It was a bit quiet for a while there for Tom Vek, at least to the outside world. After stealing hearts with his debut
We Have Sound, Vek did actually get busy working on his second record, but he wasn't going to rush it. Setting up his own studio, collaborating with DJs, fashion and graphic designers, Tom Vek chatted to Everguide about what's been going on these last six years.
Anna Horan: In other interviews you’ve talked a lot about your absence from the music scene, but you’ve actually been pretty busy for this record. Do you think the length of time came from not wanting to rush into a second album, like, to get it right?
Tom Vek: I think that the way the first record came together was very natural. I was quite excited about having a proper album after recording music for quite a few years (but not releasing any). Immediately after it, nothing will match up to it because you’re going back to quite an embryonic state of writing. I was in this situation where I was able to leave my job to be a recording artist, which was all I ever wanted, and then you sit there. There's inspiration that I think comes from music being a separate outlet for you from your normal life (and that was missing). [The second record is] sort of coming to terms with how to work with that – how to work with the artistic cycle but also try to concentrate on it.
AH: I guess there’s also that idea that the first record for an artist is the sum of everything they’ve experienced up until that point.
TV: Yeah, exactly, there’s that. There’s that old adage where you have 25 years writing the first album and then two or three for the second one. It took a bit longer for me.
AH: It’s good, though. You look at someone like Rihanna who has 10 songs out at once. How you could keep that up as an artist, I don’t know. In that time though you were also setting up your own studio. How did you go about doing that? You could have just hired a studio but did you feel that would be limiting?
TV: Because I spend quite a lot of time experimenting with rhythm and kind of mucking around with recording stuff, it would be too expensive to hire a commercial studio. Even though the professional studio environment can be quite exciting there’s sometimes that element of almost vulgarity to it ‘cos you have all this huge expensive equipment. It’s no secret that 90 per cent of what is recorded in very posh studios is chronically terrible music, it just happens to be produced well.
I’ve grown up with having a creative environment, you know, having a garage or a room that I know I can just sit and there will be no pressure and the clock isn’t ticking. Again, to be honest, it was a trade off of wanting to stay in central London. I moved studios a few different times actually and then I ended up finding a great space at the start of 2009. I think that’s really what set off the kind of feeling that led to writing some stuff down naturally. It would have been helped and grounded by this environment, but I also wanted to have a space where I could bring other people in. See, I always grew up reading sleeve notes and I think I wanted to have that, almost to have ownership of that detail.
AH: That kind of makes me think about how I can't’t study at home, I have to be in a space, where it’s like ‘this where I get shit done’.
TV: Totally. And that’s the thing. A lot of [people] have a bedroom setup but you do go kind of crazy working from home. It’s good to be out and about. Even just having a commute to a studio is really good ‘cos if you’re doing music at home, there’s this whole idea of ‘inspiration strikes’. At first it can be quite thrilling and then it can become a bit of a burden. Initially I just set up a space where I lived, the idea being that I could record at any time of the day, but then I just couldn’t properly switch off. You know, I’d be watching TV in the evening, which is perfectly allowed, and thinking, "Well, I’ve got this recording studio downstairs, why aren’t I in there?" So it was learning how to work, too.
AH: You mentioned that you wanted other people to be able to come in and you’ve actually done a few collaborations, including featuring on DJ Shadow’s track ‘Warning Call’. How did that come about?
TV: We were thinking about remixes for tracks on my record [and] the label said, "who do you like to remix your album?" And I was like, “oh, of course, DJ Shadow.” I’m a huge, huge fan of his and he’s been a great influence, and I was like, “what’s the chances of seeing if he might be up for it?” - thinking even if it means that the guy listens to one of my songs once that would be a great honour. So he gets back to them saying that he actually doesn’t remix that much, which was something I didn’t realise but then became apparent when I was trying to search for Shadow remixes. So I was like, “Of course! That’s fine! Don’t worry! Thanks for trying!” Then a couple of weeks later my A&R phones up and says, “They’re looking for a vocalist on the Shadow album, they’ve got a song in mind and they were thinking of you”. And I was like, “Wow, this is better than getting a remix!”
He already had the main kind of instrumentation down and it was funny in that I think we both had this appreciation of being organised and had a similar sort of approach. We would get back to each other straight away. I only ended up meeting him about a month afterwards when he came to London to play a show. So that was quite crazy, I mean obviously, the guy’s a legend.
AH: You’ve also collaborated with
Paintshop Studio,
Maharishi, Johnny Marr and you’ve done a few remixes yourself, so you obviously like collaborating and working with other people. What do you think about collaborations as an idea?
TV: I think it’s really good. With my own music I’m quite controlling about it and increasingly so. On both my records I’ve been the one that’s producing, which is quite important. It is nice to have someone else in the room when you’re going through a stage of needing to push something through. But increasingly I’ve become more and more controlling with my own stuff but I really like the idea of a collaboration being like “well, you’re someone who’s known for doing what you’re doing, and this is someone else with their own reputation and own backstory,” and what happens when those people collaborate in an overground sense. It’s kind of funny 'cos I always like the branding of a collaboration, like a ‘versus’ project. They’re great because you get to work in a way that’s quite eye opening and it informs your own work.
AH:Does it have anything to do with being a lonely solo artist most of the time?
TV: [laughs] A little bit. It all makes it easier to get myself out there. It’s also much more common for single artists to collaborate than a whole band. I mean obviously there have been a whole lot of excellent examples like… um… I’m trying to think of some…
AH: [laughs] Run DMC and Aerosmith?
TV: I don’t think that was as cool as my one [laughs].
AH: Yeah, you’re probably right. You’re touring with Jonathan Boulet and Kindness, do you think anything could happen there?
TV: Ooh, I don’t know. I think we’ll have to wait and see on that [laughs]. I know Kindness to a certain degree, we have friends in common. I’ve met him a couple of times. But I’m looking forward to hanging out with them next week.
AH: So a couple of the collaborations I mentioned were to do with fashion and design. Is that something you’d ever become more involved with?
TV: Yeah, I’d love to. I studied graphic design and that’s a big part of me. I look at a lot of things with a design mind, I think. I love that kind of stuff. To be honest, it’s kind of a distraction from music, but it’s something I’m trained and qualified in. Sometimes it’s kind of a refreshing change to be able to solve a problem. The Maharishi thing kind of came about through a design I’d developed for my own t-shirts. Even though it’s an artistic thing it was like solving this problem. It was this logo name and I worked out whether it could be repeated and it’s just fun. I like applying myself in that way so it certainly opened myself up to a lot of that. I think my taste as a designer would be much more accessible than my music almost [laughs].
AH: And now for my embarrassing, teenager-inside-me question: do you still have the fictional poster they made for you on
The O.C? (Tom 'played' at the Bait Shop on the show - 'The Road Warrior' episode in season 3, for those playing at home)
TV: Yes, I do. I do. I need to frame that actually, but I do have it.
AH: Aw, that’s amazing, you should totally frame it – pride of place.
TV: Yeah. Unfortunately it’s not that well designed and it’s kind of torn. But what it refers to is a hilarious moment in my life so that’s good.
AH: Maybe you should just hang it in the bathroom then, above the toilet.
TV: Yeah, above the loo.
AH: Speaking of
The O.C, it was one of those shows that purposefully featured music. Now if you have a song in a TV show you’re pretty much guaranteed some level of success. Do you think TV has some role in getting music out there?
TV: I think so but then I also think everything is so internet-centric. I don’t really know shows at the moment [that do it]. In the UK all we’ve really had of shows that feature music on the TV are like
Jools Holland. Which is live music and is always pretty good but it goes through waves… it depends on what’s going on in the music world. I don’t want to be cynical or give a regurgitated statement but it’s so obvious how everything is online. It’s so convenient. Television almost seems kind of old fashioned. I mean what shows are there,
Gossip Girl? Does
Gossip Girl feature music?
AH: Yeah, but I don’t think they really do live music. I suppose there’re shows like
Glee and
So You Think You Can Dance and stuff…
TV: Oh, yeah [laughs]. Like versions of songs that are watered down and reformatted [laughs]... Yeah, can’t say I have any comment on that.
Tom Vek's record Leisure Seizure is out now. You can win tickets to his shows with Kindness and Jonathan Boulet here.
TOUR DATES:
Thursday 24 May - The Hi-Fi, Melbourne w/ Architecture in Helsinki DJs
Friday 25 May - The Bowler Bar, Brisbane w/ Das Moth (Cutters), Mitzi, Tim Fuchs (CANCELLED)
Saturday 26 May - Sydney Opera House: The Studio, Sydney w/ Van She Tech, Purple Sneakers DJs
WORDS: Anna Horan