Spotlight: Tom Bones…

Tom Bones has remained fairly low-key on SI these past few years; releasing material via MP3s and CDs to anyone who will listen, never once making a huge to-do about promotion.

Friends of Bones already know of his, frankly, gigantic output. But a large output equals not a great artist.

According to singer/songwriter Jaclyn Shaw, “Tom Bones is a highly eccentric and imaginative personality in the Staten island music scene.” She said. “His personality is just as open as his musical expeditions.”

Eccentric is right. Bones frequently teams-up with the equally enchanting Phoebe Blue to perform as Blurple: An Avante-Garde adventure in a world of sound collages and child-like inspiration that is all their own.

His solo material, also plenty eclectic, can range anywhere from solo acoustic-guitar balladry to electronic soundscapes that would make Thom Yorke proud.

Frank Williams, of Wahoo Skiffle Crazies fame, said of the man, “Tom is one of Staten Island’s rising stars, both as a relevant, sensitive singer-songwriter and in DIY producing.”

It’s that DIY production that is truly Bones’ ace in the hole.

With songs like “Wizardry” and “Snail Back” so meticulously crafted and shaped to create a perfect tone and sound for each type of song he is going after, one would imagine a high-priced studio and hours of sifting through tones and beats to get it just right.

Well, the hours are there, but the high-end quality comes from his house, wherein lies a computer, some instruments, and Tom: editing and recording away into the night until each song is to his liking.

In an age where so many “artists” give-up control to some fancy producer or session musician, Tom Bones is the last of a dying breed who grab the bull by the horns and make the process their pleasure; In doing so, they retain the nuances of their art and a whole-perfected instead of simply a finished end-product.

But chances are, Bones is just happy to have music for people to listen to.

Listen to Tom Bones: Myspace.com/bonesi