I have been teaching music technology for the last 6 years. Before this I was a freelance engineer/producer/musician for 14 yrs. I still make my own music and do occasional "mixing" work.
I used to work at a car factory in Birmingham but at the age of 25 I knew this was not the life for me.
I studied a short course in Sound Engineering and started work in a 16-track studio, Attic Studio's, in Wolverhampton. This was a new studio so I also had to wire-up (solder) all the audio connections which was great experience for me. I worked at Attic Studio's for about 2 years which enabled me to be comfortable recording "live" rock bands. However, I was ambitious and wanted to join a professional studio with all the latest technology, mixing desk etc. I moved to Nottingham in 1991 to join Square Centre Studio's as a tape-op. The studio was famous for it's House/Dance music which I had never been involved with before. I also used MIDI for the first time as this was crucial in producing dance music.
In 1994 I became the main engineer/producer for the EMIT record label, who were based at Square Centre, and they released a series of "Ambient/Electronica" albums. In 1995, my own album "Miasma 1195" was released on EMIT.
I also worked with a record producer who began writing for the London based collective Soul II Soul. I worked at Soul II Soul studio's in Camden over a 2 year period. This led to an engineeriing credit on "Love Enuff" in 1995 (see AUDIO CLIP via link on Home Page, "View my complete profile").
The released Miasma tracks led to a job writing the music for a PC CD-ROM game. This enabled me to set-up my own studio.
I also spent about a year working in London working on music for TV adverts, the most prestigious one being for a BMW car advert.
I have also played keyboards/backing vocals with a rock band for 3 years, playing numerous gigs nationwide.
My latest work has been as a member of Undark. We have released 2 albums to date. The 3rd album is still being worked on.
My First Albums
EMIT 0094
Tom's first record release in 1994
Miasma appeared on this Em:t compilation album with a track called "Walking Blindfold". em:t0094 was released on CD only.
Tom was a member of Miasma with another guy. Miasma split up in 1998. We composed, engineered and produced all our own tracks.
WOOB 1194
This is the first album Tom "engineered", way back in the Summer of 1994.
Both me and my fellow Miasma dood, Will, were quite nervous about making sure we did a good job on this, our first major project, i.e. the label ran on a tight budget and we only had 10 sessions with which to complete the album. (...more tea vicar....)
All tracks were mixed "live" at the mixing desk (42 channels) by the three of us, i.e. the "arrangements" were not programmed or automated. The album was made using Cubase MIDI sequencing sofware on an Atari computer. Using 3x Akai S1000 samplers and numerous synthesisers/fx, we also used the 24-track analogue tape machine together with a Roland RSS 3D unit to create a 3D vibe for various sounds
When the album was completed we all felt that we had done a good job, and were very pleased with the finished product.
Paul Frankland (i.e. Woob) earned a lot of critical praise for the album, as did the record label. This spurred the label on to continue releasing records for the next 4 years. woob1194 was regarded as a "classic" album in the ambient scene of the day and it still sounds great if you ask me.
Check out how much it fetches on eBay, if you can get hold of a copy!!
ALBUMS BY TOM
Miasma & Undark
