Tom Smith is a musician, songwriter and vocalist for the British indie rock band Editors. In 2014, the Daily Mirror newspaper called him the singer with the widest vocal range in the UK. Smith's music is full of drama, lyrical and depressing notes, although in ordinary life he tries to reason positively. “Songs are about my thoughts and feelings, but this does not mean that I should live in accordance with this promise, ” the musician admits.
Biography: the early years and the path to success
Thomas Michael Henry Smith was born April 29, 1981 in a family of teachers. His birthplace is the city of Northampton near London, and the childhood of the future musician passed in the city of Stroud of Gloucestershire. Already in elementary school, he began to comprehend the basics of playing the guitar. In high school, according to Tom, he had a hard time. The difficulty in communicating with peers was added to the awkwardness of the fact that the parents taught their son in class.
Smith continued his studies at Staffordshire University on a course in music technology. Here he met Chris Urbanovich, Russell Litch and Ed Lei, with whom he created the musical group Pilot in 2002.
Their team moved to Birmingham to begin their journey to success. Wanting to attract the attention of music labels, the musicians changed the name of the group several times. They introduced themselves as Pilot, The Pride, Snowfield, until they finally settled on Editors. Chris Urbanovich called the first years of the band's creation “dark times”, when all its members were close to despair due to lack of demand and ignorance from music labels. Finally, their single Bullets attracted the attention of independent label Kitchenware, and on July 25, 2005, The Back Room released their debut album.
Creation
The musical style of Tom Smith was influenced by the groups Blur and Oasis, which he listened to as a teenager. Also lead singer Editors is a fan of singers Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen and the British pop group Prefab Sprout. Tom's favorite and inspirational album is Murmur of the American rock band REM. Smith's manner of performance is compared with singing by the vocalists of the musical groups The Cure, Interpol, Joy Division, REM.
The debut album The Back Room (2005) brought Editors the first resounding success. By January 2006, he reached the honorary second place on the British album chart, received a nomination for the prestigious Mercury Prize. Critics favorably accepted the creation of the young team. The popular music site New Musical Express ranked the album 8 out of 10 points, with a laudatory response: "Death and gloom have never sounded so surprisingly inspiring and encouraging."
The musicians began a busy touring life. They went on tour with the Scottish team Franz Ferdinand. Then there was a tour of North America with the Stellastarr band and performances at major American festivals. In 2006, during a performance in Austin as part of the annual events on South by Southwest, Tom suddenly lost his voice, because of which he had to finish the concert ahead of schedule.
Smith and his bandmates multiplied their first success thanks to the next album, The End Has a Start, which was released on June 25, 2007. He received platinum status on the first day of sales in the UK. According to Tom, the single from this album Smokers outside the Hospital Doors was inspired by memories of his stay in hospitals, although the musician did not visit them more often than others. And he began to think about the inevitability of growing up and approaching death.
In 2008, Editors were nominated for the Brit Awards in the Best British Band category. They toured a lot in America, Europe, Canada. The popularity of the group grew, their concerts attracted several thousand spectators. In addition to the two albums mentioned, Editors currently has four more studio works:
- In This Light and on This Evening (2009);
- The Weight of Your Love (2013);
- In Dream (2015);
- Violence (2018).
In the third album In This Light and on This Evening, the group changed its usual sound in favor of more synthesized electronic music. In 2012, due to creative differences, the team left Chris Urbanovich.
In parallel with Editors' activities, Tom Smith collaborated with other groups, performing vocal parts in separate songs. Musical groups with which he worked:
- Cicada (2009);
- Tired Pony (2010);
- The Japanese Popstars (2011);
- Indochine (2012);
- Magnus (2014).
In 2011, Smith, along with his good friend Andy Burroughs, recorded the album Funny Looking Angels as part of the Smith & Burrows project. Promoting this work, the creative tandem gave concerts in Europe. You can also hear Tom's backing vocals in several songs on Andy Burroughs' solo album. With 2012 Editors songs, he performed at a recital in Brussels, as the band is no less popular in Belgium than in the UK.
Editors' latest album, "Violence", has been received more critically by critics than the previous two. They called this work "encouraging, " and in the music of the band they heard a "refreshing direction."
Tom Smith is known for his expressive behavior on stage. For example, he once interrupted a performance when he saw that the listeners were too passionate about giving away free hot dogs and not Editors' music. The performer can allow himself long pauses in the concert when he is dissatisfied with his singing or with some technical moments. Although fans say that over the years he has become much more restrained.
