As a child he rejected music completely, associating it with the erratic and dislocated lives of his parents: an outstanding timpanist & world class conductor. But at 17, during a long and difficult recuperation from serious illness, he discovered and then immersed himself in songwriting. Utterly inspired by this new love, he began to spend all his free time glued to a piano, frantically scribbling down lyrical ideas as songs began to emerge. This nascent obsession was heavily influenced by his other, already established passion: literature, and as much as his work is evocative of such songwriting giants as Cave, Cohen and Walker, it is the influence of literary greats such as Pinter, Eliot and Joyce that perhaps sets him apart.
Every once in a while an artist comes along that is both unique and deeply thought provoking. Tom Hickox is one such artist. The blood flows from a very English heart.
Press:
The Daily Telegraph - SXSW Review (Neil McCormick, 20/03/09):My pick of the day was an unsigned artist I already knew about, Tom Hickox from London. Tom is the son of the late, great conductor Richard Hickox, but any resemblance ends with the surname. I have seen too many bands here following slavishly in their father's footsteps, from the bad Duran Duran copy of Electric City, to Robert Plant Jnrs loud and lairy blues rocking Sons Of Albion (who are actually pretty good, but not a million miles from Led Zepplin). Tom is ploughing his own path and, in the land of a thousand guitars, it stands out as starkly, boldly individual. Young, blonde, handsome and cut glass English posh, he sits in a dapper suit at an electric piano, and performs complex, lyrically involving songs of dark subject matter (from a serial killer's love song to the hopeful ballad of a doomed immigrant sex slave) in a rich, quavering, almost operatic baritone. It is just mesmerising. While all down the street there are bands beating audiences into submission with their sonic racket, Hickox counts on the rich depth of his material and the quiet intensity of his presentation to draw listeners in. I have compared him in the past to Leonard Cohen crossed with Anthony And The Johnsons, but really even that does him a disservice, because he is onto something unique and of himself. He's an original. And as much fun as this crammed festival is, originality is not a quality you find in abundance. The Birmingham Post (Simon Harper, 09/04/07): ****
The debut from London-based artist Tom Hickox, across eight tracks it recalls everyone from Bjork to Berlin-era Bowie, Tindersticks to Talk Talk, and even Depeche Mode.
Hickox's rich baritone accompanies classical-inspired electronica, with the dizzying beats and stately piano being starkly reminiscent of the 4AD label's finest releases.
It's an album of understated beauty, not least on the string-propelled Living the British Dream - "no one can hear you scream".
Textures are piled up and the overall effect is one of melancholia yet also euphoria, oddly.
With songs as fully-formed and deliciously icy as these, somebody should sign him up soon. Is This Music? (Ed Jupp): ****
I must learn not to jump to conclusions (copy out 500 times). Tom Hickox is a Scottish-born, London -living singer songwriter who takes the notion of singer songwriter further than just one introspective man and his guitar. There’s real strings but what sets him apart from so many others is the electronica. Added to the inspiration which Scott Walker, Nick Cave and Morrissey have clearly provided, and this is something special. Imagine Four Tet, Squarepusher, the Brodsky Quartet and Scott Walker collaborating on the same album…and you perhaps start to get close to this. This album will benefit from repeated listens, and reveal its charms and hidden delights the more you hear it. It was released last year, and I can only regret I didn’t hear it before. Make sure you do so now, especially ‘Grief Hijackers,’ one of the few times I can remember feeling genuinely sorry when a song ended The Downloader (Pat Stevens):
With his morose tones and an open decision to couple himself with the introspective songwriting craft of Nick Cave, you’d perhaps be forgiven for writing Tom Hickox off as a self-absorbed young musician with his head buried firmly in the musical sand. Yet blending such downbeat and reflective lyrics with a delicious bed of pulsing electronica has given this young tunesmith more than just a lifeline; he’s quite simply reinvigorated his creative direction and set himself off on a pretty untouched creative path.
8 songs strong, this album is about as idiosyncratic as debut albums come. By coupling such contrasting songwriting staples, Hickox has created a genre that sporadically dips into everything from Dirty Three, Leonard Cohen and even on to the likes of the Nine Inch Nails.
It’s a splendid opening salvo and an album that has quite simple not been off my stereo since the first day I heard it. Keep your eyes peeled for this young man. Fuse Magazine Issue 9:
Tom Hickox is a London based songwriter with a collection of some of the most interesting songs we've heard this month.
Some of the lyrical rhymes and couplets are outrageously daring, evidenced particularly strongly on the album's stand-out track 'Icebergs and Shipwrecks' or the curious yet engaging 'Little Red Riding Hood'.
Obscure, cold, bleak with a deathly beauty that at the right moment appeals hugely. Manilla Magazine (Nicky Veness):
This provides a lesson to bands like Clor in how to combine electronica with both musical and emotional depth. It’s well constructed, intelligent music from a singer/songwriter who aims to be different and not peddle out soppy ballads. Influences cited in the press release are Air and Morrissey (diversity doesn’t even cover it!) and you can hear their sentiments and aesthetics, but the sound is all Hickox’s own and it’s well worth a listen. ..
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