People often use musical heritage as a throwaway term, but for Tommi Waring, it’s the catalyst that inspired a life in music & entertainment.
As the great-grandson of musician and TV Personality Fred Waring, Tommi was born in Florida and, naturally, started writing music from a young age. Fast-forward to age eighteen and Tommi was refining his skills at Berklee’s college of music in Boston, it was here that he became obsessed with creating a retro-influenced, contemporary pop sound.
Since his studies, Tommi has since relocated to London where he has spent his time working with a number of producers, before developing an effective working relationship with Dom Užkuraitis & Julian Blanco of Soho Sonic Studios (The studio have previously worked with the likes of Idris Elba, Diplo & Lethal bizzle). The culmination of their work is the new single Miami. We spoke to the young songwriter about working abroad and how his sound came about.
Hi Tommi, introduce yourself to the impose faithful.
Hi everyone! I’m a 23 year old artist from Miami, FL
Tell us a bit about your story
So I grew up in Miami as a young kid and began to understand I had a real passion for music at about 14. I didn’t really know how to do anything but somewhat sing so I just started playing guitar off youtube videos to learn. My family is very musical but my parents split when I was young so I was mainly around my latin family in Miami so I had to learn the theory and little technicalities on my own with a little help from my grandma Rachelle and youtube…but I must say its a pretty rewarding feeling that I felt pulled to music and not the other way around.
You come from a family of entertainers and musicians, did that influence you growing up to become a musician?
Well somewhat, to be honest I think we just all really adore music….it was a thing I liked until I turned about 14 and then it suddenly hit me something about certain chord progressions, bass lines, etc. started actually making me feel something in my chest so thats when I knew things had changed forever.
How’s it been working between London and Miami?
Great I love London its an environment for writers theres a whole lot to see but more so to experience so it made it worthwhile
How did you begin working with the Soho Sonic team?
I had actually gone into the studio to record a track that needed some extra harmonies and add-libs and we just happened to clique and we developed a really cool relationship.
The new single has a distinctly retro sound.. Is this something you planned from the start?
Yes if you’ve heard my first single “Money” you can begin to see the 80’s influence I’m not a big fan of the cheesy bright colour overused aspect of it but I am mainly inspired by the dark, rich films that came out of that era.
What’s next for you, any shows coming up?
We do have some shows coming this fall so stay tuned to my website and to get the latest on that! and of course some new music for this summer!
MIAMI is available on Spotify
HERE
