Tom Skinner

London based drummer, composer and producer Tom Skinner has been a vital and central figure in the burgeoning underground music scene in London throughout the last 20 years.

Tom is a leading member of The Smile with Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. Their debut album A Light For Attracting Attention was released to critical acclaim in June 2022 and they are currently touring Europe with Worldwide dates to follow.

In 2012, Tom released his debut self-titled solo record under the alias Hello Skinny to critical acclaim, with MOJO Magazine describing it as “...existing in that fertile zone where jazz, dub, techno and avant-pop deliquesce into an exhilarating free-for-all.” The second Hello Skinny album Watermelon Sun, released on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label in 2017, featured a collaboration with acclaimed veteran New York composer and trombonist Peter Zummo.

Tom is also an original member of award-winning band Sons Of Kemet alongside band-leader and frequent collaborator Shabaka Hutchings. Their third album Your Queen Is A Reptile [Impulse! 2018] garnered worldwide critical acclaim including a Mercury Prize 2018 nomination. Their latest album Black To The Future [Impulse! 2021] has been met with rave reviews, NME giving it 5 stars, claiming the album to be the band at their “most dynamic and urgent”.

In addition to his illustrious career in creating and performing music, Tom has curated his own bi-monthly live music night at The Pickle Factory in East London and hosts a monthly radio show on Worldwide FM.

Throughout his career, Tom has performed and recorded with notable musicians such as Grace Jones, Jarvis Cocker, Kano, Matthew Herbert, Mulatu Astatke, Floating Points, The Invisible, Zero 7 and many more.

His first eponymous release Voices Of Bishara is a chamber-jazz and post-dub fusing quintet suite, composed in part in homage to the late avant-garde cellist Abdul Wadud, that releases in November 2022 via the three-label partnership of Brownswood, International Anthem & Nonesuch Records.