The Tommies - the interview

The Tommies are one of the bands at the forefront of the ever growing East Midlands scene. With tight, crashing pop tunes and some superlative harmonies, they are worth checking out.

Rob Massey caught up with their drummer, Joel Tomasevic, and asked him a few questions.

Background

The Tommies were formed sometime in 2002 after we noticed a shocking lack of positive, vibrant and soulful music in todays scene!

Where are you based? Is that where you grew up?

We are all from Nottingham and have never lived anywhere else, but hey, who'd want to move when we have local heroes like Paperlace and Alvin Stardust! ;-)

Two of you are brothers, right - Leon and Joel? How did you meet Tom?

Well the real story is not worth printing! So we'll say destiny drew us to Tom as we knew from his fire and skill he was the only bass player in Nottingham worth playing with and that still stands true! He's like a brother now anyway, We all live together like the Beatles in Help!

When did you start to play music?

Leon and I have been playing our respective instruments since we were about 8 or 9 years old, while Tom started guitar and bass in his very early teens. All our parents are very musical and have good taste so that part was easy. There was no "TURN THAT MUSIC DOWN!" In our houses!!

Tell me a bit about your influences, in particular musical influences? Are there an particular songs that stand out?

Good Art in general inspires us, whether it be music, film, poetry or still art. Musically? Well, we are all in love with British pop's past and present!! Small Faces, Move, Beatles, Kinks, Squeeze, Police, La's etc etc but we also Absolutely adore any Motown or Stax material. We listen to that stuff religiously! We also have other tastes like Blues n' Jazz. As Buddy Rich rightly said, " There are only two types of music... Good and Bad. " And The Tommies like good music!

Particular songs do inspire us. We are always trying to better our last song and reach new levels and you look at great songs like 'All or Nothing' 'I can hear the grass grow' or 'There She Goes' as benchmarks in terms of greatness. But there are too many to mention!

For those who haven't heard you, can you describe your sound.

It's Rock and Roll with a keen eye on Pop melody! We sound very vibrant and youthful, which we are! Lets put it this way, it's not avant garde jazz rock fusion!

One thing that stands out are your harmonies. How did you develop The Tommies sound?

Well Leon is a great vocalist and he learnt from the masters, Beatles, Beach Boys, Who, Small Faces, and great soul singers like Otis Redding and Eddie Floyd. Now, a lot of those bands and singers had great musicians with great voices as well as the lead vocalist. With our influences came a natural need for backing vocals and harmonies. Our sound just calls out for soaring vocals. Our songs sound complete with lots of harmonies, plus you don't hear this kinda sound very often these days!

Are any of the songs autobiographical?

Yeah but the thing with lyrics is they can be interpreted in so many ways. Lyrics mean different things to different people

What is your experience of playing the songs live?

We've lost count on the gigs front it must be up in the 50s now! But we always seem to get a fantastic reaction from the live shows. Its also a great chance to showcase new stuff and see what response we get.

You have already had some success at getting your music on the radio. Can you tell me a bit about that.

Yeah we have been played on BBC radio Nottingham, BBC radio 6 and a few other local stations. Hearing your stuff on the radio is great, its kinda strange at first but especialy with the bbc stuff the reaction was quite a shock! The track 'free falls' got the most requests of any unsigned band in the shows history so that was really quite humbling.

Your sound and image seem to have a pretty strong mod feel. Is that how you see the band?

Well we definately identify strongly with the Mod scene. Looking sharp and listening to good music, so yeah we do see the band as having a mod feel, it couldn't hurt!!

Do you have any musical heroes?

Well there is a general line of thought within The Tommies that Jimi Hendrix is the greatest guy ever. His playing and personality should be inspirational to any musician. A proper hero!

Are there any new bands out there at the moment who you particularly like?

Tom really likes the Ordinary Boys and Leon likes the Kaiser Chiefs. I suppose we admire any new band who are out there doing it and loving it!

Is there anyone who you would like to support, or you would like to support you?

Hhhmmmm, The La's have just reformed so The Tommies and The LA's!!??!! That would be a show to remember. And we'd play two dates and alternate as headliners!! HA!

Have you any heroes - living or dead - an other fields?

I know Tom would say William Burroughs, he finds his work very moving. Leon thinks Robert De Niro is the image of cool, and myself.... i'll say Sherlock Holmes! He was the original rock star!! Great jaw line, a coke addict and had a sharp wit and dress sense!!

What about other art forms? Have any books or films had a big influence you?

Oh yes! Films which inspire you to go out and do something are always great catalysts for The Tommies! The first Rocky film, Blues Brothers, American Splendor, Quadrophenia etc too many to mention!!!

Your My Space site seems to have attracted some favourable comment from all over the world. Did that surprise you?

Surprise and Inspire!! With Myspace.com we have communicated with neraly 400 people in a fortnight!! We better get recording some new songs to keep people buzzed. It's an amazing way to get your music out there we can't recommend it enough!

Tell me about your plans for the future? When can we expect the first Tommies release?

In the music industry the first thing you learn is nothing ever goes to plan! HA HA! So we'll say the first release will be ASAP! In general we wanna get our music out to as many people as possible
by any means we can!

Tommies On Tour!

Any gigs coming up?

Check out www.thetommies.co.uk for full details! What a plug that was!!!!

And to conclude the dreaded Desert Island Disc question. If you had to take one record, one book and one film (assuming you had a DVD player) with you what would they be?

Ok just phoned Leon and Tom and asked them and they replied with the following! Tom would take The Beatles Revolver, The Art Of Happiness by the Dali Lama and Baraka as his DVD.

Leon said Beach Boys Petsounds, Peter Pan and Rocky as his DVD.

Finally for myself, I would choose Usual Suspects as my DVD, Hound of the Baskervilles as my book and record would be Jimi Hendrix Are you Experienced!

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