "truly analogue." I've never had a favourite and got just as much from digital equipment, it sounds cheesy but it's about the music, not the method. It's like asking a computer-based electronica guy if he thinks it a contradiction to be released on vinyl.
If it's a deliberate contradiction, what are you trying to say/achieve?
I try and be clever about things from time to time, but this wasn't one of them. I got offered it, and decided it would be cool, ran a competition for fans to be there and did some new design and it ended up being another way to be introduced to people and another thing for those who like it to have. I can't say I wasn't aware of the irony, still not having an iPod myself, but with promotion (and only promotion) you do sometimes have to give in to the public's taste.
I read in the press release that the songs on this album were recorded in 2003. Under what circumstances did you record this album? (By that I mean the musical climate as well as your personal, financial situation etc.)
The bulk of the recording was from October 2003 til March 2004. I had graduated from art college in June 2003 and was working as a junior designer (bottom of the ladder) in a small design company in Brick Lane, East London. I had started full time but changed to 3 days a week after about a month, so I was only getting a fraction of my tiny wage anyway. I'd ask for a week off here and there for the two main 1 or 2 week sessions we did. I can't really remember what music I was listening to. I find recording music quite a closed-off experience anyway. The only influences you are left with are deep ingrained ones that come out in what you get excited about.
I gather the record was picked up first by Tummy Touch then by Universal? Can you explain the interest majors are showing in independent labels and artists?
The album was completed under Tummy Touch, who I had signed to in 2001, for a one single deal with some music I made that was during quite an electronic period I was in. They asked if I wanted to make an album. Of course, I said yes. A lot changed with the music in that time, but without the long story it's ended up being the right first album to make. I think it helped very much having the help to complete the record, and press up some promo copies, because I guess that's how the majors found out about it (to this day I'm not entirely sure). I got the impression that Tummy Touch didn't really want to let me go so I don't think it was too deliberate. The record was completely finished under TT to a level I was 100% happy with which gave me great confidence in being able to say "this is what it is" to people. I can't really comment on what the majors are doing because I don't know what they've done before. I don't think that its the biggest secret in the world that independents are a source of exciting music, but I don't see why majors cant be either. Possibly its harder for them because, you can't really sign to a major without them taking a financial risk, whereas the independents don't have this.
Isn't Tummy Touch a dance-oriented label? Are they simply following the trend for current guitar-based music?
I think like anything you get remembered for your successes, Tummy Touch and its boss Tim "Love" Lee have always had a very eclectic Taste. Groove Armada's success helped define their sound but in the last few years its been very varied A band called Mains Ignition are a particular highlight for me, as well as Chungking, who are amazing, neither of which you could call dance.
So is dance music really dead? Did you ever go to a 'rave' and take ecstasy or was yours always a rock'n'roll tipple like JD and coke?
I was never a raver, I was a rock show kid. I like my whisky Scottish.
Was the progression from recording the album to getting your name out there a slow one, or did a big label boss throw loads of money at you (and even more at ad agencies in order to come up with The Next Big Thing?)
At the time it all seems to happen so slow and gradually that you don't realise the distance you are covering. I think Island are aware that I'd like to work to be discovered by people and not shoved down throats which you see a bit these days. But a record won't sell if you don't let people know about it and that takes money. With regards to the press, in the UK at least, they are too self important to take any notice or say what a record company (especially a major) wants them to say about an artist, they will say what they like but they have a habit of calling everything "the next big thing" which no-one needs, to be honest.
Who do you see as your fanbase? Coldplay fans looking for more indie cred after the disappointment of X&Y, or Beck fans looking for a more accessible tabloid-worthy Brit?!
I have no idea. If I was targeting someone that would defeat the whole point in making the music I want to.
How important and how intact is your musical independence?
It's very important, especially this as opposed to other bands I have been in, because most obviously it IS just me, every note in every Tom Vek song gets played by me, having made music like that for years it would seem strange to give up that independence, because then it would fall apart. Every day there's a little something that tries to chip away at it but I believe its still very much intact.
What is your favourite day of the week?
Now I'm doing this full time the weeks aren't 7 days anymore, I might have a Tuesday off and be working my balls off on a bank holiday Sunday. When I go to visit my parents I usually time it on a Sunday for my Mum's roast lunch.
What's happening with your band, Poverty Jet Sets? Did you leave and if so, why? Was it a case of the drummer wanting more of the limelight?
Ha! No, I maintain we are still going. I have always recorded music on my own as well as being in bands and stuff. If one of the bands had kicked off I would have been more than happy and may have had to stop the other things to concentrate on it. With regards to the drummer thing, trust me I miss the drums so bad that I'm thinking of stepping out of the limelight!
"We Have Sound" (Tummy Touch/Universal) is out now.
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