Tom Mansi and the Icebreakers
March 13th, 2008 by rui
Tom Mansi & The Icebreakers will perform at The Big Chill festival 2008 A-Z line up | Ticket info
Tom Mansi and the Icebreakers – Biography
Tom Mansi and the Icebreakers originated from ‘Fatman Kicks Cat’, a funk band fronted by Tom’s ex-girlfriend. Working with your ex is tricky at the best of times and it was ultimately what drove Tom to become his own frontman. New songs and a desire to get out and play some gigs resulted in the creation of Tom Mansi and the Icebreakers. Just back from a tour in Germany they stumbled into a promoter at a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion show and landed a gig as the house band for a new club night called ‘The Modern Blues Project’, touting a new wave of roots music from the likes of Little Barrie, The Black Keys and Seasick Steve.
‘We were with Son Of Dave in Newcastle on our first UK tour when I met Jenny. Soon after we were eloping, destination Cork, where it transpired I was to gate crash a friend of a friend’s wedding to some big shot Chicago record producer. He and I had a few drinks and he ended up asking me to come out to Chicago to record on a project he was working on with an Americana singer and his son, a genius harmonica player. Three months later I’m state side rehearsing with two cats I’ve never met. The day I arrive the producer gets a call from a friend who’s looking for a double bass player and backing vocalist for Donovan’s 40th anniversary tour. I fit the bill and by mid October I find myself rehearsing in a hotel room next door to the Renaissance theatre in Mansfield, Ohio with Donovan and his road manager. We played all over, ending up in Mobile, Alabama, hanging with all sorts, lawyers with ‘pick-me-up’ pills to tea drinking Woodstock Hippies.
Back in London I’d finally picked up recording with the Icebreakers, the album had been on hold for 4 months, when Don calls again. He asked me back to the states to play another 3 dates with his friend David Lynch on a co-bill where Lynch was lecturing about transcendental meditation and world peace. First stop New York and I remember nursing a flute of champagne feeling jet lagged at the after show for the gig at NYC’s Lincoln centre when a TV producer type from ABC called David Salts, starts schmoozing me and asking all kinds of questions about the tour. ‘We end up at the Kodak theatre in LA’ I said, ‘Really wow, do you and Don fancy playing Vegas? We’ll make it worth your while, hell you can even have a swimming lesson from a dolphin in the desert’ he said. In true rock n’ roll logic, when we got to LA we ditch three days of badly needed rehearsal time for the filming of a live DVD to catch some quality R&R in Las Vegas. Salts reappeared having organised a private jet and penthouse suites at the Mirage Hotel. On the jet we’re joined by Slash and Perry Farrell, this was going to be night out ‘Vegas style’, one that lasts three days in the twilight bars and maze like gaming floors. We ended up playing the opening of the Revolution lounge, Perry and me on backing vocals as Don strummed out the classics for Hollywood’s nip tuc finest…’
Whilst David Lynch’s lectures didn’t convert Tom to transcendental meditation there is something reminiscent of a Lynch soundtrack on his debut album, Love On The Rails. The twisted hymnlike ‘When Your’re Dead You’re Done’, rolling groove of ‘Holly takes the midnight mountain road’ and haunting ‘Disorientated in the Darkness’ all sound like they’d be at home on a Lynch movie. The record was recorded and self-produced by Tom and the band at ‘Shock and Awe’, James Johnston’s (drummer) and Paul ‘the Iceman’ White’s (guitar) North London studio with the help of fellow Icebreaker Alain Man (keyboards) and their engineer Stevan Krakovic.
Tom describes Love On The Rails as a collection of memories that define moments of his life over the last few years, each song has it’s own high definition story. For example ‘Holly’, the band’s first single and Mark Radcliffe’s record of the week, was inspired whilst Tom was playing upright bass in a tiny fringe theatre in Soho. The show was a one woman musical starring a softly spoken, prozac laced, cabaret star. On opening night she cancelled complaining of a ‘sore throat’ contrary to backstage rumour that her lesbian lover had run off with her husband! The show went from bad to worse and despite an odd collection of fanatical regulars, was cut short.
Live Tom Mansi and the Icebreakers sound like they spent their childhoods playing 7 nights a week in the house bands of the rowdiest, smokiest booze pits in the country. Born on the same day hero, Charles Mingus died, it seems preordained Tom Mansi would go on to make a living with double bass in hand.
The feeling of movement that permeates the album reflects Tom’s lifestyle of being constantly on the move, sofa surfing, gigging and touring. Tom has been making a living as a musician since he was 18 and the accomplished sound of this record bears the fruit of his experiences playing fringe theatre pits, smoky jazz clubs and rock n’ roll joints. These songs are the everyday stories of a talented musician making his way through a landscape of dark rock and roll and blue country music.
Tom Mansi & the Icebreakers debut album ‘Love on the rails’ is released on Kartel on the 21st of April 2008.
www.myspace.com/tommansiandtheicebreakers
Tom Mansi & The Icebreakers will perform at The Big Chill festival 2008 A-Z line up | Ticket info
