Tomas Ford

Six years gestating, Tomás Ford's debut album is the culmination of both his studio nous and lessons learned from his convention-challenging live show. After years of obsessively tinkering, Ford has distilled his own sound - a strain of mutant disco, with occasional industrial effects. Suggesting a kind of Jekyll & Hyde split personality might be at work, tracks like Rockets seem to express his optimistic - and dare it be said, feminine - side, whilst cuts such as Too Far bear all the sonic trademarks of a sadistic dungeon master. In conjunction with his evolving recording skills, it's fascinating to hear how Ford has learnt to use his voice as an instrument, morphing from a fragile plea into a frustrated roar. His best moments arrive when, in the same song, he merges his polar opposites into one polysexual identity, such as during the opener Nice where the listener feels like they're about to be dragged into something very messy.

A concept album of sorts, An Audience With... re-imagines one of Ford's volatile live shows, from beginning to sticky end. Along the way, a few old chestnuts are revived, seemingly with red-hot branding irons. The confessional, id-wrestling I Feel Dirty sets the ball rolling, whilst Bash Myself reflects on a career of public degradation, detailing physical exhaustion and embarrassing fails. Climactically, on the crowd-baiting No Reaction, Ford demonstrates his exceptional testicular fortitude by chastising an unresponsive audience and explaining why this is the worst show ever.

Having forged a reputation for probing the boundaries of acceptable onstage behaviour, Ford has delivered, to date, the definitive document of his anti-apathy, techno-disco-cabaret. - Christopher H James, Drum Media Perth

Perth’s premier electro-pop showman Tomás Ford wanted to be a goth. The Adelaide-born entertainer is about to unleash An Audience With Tomás Ford - 12 slices of twisted, messed up strange disco otherwise known as his sophomore “accidental concept” album. The crowd-surfing showman chats with ANNABEL MACLEAN about the record, the Rockingham club scene, touring with Birds Of Tokyo and being assaulted.

There is a mixture of concern, utter repulsion, anxiety and excitement spread across the naïve faces of those who have never seen Tomás Ford perform before. It’s a rarity in his home-base Perth where his high energy, adrenaline-fuelled; crazy ‘what the fuck was that’ show has astounded many a venue around town over the last eight years. There is glitter, crazy outfits, outrageous dance moves, cords and disco equipment strung across stage and, of course, what he’s known for – a fair dose of closer encounters with his audience.

It is Ford’s experiences with his audience over the years which sparked his concept record An Audience With Tomás Ford, due to take over Amplifier this Friday night supported by the likes of Sydney’s 8bit star Simo Soo, Boys Boys Boys!, destructive rockers Injured Ninja and a bunch more – not to mention accompanied by a splash of drag and a few comedians. Six years in the making, the first generation of songs on the record came together through a show Ford did back in the mid-noughties called Tomás Ford Vs. The Audience. “I just wanted to write about the relationship that I was having with my audience because even with the last batch of songs, the show had evolved into this confrontational, bizarre thing,” he says of the record’s evolvement.

“So I generated this batch of songs which was just about what was happening in the space, there were no little narratives taking people’s minds in other directions or anything. That show was really intense and then I got really intense and dark and wrote some more songs which were more industrial because I thought I wanted to be a goth for a while (laughs).”

But, that sub-culture didn’t work out too well for Ford. “Goths aren’t really into the things that I enjoy with audiences,” he says. “A gothic crowd would just want to stand around and stand back and that’s just boring for me.” Although there are some darker themes scattered throughout the record, Ford says he had to force himself to write positively. “Because I had to reflect on the nature of the live show a lot, a lot of it [the music of the record] was quite negative - some of the bad things that happened. I ended up having to have to really force myself to write about the awesome things because it is actually awesome to be me and get to do all this awesome shit.”

Tracks Bash Myself and I Feel Dirty showcase Ford’s inner battle with his career choice, both coming from this place of “ergggh, yuck I feel horrible.”

“I Feel Dirty is just that feeling of – I used to play shows at The Castle. It was a shithole. It was like worse than the [old] Hydey but I love both those places. I didn’t have a driver’s license at that point and I would catch public transport home from shows. I’d finish the show at midnight and have to run to the train covered in make up and glitter and all kinds of shit and it was just about that feeling of ‘this feels disgusting, I feel so gross’ but it’s also super empowering like ‘I can do this despite the fact it is kind of revolting and that all these bogans look like they’re about to glass me’.”

Newcastle is another place Ford has felt like he was going to be glassed mid-performance. “It’s like Bunbury to the max,” he says of Newcastle. “There was just this one show I played on the Birds Of Tokyo [The Wild Eyed Boy] tour at the Panthers which is their big RSL and I thought I was going to die – it was like dudes who wanted to kill you as the audience.” Ford has been physically assaulted twice when playing alongside punk bands. “I would put my music there as a provokatory act and so you expect to get a little bit of punch in the head but when you’re on stage, you’ve got the adrenaline going, it doesn’t really matter. You just roll with it.

“Someone punched me really hard in the face once and I was just so high on adrenaline for the rest of the show, it was fantastic. Now, I will tend to kind of manage it by approaching the biggest, toughest, scariest meanest looking dude in the crowd early on in the show and play around with him and at first he’ll generally be like ‘oh this is really fucked up, I hate this’ but generally people I fuck around with come around to realise that I’m not going to do anything particularly bad to them most of the time.”

Luckily Ford hasn’t been punched in the head down in Rockingham where he grew up, in fact, his view of Rockingham is slightly more uplifting than his 2001 tune A Night Out In Rockingham. “The club scene is amazing!,” he says of Rockingham. “When I used to go, there were two joints. There was Liquids which is like a two level nightmare dance club that cost someone a lot of money in the ‘90s and just looks horrible and then there’s Vibe. That’s where you go if you get kicked out of Liquids and you’re too drunk to pick up anywhere else. The music used to be crossed between AC/DC and commercial trance bullshit.”

There’s only one thing to expect this Friday night – pure, mad entertainment. - X-Press Magazine

TOMÀS FORD

Simo Soo / Boys Boys Boys! / Injured Ninja / Felicity Groom & Diger Rockwell / Rachael Dease / The Gizzards / Byron Bard / Zack Adams
Amplifier
Friday, January 27, 2012

One thing about Tomàs Ford: he does nothing by half measures. For any other local artist, the use of the word “spectacular” in the show title would be a throwaway boast; Ford sees it as a personal challenge from himself to himself.
The line-up was excitingly eclectic - although, let’s face it, heavier on the old electro-pop than anything else - with a mix of music, spoken word and comedy. The outdoor stage, operating under the moniker The Beer Garden Cabaret, was home to the quieter acts of the night. Comedian Zack Adams kept his mike time short and snappy, as did comedy-poet Byron Bard, whose stentorian delivery drew appreciative laughs from the crowd.


On the musical side of things, a mix of mostly solo and/or acoustic acts kept the mood nice and mellow, except when the odd chaos merchant like The Gizzards took to the stage. The standout here was easily Rachael Dease, proving that, even without a full band behind her, her amazing voice can captivate a room.
Inside, the music was louder and the atmosphere had a more serious party vibe to it. An early, set by Felicity Groom and Diger Rokwell went down well, as did a typically primal turn by Injured Ninja, which was nicely counterpointed by the candy-coloured pop stylings of Boys Boys Boys.
The only sour note came in the form of Sydney-based performer Simo Soo. Soo is what happens when you take a pair of girl’s jeans and stuff them so full of ego that there’s no room for any talent. Soo is Warhol’s fifteen minutes prediction come to life, an avatar of narcissism wrapped in human skin and let loose on an unsuspecting audience. Worse, his garbled noise - it ain’t music - almost drowned out Dease’s set, which should be a stoning offence.
Ford’s ascendancy to the stage proved one thing - the man is beloved. It’s interesting to look back on his career thus far, and remember a time when his music was just a tinny, haphazard excuse for his stage antics. Now the two are fully integrated, the tunes supporting and enhancing his prodigious stage presence; this is a man who can make changing his shoes an awe-inspiring sight.
All the usual carry-on you get with a Ford gig was in place: the crowd was cajoled, coddled, cuddled, grasped, groped, and grappled while the man strutted his stuff, with not even the wary-looking security guards escaping untouched. An ill-considered duet with Simo Soo was all but scuppered by technical issues, which meant that not even his presence could mar what was a triumphant night. - Travis Johnson, Xpress Magazine

Fortunately, the minute Perth-native Tomas Ford hit the stage he commanded the entire room with his video backdrop, his powerful voice and not least, with his suspenders. Having more in common with cabaret than a typical (often deathly boring) ‘doof doof’ techno act, Ford brings together elements of burlesque, electro-disco and punk, and delivers it all with an infectious enthusiasm and unassuming, self-deprecating sense of humour.

The whole glorious mess was crammed into The Front on Saturday night to promote Ford’s latest single, I Feel Dirty , a trashy electro-pop tune that celebrates the sweaty, fading glamour of Ford’s post-show journeys home and encapsulates perfectly his visceral, honest and often hilarious style. The single is also, rather conveniently, available free online, and should definitely be checked out.

The rest of the set saw Ford dive and drape himself across every available surface in the venue, donning top hats, coattails, and even a red sequinned band uniform. He bantered with (and sometimes baited) the audience, giving one fortunate young man a lap dance and flirting outrageously with my date for the night.

Just in case anyone had any doubts about the kind of showman Tomas Ford is, he launched himself onto the nearest coffee table and demanded to surf the, very obliging, crowd. After a few perilous turns around the room he even coaxed a fellow audience member to give it a go themselves.

Finally, as the show came to an end and Ford claimed he could go on no longer, the 12 of us banded together and demanded an encore, and Ford happily obliged, singing a little number about a trashy night on the town in Perth, which wrapped up with Ford’s head in the gutter on Wattle Street, dry-retching delightfully into the microphone for us. - Miss Kiku, FasterLouder.com.au

The Pony club. Its very name inspires loathing, dread and apprehension in Melburnians… or at least causes them to snigger a little. A visit there is always exactly as bad as the last time; forcing you to remember why you don’t make it more often. The desperate libidinous wastage that falls over this place at 3am is famous in Melbourne. The vision is palpable. It’s like a cloud of toxic gas coming over the hipster, seenster, and emo washouts as they realise the last gasps of their evening before they go home alone - very soon - if they don’t hook up with someone in the room, now!

So get this, I went to Pony last weekend. Not because I was desperate (not-because-I-was-desperate). What I was, was, there to see Tomás Ford.

On paper, his music should instantly be the sort of thing I hate; arty electro punk with lots and lots of costume changes and video monitors. But having first seeing Tomás and his one man extravaganza at a spoken word night on his home turf of Perth, I was immediately captivated by his eerie, melancholy and tensely-subdued performance. And I wasn’t the only one.

Even now in Melbourne’s worst strong hold of disaffectedly pale skinny black-clad wanker mods, where audience participation comes as easily as flight does for penguins, Tomás still managed to make magic. When you’re in the room with Tomás when he starts performing, he owns you. The show emanates from him, not what he’s doing on stage. Most of the time he wasn’t on stage. He’s there singing a few inches from your face. And then he’s serenading the nose-bleeders over at the bar. He’s also hugging the folded-armed passive stares right out of them. And still he’s huddling with us all and sweating all over us and the music is coming from everywhere and it’s very intense and insane and peaceful and everything else that has happened that night falls away and you’re just a part of what’s happening, now. Tomás makes you a part of his music.

Tomás brought his show to climax, and still left time to leave before the whole desperate 3am werewolf-in-moonlight impression took place. So I left alone, a little more sober and numb than I might usually be. I hadn’t wanted it to end. - Randall Stephens, Rabbit Hole Urban Music

If the Perth music scene was a secret society, then seeing and surviving a Tomas Ford show would be the initiation process. The tall, dashing musical theatre superstar has become an institution in Perth. With no two shows ever alike, its hard to know exactly what you are in for. However, one thing is for certain. If Tomas Ford is involved then you are in for a good… no, great time.

...it was time for Tomas Ford to get up on stage to do what he does best – make everyone in the room feel just that little bit of dirty (but in the best possible way). In a rather fitting turn of events, I Feel Dirty is the name of his new single and the reason that we all came to Ya Yas in droves on an unseasonablly balmy winters Saturday night.

While the sauvest man in Perth pranced and grinded across the room, he delivered a set full of classics and nw stuff from his much anticipated album. Tomas Ford has a knack for getting the audience, no matter how big or how small, involved, making them feel like its okay to lose your inhibitions because he will be there to hold your hand and guide you through the journey. Via tracks Bash Myself, Vice, Cuddle and Five Times, Tomas Ford was able to perform an incredibly effective interactive show. By utilising every space in that room and even some of the tables, the audience felt like they were being performed to on a one on one basis. He even ventured outside at one point to entertain the Northbridge masses as they walked past in the rain. As he told everyone to move in closer, he held the audience in the palm of his hand and they lapped the attention up willingly. Being serenaded to by one as effortlessly charming as Tomas Ford almost makes you rethink your direction in life. You may think you don’t want a relationship until Tomas Ford touches your face and you all of a sudden want to spend the rest of the night and all of tomorrow in bed spooning. And yet, he doesn’t do cheese. You won’t see him trying to be Michael Bolton, or perhaps you will, but still he will always remain Tomas Ford, a charismatic man with the ability to hold an audience’s attention from the get go and get them involved better than anyone else in the Perth music scene.

If you have never seen him live, do yourself a favour and check out his next show. You will soon see why he is held in such high esteem. And your life will be forever changed. - Amy Dorozenko, FasterLouder.com.au

This is your captain speaking; passengers should return to their seats and tighten their seatbelts as its going to be a very bumpy flight to planet Ford...

If you have ever been to one of Tomas Ford’s gigs, you know to expect the unexpected. Entertaining the crowd with a multimedia show and an athletic, whole of venue performance, Tomas danced with members of the audience, writhed on top of the bar and leaped off of everything he could find, proving once and for all that Ford is the consummate showman.

Tomas Ford is like GG Allin, except without the faeces flinging, self-mutilation or distinct lack of talent. One thing both have in common however, is that from start to finish you can’t take your eyes off them (in GG’s case it may have been because you were afraid of getting punched in the face, but that’s beside the point).

Ford is an talented musician and highly entertaining act to watch and I for one am a big fan. - Tony Lendrum, The AU Review

Mount Lawley, Western Australia. On a hill, on Beaufort Street. In a theatre, or a cinema, which is old and historic and awesome but for some reason isn’t used very often any more except for cultural events or the occasional independent film (which is worrying, yet also awesome). In a small, upstairs lair hidden around a corner, to an intimate seated crowd of around 100 slightly apprehensive yet good-natured punters, a normally demure man of average stature, dressed smartly as some kind of affable Haçiendan chimney sweep, is smashing the fuck out of a computer keyboard. His name is Tomás Ford, and he has just recovered after tripping over backwards and stacking it into his shit.

Tomás Ford’s ‘shit’, for those who are unfamiliar, consisted on this occasion of about a half-dozen (or more) computer screens, painted up and bandied about the floor space at the front of the cinema. Behind him, the cinema screen simulcasts an appropriate mix of low-fidelity footage, Invaders-era video game shenanigans, and a consistently hilarious mix of perfectly self-deprecating and amusingly self-referential slogans. Things like ‘It is now appropriate to lose your shit’, and an extended dialogue on why Tomás Ford is not a DJ, but plays DJ gigs regardless.

After following up his mess-making with an appropriately mellow number during which he used a dust-pan and broom to clean keys off the floor while serenading the audience, Tomás Ford faced the crowd and declared with a grin: “most people in Perth think I sold out down stairs!” (a reference to the cinema’s cavernous main room which is nowadays used for Karvnivool gigs and the like). This comment was, naturally, met with rapturous grins from the full cinema—a perfectly intimate setting for Ford’s first theatre show since his legendarily controversial Tomás Ford vs The Audience gigs back in ‘07.

The first thing that needs to be understood about Ford, who is by now a road-hardened and theatrically accomplished audience provocateur, is that the man’s show, with all its invasions of personal space and outrageously extraverted behaviour, is simply unadulterated comedy from start to finish. Combining pre-conceived ideas with spontaneous hilarity, Ford’s self-deprecating stage demeanour and reflexive banter are the perfect counterpoint to his outrageous on-stage behaviour. In one moment, the entire crowd was cheering for Ford’s mother, who was in attendance and designed his costumes, and the next, were yelling ‘fuck me harder!!’ as the performer introduced his supposed ‘safe word’ for the evening.

There was also music, of course, and aside from a brief acoustic interlude (during which volunteers from the audience assisted by holding microphones and acting as comedic bait), Ford stuck to his staple of brain shattering electro beats, twiddled and programmed using boxes of mysterious noises and knobs. The music itself often seems incidental, but it’s as much a part of the show as anything—and it was nice that, tonight, Ford took the time to explain some of his lyrics and concepts as he lead into re-mixed versions of classics like Five Times and Bash Myself.

For the most part, the awkward social interactions that so often have pub punters baffled and disturbed were actually kept to a minimum—or perhaps they were more contextually appropriate as Ford fell through the audience, hugging people for just long enough for it to be uncomfortable, before moving on to his next folly. Ford made great use of the space though: at one point sliding down the banister above the theatre’s entrance, at another utilising the cinema’s small stage for an hilarious cover of a song from Billy Elliot during which he struck some of the cheesiest Broadway poses known to man.

After just the right amount of time, Ford invited all his guests for the evening to join him down in front of the cinema screen, where he crowd surfed, then serenaded his way through a final couple of numbers. In perfect style, avoiding any uncomfortable final applause, Ford then issued one final instruction: “GO HOME”. To the end, this was hilarious, because naturally the audience had no idea whether or not the man was serious. He was, and Ford soon took to physically evicting patrons, swearing at them if necessary. GTFO.

A great concept, and a great performance, Tomás Ford’s Disco Bunker was rad all round. More stuff like this in Perth please. - Ben Watson, FasterLouder.com.au

One is hard pressed to think of a more splendiferous treat to kick off an evening than Perth's own Tomas Ford, immediately striking fear into the faces of the coy and those used to more sedate support acts. Dressed as if he'd just jumped out of a playing card, Ford delights in flirting with the nervous, jumping around the Astor Theatre and inciting group hugs to finish. Perth, be proud of this man for he is the entree, main course and dessert all in one tasty package. - Mac Macnaughton, Drum Media Perth

Bracing yourself for a Tomás Ford performance is like preparing to go into battle.

Your ears prick up at the first sign of danger, as the booming voice of local cabaret-rock-electro-shockster of the hour, Tomás Ford, sounds from somewhere in the room, his profile invisible, buried deep in the crowd. Now alert; you begin to survey the battlefield; before the offender - armoured in a cream blazer, face covered in glittery war paint - leaps up on top of a window ledge.

The crowds' heads snap over to Ford's direction, and he begins his hex over the minions, spitting and oozing out words alternately; taunting the fighters with a familiar cry of old: "Why don't you kill yourself and all your children?", albeit a less melodic, almost unrecognisable version of Letters Of Complaint than that which graces Ford's inspired album Nobody Wants To Be You.

The spines of the crowdsmen begin to arch in fear; as Ford, launching himself into his second tune of the eve - new single Bash Myself - reveals his tactics for the night's show: to utilise the Rocket Room's centrally positioned, U-shaped bar, and the space around it, as a giant performance space.

One of Ford's previous live shows, Tomás Ford vs The Audience, is a title that perhaps summates Ford's interactive approach to performance best.

Ford's tactics involved grasping punters in headlocks and backing them down in duel, smooching their faces or smothering them into his armpit, showering them with water from his drink bottle, and an assortment of groin rubs and dirty dancing moves.

All the while through the antics, Ford maintained an eclectic yet solid repertoire, punctuated with comic banter, the musical content ranging from spoken word pieces over emphatic, electronic-pop beats, pre-crafted by Ford and crafted on-stage by laptop and manipulated live by MIDI; to rapping over mash-ups; to dark, twisted covers; and finally moody, melodic that allowed Ford's bona fide skills as a vocalist to shine through.

Whether it be performing in intimate venues like The Rocket Room or The Velvet Lounge; or in front of hundreds of strangers, touring Australia as part of the Big Day Out's Lilyworld stage, you've got to hand it to Ford: he knows his battle plan when it comes to live performance, and he enacts it to dangerous, flawless perfection damn near every time. - By Danielle Marsland, X Press Magazine