RockFeedback

Tom Vek

06.06.11

WATCH TOM VEK PERFORM ‘WE DO NOTHING’ EXCLUSIVELY IN SESSION FOR ROCKFEEDBACK BELOW!:

BIOGRAPHY

There haven’t been many comebacks in recent years that have caused as much excitement as the return of Thomas Vernon-Kell, aka Tom Vek. The gap between his first and second albums spanned six years, in which time lesser bands came and went and music slowly moved on, but his legion of fans remained loyal and united in the hope that his electro geek rock would one day surface again.

Vek grew up in the leafy suburbs of South West London, where he self-taught himself a number of instruments, most notably drums and bass, with which he accompanied his guitarist dad in their garage. In his early teens he started writing and recording music, initially in the style of grunge bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Everclear, before discovering the progressive electro of labels like Warp and Ninja Tune. His music retained a punk aesthetic, but started incorporating synths and drum machines, and became mostly instrumental.

As he went, Vek would send his demos to family friend (and Katrina & The Waves bassist) Alex Cooper, hoping he would send them on to his record company contacts. Eventually Cooper relented, and sent Vek’s demos to his cousin, Tim ‘Love’ Lee, founder of Tummy Touch Records. His first 7” single ‘There’s Only One Thing Left Now’, recorded under the name Souvenir, was released in 2001, leading to the label boss offering Vek a full album contract.

As if to hint at what was to come, Vek took his time in recording his debut, having to balance it with his graphic design studies at St Martins College. The majority of the album was recorded in his garage, returning to a more punky sound than his Warp-inspired electro, bringing in more live instruments and seeing the return of his vocals.

We Have Sound was released in April of 2005, with critics almost universally praising the Beck-influenced tracks found within. Although the lo-fi sound that has characterised his music to this day was initially borne out of necessity, Vek used it in a very conscious way, creating an album of electro rock that was deliberately rough around the edges (‘On The Road’ leaves in a lot of mistakes, and has subsequently become one of Vek’s personal favourite tracks).

Support slots with the likes of Bloc Party and Razorlight (they used to be big!) followed the release of the album, and the release of singles ‘I Aint Saying My Goodbyes’, ‘If You Want’ and ‘C-C (You Set The Fire In Me)’ (which features the best drum break in any song ever. Fact.) steadily built him a dedicated following. Arguably the pinnacle of his fame came when he joined the vast list of great bands who have appeared on the shockingly bad The OC, after which he seemingly disappeared…

Rumours as to his whereabouts started to circulate, as his fans grew restless at the prospect of his permanent departure from the music scene. Hypotheses were rife, but some of our favourite rumours include; he quit music and spent his time breeding dogs; He studied for a degree in law, and was working as a solicitor in Slough; Tom Vek never actually existed, and was instead a front for the music released by an actor from a commercially successful but critically unsuccessful sitcom of the early 2000s (our money‘s on Two Pints Of Larger and a Packet Of Crisps).

His real movements in those six years have yet to be fully uncovered, but his re-appearance on his PR company’s client list last year, and growing rumours of an imminent album release marked his return to music, with an official announcement coming in April this year that his comeback single ‘A Chore’ would be debuted on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 show, with an album Leisure Seizure following in June.

Whether or not his six year absence was a cynically manufactured marketing strategy (it’s almost definitely not) has been a topic of discussion, but the fact that the Kaiser Chiefs somehow managed to release three albums in those six years goes to show that, sometimes, silence is golden. His follow-up has clearly been lovingly crafted over those years, and displays all of the enthusiasm and diligence that was present on his debut, even if he was forced to move out of his dad’s garage and into a real studio. With the world (or at least Twitter) seemingly at his feet, you get the feeling Tom Vek could do anything at the moment, but whatever that turns out to be, let’s hope it doesn’t take another six years.