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Bass master
Tom Vek finds his groove
BY DAVID DAY
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Tom Vek's Web site

Slap bass is back. With a vengeance. And Tom Vek is ready. He believes in his new album, his bass, and his dad. "I really owe a lot to him," he says over the phone before a gig in London. " He was really good at telling I was into something."

It was the senior Vek who helped young Tom set up PVK Studios in "half of the garage" at his London home. As Tom tells it, his dad would buy him "bits and bobs" like an eight-track recorder and amplifiers. He recorded his first song when he was 15 — "a kind of epic, melodic angst rock!" as he told the BBC.

Vek is young. At 24, he’s already quite a hero in England. He’s adored by the underground, and even the media establishment has begun to take notice. Having conquered Britain with his homemade We Have Sound (released there in April by Tummy Touch), he’s now touring the US in support of its domestic drop by the rising indie Star Time International. Last week, the disc debuted at #1 on the CMJ charts. It’s an album cut from a quilt of funk bass, clever lyrics, and driving, hip-drop tempos. The multi-instrumental Vek played drums in college before resealing himself in PVK. "I had got my fill of the live thing."

Back in the studio, he toyed with drum machines, reel-to-reel tapes, and a range of instruments. "When I tried to give electronics a go, I laid down drum-machine tracks and I had a lot of happy accidents. The songs have a real rock performance soul because it was in real time — I never used a computer. I was trying to make electronic music on keyboards and drum machines, which is all about reel-to-reels. But it was a real four minutes — it’s not cut-and-paste."

It’s the bass — deft and funky slap bass, a style that’s on the rebound, especially in electro-house and dance music — that provides the charge in tunes like "If You Want." "If you want lies then we better start confessing/If you want forgiveness you better start apologizing," Vek snorts, handclaps all around him, the bass booming.

"I learned bass when I was eight. I liked the rhythm of it. And my dad was a guitarist, so it was a kind of rebellion, I suppose." Eventually Vek gave in and picked up guitar because, as he puts it, the guitarist is "the hero of the band." He cites Slash as an influence, and he still plays Guns N’ Roses at his live gigs. But We Have Sound is all about snaky garage-pop grooves — grooves that beg for DJ remixes. And his tunes have already been subjected to many. Trevor Jackson, Tim "Love" Lee, Kaos, and Digitalism have tackled Vek tracks. But his favorite is from Paul Epworth (a/k/a Phones), whose credits include the Streets, Maximo Park, and Bloc Party. "He brings in this kind of euphoric piano thing," Vek says of Epworth’s remix of "I Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes." "His is such a positive remix." That’s due, at least in part, to the raw material: every tuneful cavity of "I Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes" is filled with overdubs, tape delays, and touches of reverb. It’s a song that refers to everything from Pavement’s slanted enchantments to the anthemic power of classic grunge.

A one-man show in the studio, Vek has put together a full band to back him on the road. They play T.T. the Bear’s Place this Monday with the Mobius Band, who are joining him for nine dates. And despite what has all the makings of a meteoric rise to the top of the pops, he seems unfazed. "It’s all about my music," he says as he prepares to play. "And it all goes back to the record at the end of the day."

Tom Vek + the Mobius Band + Matters & Dunaway | T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge | Nov 7 | 617.492.BEAR

 


Issue Date: November 4 - 10, 2005
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