Feels good to be Frees!

ROB FIDDAMAN chats to Nantwich's Tom Humphries, aka Tom Frees, about growing up with an Elvis Presley-loving dad, a Green Day-inspired epiphany and 100km cycle rides...

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Hey Tom, good to speak to you! Where are you from? I'm from the market town of Nantwich.

Are you from a musical family?

Ish! My dad was at one point really pushing for a career as an Elvis Presley impersonator so I guess that counts. My brother is also a keen musician and we were previously in a band together.

What music were you hearing when growing up?

Aside from the constant blare of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, I was a real emo kid - Green Day, My Chemical Romance etc. These bands were really formative in creating a love for music. As I grew older I slowly developed a taste for electronic music, both Moby and Daft Punk were the catalyst for the passion I have today. I admired their creative use of sampling and was baffled by how so much emotion can be transcribed through a computer, I was hooked! I must give an honourable mention to Pete Doherty. I adore his songwriting and I was fortunate enough to see him play in my local town hall back in May.

How old were you when you started making music?

I think I got my first guitar around the age of nine and played a diabolical gig at a primary school battle of the bands (There is footage of this somewhere but I'd rather it doesn’t see the light of day). It wasn't until I was around 15/16 that I started to put the time into learning, by the time I started college I was really deep into the craft of music production.

Was there one song that made you want to become an artist ?

It's got to be American Idiot by Green Day. I remember seeing the video on Kerrang and I had a realisation that I need to be a rock star, whatever it takes. Although, I'm approaching that goal from behind the decks and not a guitar nowadays.

Is dance, electronic your genre?