Tommy's vocal influences?

[DeepestPurple]

Hey Tommy, I understand you're mostly self-taught (which is amazing, by the way), just wondering what vocals/recordings you like? You rule, keep up the great work.

 

[JAGColaço]

I saw this in his myspace page

- Jorn lande
- Russel Allen
- Jerry Sahlin

 

[TommyKarevik]

Hey! Well my biggest influence would have to be Jorn Lande! Ever since I laid hands on The Beyond Twilight album "The Devils hall of fame" I have been under his spell! Even though I may not sound like him much, I am sure that if you dig deep into my vocal style you will find a few familiar things Before I got into hard rock and metal music, musicans like Michael Jackson, bands like Queen and stuff like the soundtrack to "The Phantom of the Opera" were frequently spinning in my player.
At about 18 I started listening more to Sonata Arctica and later on I overdosed Dream Theaters "Scenes from a memory"...
During the last couple of years I would have to say that I consider Symphony X and ACT my favorite bands. Russell Allen is one of the greatest and most diverse singers on this planet and Jerry who composes all the music for ACT is such a musical genius!
Another thing that changed my view on music was joining SW. Meeting all these great musicians with different musical backgrounds introducing me to a lot of great stuff!
I never tried to change my voice to sound like anyone else, but if you mix all the above mentioned infuences I think you will get a pretty good idea of why I compose, sing and express myself the way I do!

Hope that is a good enough answer for you?

 

[loshean]

Honestly never thought this guy was your biggest influence

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

Russell Allen is one of the greatest and most diverse singers on this planet

So glad you feel this way! I can definitely hear some influence of Russell's in a lot of your runs, particularly the bluesy ones! TGE (song) has some really Russell-esque stuff going on in it.

One thing I must say about you and SW is that you sing with the band (instead of just over them). I hear so many progressive metal bands where the vocals sound so disconnected from the music, almost as if they are an afterthought. But you guys function as one unit, which is an amazing and unique sound; the vocals are intertwined with the music instead of just being above it.

 

[Velhaco]

The influences are important for defining a style and for the development of the artistic sensitivity. But every singer must assume to be unique and, accordingly, Tommy is simply unique.
Of all the vocalists I know, he's in very limited batch of the greatest voices of all music styles. I've shown his vocal work to opera singers, classical music singers, jazz singers... and all say the same: What a great voice!
The scales he does, the bass and treble, breathing ... Dude, it's fantastic.

Tommy, you rock!

 

[Kazar]

One thing I must say about you and SW is that you sing with the band (instead of just over them). I hear so many progressive metal bands where the vocals sound so disconnected from the music, almost as if they are an afterthought. But you guys function as one unit, which is an amazing and unique sound; the vocals are intertwined with the music instead of just being above it.

+1. Well said, Detective.

The influences are important for defining a style and for the development of the artistic sensitivity. But every singer must assume to be unique and, accordingly, Tommy is simply unique.
Of all the vocalists I know, he's in very limited batch of the greatest voices of all music styles. I've shown his vocal work to opera singers, classical music singers, jazz singers... and all say the same: What a great voice!
The scales he does, the bass and treble, breathing ... Dude, it's fantastic.

Tommy, you rock!

Yes, he does....
There is no one like Tommy.


Here's a great little part Andreas said about Tommy in the Artrock interview:
"......some people are talented and Tommy is in my opinion, unique in the world...... Johnny and Tommy have the music in their blood and the other two are trained, for me it was discipline and many years of hard work to get where I am today..... with the exception of Tommy, I have already said that I think he is quite exceptional and virtually inimitable."

 

[AndreasBlomqvist]

That's right!

If you have no talent (=me) you just practise like crazy for ten years -then you can pretend to be a prog musician too, just like I did!

Tommy the bastard was simply born this way I think!

 

[Shadowsoul]

If you have no talent (=me)

ye right

 

[AndreasBlomqvist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9EDDCECt3Y

Honestly never thought this guy was your biggest influence

Ha ha -I hadn't seen that one!

 

[loshean]

Ha ha -I hadn't seen that one!

Thought it was funny, as I've never heard of him really.. so i searched him up and found out he made that song, wich i heard for the first time when i was 2-3 years old.

 

[DeepestPurple]

Thanks for the response, always cool to hear such things Keep up the wonderful work!

 

[JenniferLynn]

.....and stuff like the soundtrack to "The Phantom of the Opera" were frequently spinning in my player.

One of the greatest musicals EVER... I've got the soundtrack on my iPod... Stranger Than you Dreamt It is probably my favorite for that first real hint of creepy Phantom factor

I loved the movie too... Saw it MANY times in the movie theater