Christopher William Tomson (born March 6, 1984), commonly known by his initials "CT", is an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the drummer for New York–based

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band Vampire Weekend. He is also the lead vocalist and guitarist for a side project called Dams of the West, for which he writes and records the entirety of its music.

Background

Tomson grew up on a farm in the Imlaystown section of Upper Freehold Township, New Jersey, and later recorded parts of Vampire Weekend's first album there. His father is an engineer whose family is of Irish and Ukrainian heritage (he studied abroad in Ireland in college). His mother is an administrator whose family is of English and German heritage. He graduated from the Peddie School as a salutatorian and then from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

where he studied economics and music. Tomson enjoys

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

and is an avid

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

fan; his favorite club is Tottenham Hotspur. Tomson is also a huge fan of Phish, The Band, and the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

. After living in the Greenpoint neighborhood of

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

for several years, he moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 2019. In 2008, he was involved in a hit-and-run incident in London after the Shockwaves NME Awards. He was taken to hospital to be treated for neck injuries but was released with no notable injuries.

Musical career

Prior to forming Vampire Weekend, Tomson played with Ezra Koenig in the "serious" rap group called L’Homme Run. Tomson met the members of Vampire Weekend while attending Columbia University—he took music classes with Rostam Batmanglij and started the group in their senior year. The name of the group comes from the movie of the same name that Ezra Koenig and his friends made over a summer vacation. They self-produced their first album after graduation while concurrently working full-time jobs (Tomson worked as an archivist for a record label). Their next three albums—'' Contra'' (2010), '' Modern Vampires of the City'' (2013), and '' Father of the Bride'' (2019)—all reached number one on the US album charts. In February 2017, Tomson released his first solo album, '' Youngish American'', under the pseudonym Dams of the West.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomson, Chris Living people Vampire Weekend members American rock guitarists American male guitarists American indie rock musicians Columbia College (New York) alumni Grammy Award winners Peddie School alumni 1984 births People from Upper Freehold Township, New Jersey 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American male musicians People from Greenpoint, Brooklyn Musicians from Brooklyn