Thomas Timothy Vernon-Kell (born 10 May 1981) is an English multi-instrumentalist musician who works under the name of Tom Vek.

Career

Born in

Hounslow Hounslow ( ) is a large suburban district of West London, England, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 14 metropolitan cen ...

, London, England, he signed to the small

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...

Tummy Touch Records in 2001, having spent the previous eight years writing and

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

in his parents' garage. Vek's debut album '' We Have Sound'' was recorded whilst he completed a

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

degree. The album was finished in mid-2004 but was not released until 2005 when

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

licensed it through Go! Beat Records. The record was subsequently licensed through

Universal Records Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

to Startime International for a North American release. Vek made a guest appearance on the television programme, ''

The OC ''The O.C. '' is an American teen drama television series created by Josh Schwartz that originally aired on Fox in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 22, 2007, with a total of four seasons consisting of 92 episodes. The serie ...

'', where he performed a gig at 'The Bait Shop' venue; the third-season episode 'The Road Warrior' featured his track "I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes". He also contributed to the ''

Grand Theft Auto IV ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2004's ''Grand Theft Auto: San And ...

'' soundtrack, with "One Horse Race" which was the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

to his single, "Nothing but Green Lights". Vek released his second album, '' Leisure Seizure'', in 2011 after a six-year absence from the music industry. The first single from the album, "A Chore", had its Radio 1 debut on

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reed Lowe (born 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence through pr ...

's show on 18 April that year. In 2012, his song "Aroused" from the album was featured on the soundtrack of ''

Forza Horizon ''Forza Horizon'' is a 2012 racing video game developed by Playground Games and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 on 23 October 2012. The game is the first installment of the ''Forza'' series, having originally spin-off from Turn ...

''. Also in 2011, he was guest vocalist on the album track, and single, "Warning Call", on DJ Shadow's '' The Less You Know, the Better.'' On 11 April 2014, Vek announced his third album, ''

Luck Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The Naturalism (philosophy), naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at a ...

'', along with the release of the album's first single, 'Sherman (Animals in the Jungle)'. Luck was finally released in June 2014 to mixed reviews. NME said about the album "There are flashes of brilliance but the singer's third album misfires too often" while the Guardian was more favourable, describing it as "deliciously unpredictable" On 12 November 2020, Vek announced his fourth album, ''New Symbols'', and Sleevenote, a music player device he designed. On 8 August 2022, Vek released a ''Newer Symbols'', a "full re-work" of ''New Symbols.'' Each track of ''Newer Symbols'' shares its name with a track from ''New Symbols'', with the word "new" added. Vek also made an

NFT A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchai ...

available for each track.

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

References

External links

Official website
*
Tom Vek
at Last.fm
Interview with Tom Vek after a concert in Moscow in 2014
(in Russian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vek, Tom 1981 births Living people English rock guitarists English male guitarists English male singer-songwriters Singers from the London Borough of Hounslow People from Hounslow People educated at King's College School, London Alumni of Central Saint Martins English multi-instrumentalists 21st-century English singers 21st-century British guitarists 21st-century British male singers Moshi Moshi Records artists Island Records artists Go! Beat artists Musicians from the London Borough of Hounslow