THE TOMBLANDS
It’s heavy, it’s existential, it rocks.
“The onions are grilled into every track and you can practically hear "eyyy go Sox" at the end of each song.”
Chicago’s psychedelic rock group The Tomblands brings an eclectic array of influences to the table while collaborating on their vibrant, heavy hitting compositions. With a new LP on the way, Chicago music fans will want to keep an eye out for this exciting new group.
With a cycle of rotating instruments, the band takes a “musical chairs” approach to songwriting. Each showing up with their own seeds of ideas, the band hashes out the details together. “Usually Liam, Nick or Danny will bring a half-baked, skeleton song idea to the table and we'll all form up parts from there. We try to give each other a good amount of creative freedom to do what we each think is right for the song in regards to everyone writing their own instrument parts or suggesting improvements.”
The Tomblands had a strong start to their year, kicking things off with a live show at Lincoln Hall. The abrupt stop of live music in the spring understandably halted the momentum the band had curated, but their Audiotree session from this past July was an exciting way to bring the band back together. “After that we made a point to keep jamming just to stay sane and keep recording ideas for stuff down the road.” The band luckily snuck in a final recording session at Shirk Studios before the shutdown, allowing them to start mixing their soon-to-be released material.
Despite not knowing what the future holds for live shows, the band is excited to release their upcoming LP and polish songs they’ve been sitting on for a while.
After initially forming as a garage-rock band as college roommates in Urbana, Champaign, The Tomblands migrated to Chicago, bringing their fresh sound to the city. Guitarist, bassist, and vocalist Danny Urbana, Liam Burns, and Nick Georgelos were college housemates jamming for fun, but after swapping a few players and adding second drummer Joey Buttlar, the band took its full form in the summer of 2018. Despite their heavy sound, each member of the band brings a completely different genre influence to the drawing board. With Drummer Jimmy Kowalczyk being the “jazz guy”, and Nick having “a soft spot for folk”, these musicians prove the complexity and expansive nature of being a musician. “We went to shows together all the time… and there is plenty of middle-ground and tons of bands from all these genres that we all dig.” By subtly weaving these influences into their originals, the band pays homage to their favorites while staying true to their sound.
“If anything, we're all bound by our roots in Chicago.”
Like many other Chicago musicians, The Tomblands sit comfortably in the city’s scene. With the culture fostering positivity and support unique to other art scenes, the band finds themselves surrounded by inspiring friends and creators. “The city has an amazing artistic scene, so many legendary venues, great studios, creative hubs, there's just inspiration everywhere you look. The number of bands and artists isn't about competition, it's about community. We're friends with so many amazing people and it's all about supporting each other. It's not a negative scene at all. Everyone wants everyone to succeed.”
While The Tomblands won’t be seeing a stage anytime soon, the group hopes these strange times will inspire change. “More representation from under-represented groups would be a very welcome change! Some collective bargaining on streaming royalties would be very tight as well. It's hard to predict, as apart from mandated vaccines, getting tested frequently, wearing a mask, there isn't an immediate solution.” In the meantime, I’ll be anxiously waiting for their new LP to drop- a gift to tide us all over until we can hit the pit again.