Biography
London-based drummer, composer, and producer Tom Skinner maintains close ties to multiple projects that challenge conventional genre boundaries. He frequently appears on recordings and stages alongside major artists while also directing his own ensembles through exploratory jazz and more experimental sonic territories. As a member of the Smile alongside Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, he previously served as one of two drummers in the London collective Sons of Kemet. On his debut leader date, the 2022 album Voices of Bishara, Skinner guided his group through reflective grooves and spiritually charged passages; the double-length follow-up Voices of Bishara Live at "Mu" arrived in 2024.
He first emerged in London’s experimental jazz community during the mid-2000s. Throughout the following decade he drummed for the punk-inflected jazz outfit Melt Yourself Down, joined the volatile avant-garde ensemble Sons of Kemet, and issued his own material under the Hello Skinny moniker. That alias yielded several singles plus the albums Hello Skinny in 2012 and Watermelon Sun in 2017, all while Skinner maintained ongoing work with Floating Points, Graham Coxon, Grace Jones, Zero 7, and numerous other artists spanning multiple idioms. He departed Melt Yourself Down in 2021 to form the Smile, whose debut A Light for Attracting Attention appeared the next year; Sons of Kemet simultaneously entered an indefinite hiatus. Also in 2022, International Anthem released Voices of Bishara, on which Skinner led cellist Kareem Dayes, bassist Tom Herbert, saxophonist and flutist Nubya Garcia, and fellow Sons of Kemet member Shabaka Hutchings—performing on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet—through his exploratory compositions.
Because Garcia and Hutchings maintained busy schedules leading their own groups, they were unavailable for touring. Skinner therefore recruited saxophonists Chelsea Carmichael and Robert Stillman to complete the quintet on the road. During performances he invited the players to expand the pieces through improvisation and real-time dialogue. The 2024 release Voices of Bishara Live at "Mu" documents that configuration in extended interpretations of the studio material together with readings of Abdul Wadud’s “Oasis,” “Camille,” and “Happiness.” The cellist, who passed away in 2022, had shaped Skinner’s approach to both composition and improvisation; Wadud issued the solo-cello recording By Myself on his Bisharra Records imprint in 1978. Skinner’s album titles and selected cover versions explicitly reference that musician.
He first emerged in London’s experimental jazz community during the mid-2000s. Throughout the following decade he drummed for the punk-inflected jazz outfit Melt Yourself Down, joined the volatile avant-garde ensemble Sons of Kemet, and issued his own material under the Hello Skinny moniker. That alias yielded several singles plus the albums Hello Skinny in 2012 and Watermelon Sun in 2017, all while Skinner maintained ongoing work with Floating Points, Graham Coxon, Grace Jones, Zero 7, and numerous other artists spanning multiple idioms. He departed Melt Yourself Down in 2021 to form the Smile, whose debut A Light for Attracting Attention appeared the next year; Sons of Kemet simultaneously entered an indefinite hiatus. Also in 2022, International Anthem released Voices of Bishara, on which Skinner led cellist Kareem Dayes, bassist Tom Herbert, saxophonist and flutist Nubya Garcia, and fellow Sons of Kemet member Shabaka Hutchings—performing on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet—through his exploratory compositions.
Because Garcia and Hutchings maintained busy schedules leading their own groups, they were unavailable for touring. Skinner therefore recruited saxophonists Chelsea Carmichael and Robert Stillman to complete the quintet on the road. During performances he invited the players to expand the pieces through improvisation and real-time dialogue. The 2024 release Voices of Bishara Live at "Mu" documents that configuration in extended interpretations of the studio material together with readings of Abdul Wadud’s “Oasis,” “Camille,” and “Happiness.” The cellist, who passed away in 2022, had shaped Skinner’s approach to both composition and improvisation; Wadud issued the solo-cello recording By Myself on his Bisharra Records imprint in 1978. Skinner’s album titles and selected cover versions explicitly reference that musician.
Albums
Singles
Live
