"My songs don't always make me out to be such a nice guy," confesses Tomi Swick. "But I'm just trying to be honest about what's going on in my life."
Honesty is an ongoing theme with Tomi Swick. The thirteen songs on his debut album, Stalled Out In The Doorway, tell honest tales of some of the harsh realities of relationships. Tomi's beautiful voice and lilting melodies sometimes belay the dark subject matter in many of the songs.
As a fan of pop music history, Tomi's own music is born of the tradition of some of the most memorable songs of our lives His admiration for vocalists and songwriters runs the gamut from James Taylor to Radiohead ("I absolutely love The Bends") and Jeff Buckley to the Beatles. Tomi Swick is a rock ‘n' roll troubadour who takes his craft seriously.
Tomi Swick was born in Canada's Steeltown, Hamilton, Ontario, to a blue collar family that instilled a strong sense of pride and tradition into his blood. His mother came to Canada from Scotland and taught him to respect and love his roots. As a result he learned to play bagpipes and his earliest dreams were to perform at the Highland Games in Fergus. As a matter of fact, the first song he remembers writing (at the ripe old age of 14) was "Bonnie Scotland Where I Have Never Been."
Tomi admits that, growing up, he was always known as a jock but also loved to play music. In addition to the bagpipes he played piano and learned military drumming prior to picking up the guitar at 13. It wasn't long before he had decided that he wanted to be a musician rather than work in the city's steel mills.
At 19, Tomi played in a local Hamilton band that started getting a following which helped him realize that he could actually make a living doing the thing he loved most. Buoyed by local success and brimming with confidence the group started making the rounds at the Canadian record labels. But, after too many rejections, he quit the band in order to re-group.
Tomi soon returned to the stage as a solo performer and, before long, he began to gain a reputation as an incredible vocalist with a cache of remarkable songs. Word of mouth eventually spread throughout the industry.
In the Fall of 2005 Tomi came to the offices of Warner Music Canada for a meeting. Tomi happened to have his guitar with him and ended up performing an impromptu acoustic set in front of the entire staff. His performance was so impressive that what had been intended as a casual meeting turned into the beginnings of a record deal.
Warner Music Canada was convinced they had a very special artist with Tomi Swick and they wanted to make sure that as many people as possible would get to hear his marvelous voice. In February 2006, his original recording, "A Night Like This" was released as the first single from the compilation album From The Heart (putting Tomi along side of some of the most popular male vocalists in the world today including Josh Groban, Michael Buble, James Blunt and Daniel Powter). The song quickly established itself as a Top 5 radio hit. The album also included a bonus three track Tomi Swick sampler with "A Night Like This," "Wait Until Morning" and "For Anyone You Love." With over 100,000 copies sold, From The Heart was one of the best selling compilations in Canada in 2006.
The stage was now set for him to begin recording his debut full-length album. He entered Puck's Farm Studios north of Toronto with producer Ron Lopata. Like Warner Music Canada, Lopata had heard of Tomi by reputation and showed up at one of his club shows to hear the voice for himself.
"Tomi's music soars," says Lopata. "When I first saw him play the sound was 100 times bigger than the club he was performing in."
Lopata and Tomi began with 35 songs and whittled the number to be recorded to a much more manageable 18. They were joined in the studio by a cadre of some of Toronto's finest musicians while the final piece of the studio puzzle was engineer Saam Hashemi who was able to help Tomi and Ron realize many of the sounds they had been imagining for the songs. It was Saam who suggested that they should go to the U.K. to try and record some of the music. When they were done recording, internationally renown engineer Chris Lord Alge was sent a copy of the finished album. He liked what he heard so much that he asked if he could be involved with the project too and was engaged to do the final mixes.
"I've tried to make an album that let's me do all of the things I want to do," says Tomi. "I've got a poppy side but love really heavy bands too. I've tried to get both sides out without having an identity crisis."
Tomi Swick is just trying to be honest
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