‘The Story Is’ Album Release

1st March 2019 sees the release of the 4th Skinny Lister album ‘The Story Is…” on Xtra Mile Recordings. It’s my 2nd album recording with the band and was recorded at Blue Bell Hill Studios with Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, The Enemy).

We will also be embarking on a World Tour in March, beginning in the UK and taking in Europe and the USA. The first single from the record is out now and can be listened here:

Also for those looking to enquire about drum lessons, I am currently taking on new students, so please do get in touch. Thanks! Thom.

Tours, Tours, Tours

2017 Is already shaping up to be a busy year of touring with Skinny Lister. January saw us supporting The Dropkick Murphys around Europe and now next month we are off to the US to support Flogging Molly for 2 weeks across the country, see the dates below.
We are then straight into our own headline UK tour in April, followed by the festival season and then another headline tour of our own across Europe and Scandinavia. All the dates are shown below.

Album Release: The Devil, The Heart & The Fight

Today sees the release of the brand new Skinny Lister album ‘The Devil, The Heart & The Fight’. Written whilst on tour with Frank Turner around the USA, UK and Europe last and this year, and recorded in between tours and the festival season, it is the 3rd album from the band and my first album recording with the band on drums.

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Released worldwide on Xtra Mile Recordings today, you can purchase the record through any of  these links, and on all formats, CD / LP / DL.

Xtra Mile Recordings : http://smarturl.it/DevilHeartFight_XMR

Banquet Records: http://smarturl.it/DevilHeartFight_Bnqt

Amazon: http://smarturl.it/DevilHeartFight_Amz

iTunes: http://smarturl.it/DevilHeartFight_iT

We are touring the record around UK, USA & Europe, starting with an almost sold out UK tour starting next week. Full list of tour dates available at www.skinnylister.com

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North American Tour 2016

It’s that time again, going state side and this time we are out on our own with the brilliant Beans on Toast and Will Varley in tow. We’re starting in Florida and taking in Flogging Molly’s Salty dog cruise to the Bahamas, which sounds like a crazy drunken boat trip with Rancid, Frank Turner, Fishbone and many others! Also we are hitting up Toronto in Canada and some of the usual hot spots for us in Chicago, Pittsburgh & Cambridge on this 3 week tour.

 

European Tour with Frank Turner & Will Varley

Kicking off 2016 with a massive European tour, yeah why not? This January I’m taking in the freezing cold weather and snowy European cities of Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. This is the last leg with Frank and the crew, and the wonderful Will Varley. So huge thanks for taking us around, the USA, UK and now Europe, it’s been a blast and a pleasure to be on the tours, onwards and upwards, cheers guys!

 

SXSW & Chuck Ragan European Tour

I have just arrived back from a 3 week intensive touring schedule (24 shows in 25 days) where I was lucky enough to attend South by South West or SXSW in Austin Texas. It’s the largest music industry festival event in the world, and is a bit like Glastonbury festival being dumped right in the middle of a huge city. What a fantastic festival with a wealth of fantastic bands from around the globe the only trouble is the musician is an after thought with record labels, management and anyone else important taking the limelight. However I had a brilliant time and my Skinny Lister schedule is below:
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It was then straight onto a European tour after SXSW supporting Chuck Ragan & The Camaraderie. Beginning in Scotland we travelled all over Europe; UK, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. What a wonderful group of guys and a pleasure to support them around Europe! DSCF1474

‘Cathy’ Music Video, LA Showcase & ‘Michigan’ Single

‘Cathy’ is the new single from the forthcoming Skinny Lister album ‘Down on Deptford Broadway’. Released on 20th April through Xtra Mile Recordings here is the music video featuring a jellied eels eating competition, it was disgusting! Pre-order now: http://www.xtramilerecordings.com/Shop/DownloadDetails?rid=XMR_RE_173

This month I also managed to squeeze in 2 label showcases with Ed Prosek. The first a trip over to Los Angeles to perform at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, and the second in London at the Notting Hill Arts Club. Both in support of new single ‘Michigan’ and EP ‘The Riverbed’ both available now on iTunes and Spotify. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/michigan-ep/id974174842

Ed Prosek – ‘Riverbed’ EP

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Hugely proud to announce the release of the new Ed Prosek EP ‘Riverbed’. The lovely people at The Line Of Best Fit are streaming the EP in full ahead of its release this Sunday at the launch show in Brighton at Bleach:

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/news/latest-news/stream-ed-proseks-ep-the-riverbed-and-read-his-track-by-track-guide-exclusi

More info on the EP launch show at Bleach in Brighton, this Sunday 16th November:
https://www.facebook.com/events/513230792113035/

Also you can pre-order the EP from iTunes now here for only £3.99!
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-riverbed-ep/id940061024

To keep up with everything ED PROSEK visit -> http://www.edprosek.com

Skinny Lister Signs to Xtra Mile Recordings

I am very pleased to announce that Skinny Lister have signed to Xtra Mile Recordings in preparation for a new album release in Spring 2015. We have a bunch of UK dates in October where the new album will be played in full, along with a slot at the legendary Reeperbahn Festival this week. UK dates are below, full story here:

http://www.1.xtramilerecordings.com/news/2014/9/16-skinny-lister-sign-to-xtra-mile-announce-five-new-album-shows-october

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US Tour & European Festivals

June has been an incredible month, completed my first ever tour of the USA and played at Glastonbury festival, both in my top 3 musical career achievements!
The tour was predominately on the east coast of the US, and took in 15 shows over 3 weeks.

Including shows at major US festivals Summerfest & Bonaroo.
photo 2As well as visiting, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati and many others!
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Then straight home to the UK and directly to Glastonbury, where I played my biggest show to date on the Avalon stage!

Next up is more European festivals over the Summer, visiting Germany, Spain & Scotland plus many more. Keep up to date with all Skinny Lister news here: http://skinnylister.com

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FREE Drum Lessons

I am giving away 2, 1 hour drum lessons for free next month at my ‘drumming marathon’ charity gig. For your chance to win all you have to do is come along to the show on 27th March at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar and take part in the extreme charity quiz. There will also be a whole host of other prizes including, a pair of cinema tickets to The Duke of York, Troll’s Pantry burger vouchers, GBK food vouchers, PizzaFace pizza vouchers, a bottle of Kraken rum plus many more exciting prizes. Plus I will be performing with 3 of my bands, Derelicts, Louis Romegoux & Millou, and SEERS, and all the proceeds go to HIV and sexual health charity The Terrence Higgins Trust aiding raising money for my London Marathon 2014 run.

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Charity Drumming Marathon Gig

In order to run the London Marathon for The Terrence Higgins Trust I need to raise £1,750. For this reason I have decided to put on a ‘Drumming Marathon’ gig. I will be behind the kit all evening performing with 3 of my original bands;

Derelicts + Louis Romégoux & Milou + SEERS.

In between the live bands there will be an EXTREME quiz with exciting prizes from Pizza Face, Duke of York’s cinema tickets, assorted t-shirts and many more prizes to be announced!
Entry is £5, quiz is £1 and ALL proceeds go to my charity.

If you would like to sponsor me directly you can do so through my virgin money giving page here:-
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/thommills

Massive thanks in advance, Thom.x MarathonFundraisierSMFB27.03.14Poster

 

2011 – Drumming Mad!

So 2011 has been a busy year, the busiest yet for me! Therefore I thought I would have a review of my year with music and try to remember what I have been up to…

Live Shows:

Sunless ’97: 6
Mean Poppa Lean: 7
Mechanical Bride: 23
Holy Vessels: 2
Saint: 44 (Functions)
Caroline Buckley: 1

All shows: 83 (4 Tours, 2 UK, 2 European).

Supported, Friendly Fires, Yuck, Toro Y Moi, Kwes, Summer Camp, Smoke Fairies, The Heart and the Hand, Liam Finn, Dry the River, Graham Coxon.

Standout venues visited: The Garage, ULU, St. Giles Church, London, Flèche D’or, La Boule Noir, Paris, Le Cargo, Caen.

Releases:

2 Albums: Mechanical Bride – Living With Ants, Mean Poppa Lean – Live on Twelve Legs.
1 EP: Sunless ’97 – Making Waves.
3 Singles: Mechanical Bride – Colour of Fire / Young Gold / To the Fight.

2 Radio sessions: Radio 1 Huw Stephens session, Selector Radio session.
Radio Plays: Radio 1, Radio 2, 6 Music, XFM, Selector Radio in over 29 territories.

1 Album recording session, Holy Vessels.

1 Endorsement deal, C&C Custom Drums.

4 Auditions, Left 1 band, joined 2, currently playing with 4, Sunless ’97, Holy Vessels, Mechanical Bride & Saint.

That just about wraps up my year, I’m hoping 2012 has more to give, looking forward to next year and implementing some new years resoultions, I already have a few that I have started early, cause I want a head start!

Merry Crimbus and a Happy Neu Year to all! X

Tuning Diary – Day 4

Had a great show at the Garage in London last night with Sunless ’97, supporting Toro Y Moi, from the US. It was a sold out show, and surprisingly it was 3/4 full when we went on first so we played to a big audience (which was nice). However I spent the trip up and back studying the Prof sound’s drum tuning bible, & decided to implement the bible in day 4.

Day 4.

I began at the beginning and took just 1 tom, my 13″, as it tells to concentrate on 1 small first to start to learn how to tune, and not to get this confused with tuning the whole kit. This involves, removing all the heads, eliminating and lug or shell buzz, seating the heads, then experimenting with pitches of the drum, and also results and what they mean. (This is all explained more clearly and in detail, under the section ” Tuning and Seating the Heads, All Drums” onwards).

From this research I learned that I used to just strive to get the pitches on the top head in tune with each other and think this is the drum tuned, so why doesn’t it sound good? Seems stupid but obvious now, so you need to get the top head in tune with it’s self and also the bottom head, and then experiment with taking the whole pitches of each head up and down. Also I found that the bottom head really is the note and how much sustain is gained and the top head is more of the attack.

I also repeated this sequence for my bass drum, seating the head properly then lowering to a desired pitch. Bass drum is much more difficult to hear the different pitches at the lugs, but easier to get an overall sound, right heads help, as a powerstroke on my kick works like a dream, while a pinstripe sounds like tripe.

Tomorrow I will focus on the first tom again, and have a go at my second snare, taking her apart and starting from scratch.

Sunless 97 Radio 1 Maida Vale Session, Holy Vessels Showcases…

Yesterday I completed my first Radio 1 live session at Maida Vale. We recorded 4 tracks from the Sunless 97 ‘Making Waves’ EP released this week, and they will all be aired on the Huw Stephens show in early January next year. This month has also seen us support the amazing Kwes. and next week our last show of the year with Toro Y Moi at the Garage, 7.12.11.

I have also been working with Brighton band Holy Vessels and recorded an album with them, for release next year. December sees us play two showcase gigs, December 13th @ The Blind Tiger, Brighton, & December 18th @ The Old Queens Head, London.

Sunless 97 EP Launch, Radio 1 play, New track…

 

Sunless 97 release Making Waves EP on the 21st November and we are playing an EP Launch show ‘Heaven’s Gate 4 Hale-Bopp’ on friday 25th November at a secret location in London Kensal Rise W10 (location will be emailed on ticket purchase) tickets are £6 via http://www.musicglue.com/sunless97

Featuring
Sunless ’97 http://sunless97.tumblr.com/
Palmistry (live) http://soundcloud.com/palmistry

Brey
Kwes
Steamin’ Jack Shankly
Rodaidh McDonald
& Abeano DJs
9pm – 4am

You can Preorder the Making Waves EP here: http://abeano.bigcartel.com/product/sunless-97-making-waves-ep-4-tracks

Also today Fearne Cotton played out Illuminations on radio 1, and you can hear another track from ‘Making Waves’ here:

http://www.abeano.com/sunless-97-wicked-gravity/8480

Supporting Friendly Fires & Yuck in France

Tomorrow I travel to Caen in France and then onto Paris on Saturday with Mechanical Bride to play Festival Les Inrocks. This French festival takes place across the country in multiple venues, and we will have the pleasure of supporting Friendly Fires at Cargo in Caen (Nov 3rd), and Yuck at Le Boule Noir in Paris (Nov 5th).

More info here:

http://blogs.lesinrocks.com/festival-les-inrocks/