Having been raised on a potent cocktail of Hendrix, Nina Simone, early Joan Armatrading records, loads of African music and a lot of hilarious folk-rock and funk from the mid-seventies, Tom McAllister began playing the guitar at the age of five, as soon as he could fit his chubby little fingers round the neck of a 3/4 size guitar. Having become obsessed with finding new sounds and making all kinds of different noises, he began researching various styles of music and pinching techniques and ideas from all over the world.
By the age of fifteen, Tom had amassed a sizeable collection of guitars thanks to the generous contributions of a supportive uncle and by going through long periods of abstaining from buying anything at all in order to get his next instrument. It was at this point that he began building his first guitar, full of cool shapes and unnecessarily complicated circuitry. A year or so later he began playing Tabla, started recording and producing music and soon after that took up the Double Bass as well.
Nowadays Tom McAllister is an all-round musical slag, involving himself in all aspects of Bristol's vibrant and slightly incestuous music scene as a promoter, engineer, producer, event manager, session player and performer. As well as his solo stuff he is working on various projects with The Outfits, Rekorder, Zion Flex, SoBR, Everton, Minyeh, Gina Briganti and DJ Baked. He still designs and makes guitars (occasionally) and is quite happy talking about himself in the 3rd person.
I edited my profile with chisels and other wood-carving parephernalia
Here are some more tunes:
And some more: