Tom Vek
Subscribe
X

Get the latest from Beat

Tom Vek

tom-vek01.jpg

“If certain ambiguous lyrics are delivered in that almost rhetorical way it seems as though they have this importance to them that you can’t quite decode,” expands the London based artist on his vocal styling.

Back in 2005, when a 24-year-old Vek – born Thomas Vernon-Kell – released his debut album We Have Sound, he was the toast of Shoreditch as he managed to straddle the trendy electro crossover scene as well as capture something almost literary with his music.

“I think a big influence, the main influence on me, when I was growing up, was grunge,” explains the beautifully spoken Vek. He adds, “But also you had Beck’s records around then and another ‘90s band I’m particualry fond of called Soul Coughing, who I think were one of the biggest influences on particularly my vocal delivery.”

On Vek’s songs like Nothing But Green Lights from his 2005 debut and the song A Chore from his most recent record, last year’s Leisure Sound, there is a languid laziness and hidden power in his voice that seems to makes his lyrics sound as though they are delivered by Al Pacino in one of his great speeches from The Godfather. Vek talks about this profound touch.

“Beck and Soul Coughing were all dealing with this moody kind of atmospheric noir, this filmic element to it, slacker noir. I found it really really compelling so I think that I developed that atonal, almost spoken delivery. But you can pitch your voice when you talk so you are hitting notes, making it musical without people noticing it.”

When We Have Sound was released it hit a chord with the scene known as electro-crossover, or its more popular title nu-rave, that saw Vek slotted in with the likes of Hot Chip, The Bravery, Klaxons and also Calvin Harris. The Londoner talks about what it was like to be part of a ‘movement’.

“There were quite a few London bands involved in that sound but we weren’t immediately connected. I mean The Testicles were friends of mine and I think they really summed up that sound really well and I think when Klaxon’s debut record came out a little bit after mine they also seemed to really chime with a younger audience with it developing into something quite exciting,” says a measured Vek.

The six year break between We Have Sound and Leisure Sound, however, was not part of the aforementioned ‘slacker noir’ or the capitulation of ‘nu rave’. It was actually due to Vek suffering from a bit of OCD in the studio.

“Looking back on it I was just waiting for just some more spontaneous music to come along because when I first sat down to write my second album I had all this time to think about it and I wasn’t making the music that I wanted. So there was a lot of tip toeing around and getting used to this new way of working and then just waiting for new music to come out that I liked.”

As Vek talks about how two years turned into six he is believable, it seems legitimate that the long break was due to sonic obsession, not laziness or partying.

He goes on, getting into more detail on what exactly caught all his attention. “It was just an extreme focus really as I’m into my technology and when you’re building a studio or music environment I think there was elements of kind of ‘mania’ that made it become somewhat of an obsessive yet distracted process because I was getting obsessed by all this new equipment.”

Leisure Sound was preceded by single The Chore – a song with its title alone could potentially be a broader allegory for the elongated period between Vek’s records. A cheeky Vek explains that he wanted people to read into the meaning of the title. “Look, the actual meaning behind the title is not quite as literal as it may seem, but I kind of liked just putting it out there and hearing all the discussions about what it might mean.”

The workload that went into Leisure Sound was also hinted at visually in the album’s artwork.

“If you look at the inlay cover of Leisure Sound there’s a picture of my mixing desk that became an almost totemistic example of the neurosis that went into thinking that I was working on my album when in fact I was obsessing and tweaking equipment.”

Finally Vek spruiks another London band, Kindness, who will be playing with him this Thursday at The Hi-Fi. “We have a mutual friends, the Kindness and I, so I just saw them perform in London and they were amazing so you are in for a treat.”

BY DAN WATT