Name Tom Lea, violist from Vitamin String Quartet
Best known for Being a lovable classically trained viola player who loves ‘90s hip-hop and all things soulful.
Current city Los Angeles.
Really want to be in Anywhere in Japan. I haven’t been there since I was touring with my old band Rhye in 2018 and I really cannot wait to go back. It’s such a cool place. I love the people, the culture, the architecture, the nature, the incredible food and the exciting feeling I got from traveling there. I would love to do a deep dive and explore some of the Japanese country side and some of the smaller cities outside of Tokyo and Osaka. Oh, yeah—and hop on a bullet train!
Excited about I’m super excited about the upcoming Vitamin String Quartet tour we started in late January. Playing in some cities we’ve never been to before, and performing a bunch of new tunes, so it should be a lot of fun for the fans. Also, very excited about some new music set to release soon that I’ve been creating with my old bandmates. The project is called Mangia Mangia, it’s string heavy instrumental world music with original tunes inspired by ‘70s and ‘80s Italian disco, Turkish psych-rock, Afrobeat and Ethiopian jazz.
My current music collection has a lot of ‘90s hip-hop, also lots of funk/soul/R&B, new wave, classical, classic rock and jazz.
And a little bit of Country.
Preferred formatting I prefer Vinyl. I miss when artists made entire albums of music and not just singles. It’s fun to listen to both sides of a record and experience the flow of the album. It feels so good to open up a record and look at the album cover art and read the credits. Also, analogue just sounds so much warmer than digital audio.
5 Albums I Can’t Live Without:1Stakes Is High, De La Soul
Honestly it was almost a tossup between this album and Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders. I discovered De La Soul in middle school through the Colombia House music subscription where you would get like 12 CDs delivered to your house for a penny or something crazy like that. I gave De La Sol a shot in the dark and ended up falling in love with their music. To me Stakes Is High is the culmination of their talents, and them hitting their stride artistically. The beats and rhymes were elevated (having J Dilla produce the title track didn’t hurt either). It was their fourth studio album and first album without their longtime collaborator producer Prince Paul, so it seems that they had a major artistic growth spurt after that split.Every song is so good. I can’t skip any tracks on this one. It’s perfect to me.
2Debut, Bjork
Bjork is a genius. Nobody has a voice like hers. She uses her voice almost like a jazz musician with her phrasing. The album Debut is beyond cool. Every song seems to have magic pixie dust sprinkled all over it. I love the electronic musical elements, the lush string arrangements and instruments from around the world. It’s very timeless music. And it’s really hard to fathom that it’s her first album as a solo artist. Have to give honorable mention to her albums Post and Homogenic on here as well; it’s unfair to have to pick a favorite between the three of them. Debut is special to me because I can really feel Bjork’s connection to her spirit and it just gives me hope for the world. She makes music that makes me feel things, and that means everything to me as a listener and a performer. I want to feel things. This album is so gorgeous. Treat yourself and have a listen.
3Dummy, Portishead
I don’t even know where to start with this album… it has everything. The production is on a different level. It’s so dark and moody and that’s why I love it so much. It’s brooding, it’s British, it’s hip-hop, it’s jazz, it’s cinematic. This record opened up a new idea of where you could take music, it just satisfies on so many musical fronts. I’ve never really heard anything like it before or since. Sampling the great film composer Lalo Schifrin’s “Danube Incident” on their song “Sour Times” is a stroke of genius. And singer Beth Gibbons has a voice that is so vulnerable it’s haunting, but in a way that keeps you glued to every lyric. Few records have this kind of shelf life. I discovered Dummy when I was getting my Bachelor’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music back in the late-‘90s and it just blew me away. This was the perfect soundtrack for my life as a student in San Francisco. A cold and rainy town with the music to match.
4The Reality of My Surroundings, Fishbone
Dear Readers, if you don’t know the music of Fishbone I urge you to go check them out. Fishbone are what’s right about America. Their early albums leaned heavy on ska, funk, and punk energy, but this record is where they started to refine their sound leaning more towards an almost heavy metal energy. You can tell they really evolved here. This music goes hard. It sounds like the best of their older music but with a bit more muscle in the production and a new edge creatively in the song writing. Like all of their albums, they really shine a light on the racism and societal oppression of Black folks in America. But beyond the political and social commentary, their music just explodes into your heart and mind. Some of my favorite tunes from this album are “So Many Millions,” “Housework,” “Behavior Control Technician,” and “Pray to the Junkiemaker.” These songs are meant to be played at a high volume preferably in a residential area.
5Business As Usual, Men at Work
Ok, so when I was making this list I couldn’t believe that I was going to leave off all of my favorite classic British rock bands (i.e. any Beatles, Led Zeppelin, or Pink Floyd albums). And yet here we are, I left them off the list. Not because I can live without them, but because this album from Australia’s number one musical export Men at Work is a friggin’ masterpiece and I had to let you know how fire this album is.
Back in the ‘80s my mom had this album on tape and we played it constantly, usually when it was time to clean the house (some albums have clean-the-house energy and this one is like the granddaddy of house-cleaning albums for me). Most people have heard “Who Can It Be Now?” and “Down Under” but there are so many gems on this album it feels like a crystal shop in Silverlake. The song “I Can See It in Your Eyes” is maybe my favorite song on the album. it just has that feeling… (peep the guitar solo on that one, it’s so tasty). I think it’s easiest to compare Men at Work’s music to 1980s musical giants The Police. This is most likely due to the heavy ska/reggae influence in their music. And as much as I love the music from The Police, I don’t think there is a full album from them that I like as much or more than Business As Usual. There’s truly something special about singer Colin Hay’s voice, I can’t think of anyone in the world who sounds like this dude (crazy range, my man can sing way up there). I love the generous use of flute and sax on this album, and yet it’s not cheesy. Not an easy feat, in my opinion. It’s very cool how much space they allow for (non-vocal) musical moments, guitar/sax solos abound, sick guitar and synth riffs, they just give the music time to breath. It feels like modern music is really missing that. I think it’s okay for the singer to give space every
once and a while and let the band play.
Lastly, I have to spotlight the guitar work on this record, I don’t know the guy’s name but every note from lead guitar to rhythm guitar is brilliant. If you don’t know this album I strongly suggest giving it a spin. Now bust out the mop and the vacuum and enjoy!
