Solomon Grey

Solomon Grey is a UK/Australian duo made up of Tom Kingston and Joe Wilson. Solomon Grey are friends Tom Kingston and Joe Wilson who met in Oxford whilst in separate bands, experimenting with electronic music, drum and bass and hip hop. After university, they moved to London and set up their writing base in the now-defunct Jamestown complex in Whitechapel. In early 2009, just as the studio announced it was to close down, they finally began the project that was to evolve into Solomon Grey. In late 2009 Solomon Grey were given the opportunity to dedicate their time to writing when a family member who’d lived in a lighthouse in Cork, Ireland moved to America. Kingston and Wilson realised that the lighthouse would provide the perfect location to spend some time, free from distractions of their regular lives and society, in order to focus on writing music. So they packed up their studio, Wilson gave up his houseboat and they set out for the tidal island. It would prove to be an isolating but musically inspiring experience. Whilst in Ireland, Kingston received news of a change in personal circumstances, which meant that he would have to relocate to Australia to help take care of a family farm. Wilson, made the decision to go out with Kingston to the remote property, located four hours South-West of Sydney. From one isolated extreme to the other, Kingston and Wilson moved their studio to the family home in Australia and balanced their time between making music and helping on the farm. With Solomon Grey, Kingston and Wilson blur the lines between programming and live instrumentation as they fuse the two to form a more visceral hybrid. Drafting in a session drummer friend to lay down the foundations, Solomon Grey built on that sound playing all the horn, guitar, piano, bass and percussion parts themselves, polishing it off by persuading some string playing friends from the Sydney Opera House to lend their talents. After putting over three years’ work into the project they decided to complete the circle and return to the UK in 2012 to release their self-titled Solomon Grey debut LP. Now releasing their second single via Black Butter, “Firechild” is paired with the equally dynamic B-side “Last Century Man”. http://www.solomongrey.net/ https://soundcloud.com/solomongrey https://www.facebook.com/solomongreymusic