Tommy Villiers

Thomas George Villiers is a musician from Saffron Walden. While best known for his work with Piri and as part of Piri & Tommy, he is also noted for his membership of Porij and See Thru Hands, and as a solo musician and remixer in his own right. He is the great-great-great-great-grandson of the British Prime Minister John Russell, 1st Earl Russell.

Life and career

Early life

Thomas George Villiers was born to Hugo Villiers and Elizabeth Shaw, and has an older brother Hamish and a younger brother Angus, a jockey. Hugo's great-grandfather was Thomas Lister Villiers of the Villiers family, a former chairman of the George Steuart Group, and whose grandfather was John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 30 June 1846 and 21 February 1852, and then again between 29 October 1865 and 26 June 1866. He grew up in Saffron Walden, and was a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He attended Saffron Walden County High School, at which he would proffer his grade eight trumpet to any high school band that would entertain him. When he was in sixth form, Hamish began taking him to house parties, where he developed an interest in dance music; wanting to replicate what he was hearing, and having received a Mac, he began producing drum and bass tracks, uploading them to SoundCloud, and deejaying at house parties. Villiers attended the Royal Northern College of Music, from which he holds a degree in popular music.

Bands

While at high school, he started a funk rock band, Room C, and while at university, he set up the bands Porij and See Thru Hands. Porij took its name from a misspelling of the breakfast cereal porridge, and released the ''Breakfast'' EP in 2020 on their own label, Oat Gang, so called because DistroKid wanted a label name. They released a second EP, ''Baby Face'', in 2021, and a third EP, ''Outlines'', in 2022, by which time Villiers had left to concentrate on Piri & Tommy, a band he set up with Piri, who he met in 2020 just before the second United Kingdom COVID-19 lockdown after matching with her on Tinder; a couple of weeks later, one of Porij's photographers retweeted one of their photoshoots, prompting Piri to locate his Instagram account and ask him out. Their first date was at Piccadilly Gardens, at which they bonded over a shared love of disco. They later formed a support bubble in a student house in Manchester.

After it was realised that McBurnie could sing and Villiers could produce, they set about writing together; the first song they recorded, "Sunlight", was a house song''.'' The first song they released was "It's a Match", a disco song, made after both experimented with numerous genres, and their second song, June 2021's " Soft Spot", went viral on Spotify and TikTok, prompting EMI to sign them, re-release "Soft Spot", and release the singles " Beachin" in January 2022 and " Words" in April 2022.

They then signed to Polydor Records, who released " On & On" in July 2022, and then the mixtape '' Froge.mp3'' in October 2022, which took its name from a nickname they used to give each other, featured "Sunlight", "Soft Spot", "Beachin", "Words", and "On & On", and which they promoted with Froge.tour. On 11 January 2023, '' Clash'' reported that McBurnie and Villiers had split up but remained friends, would release previously recorded music, and planned to work together in the future; later that month, they featured on MJ Cole's " Feel It". The following month she and Villiers released "Updown", and in May 2023, she and Villiers released " Nice 2 Me". They later split from Polydor and released "Lovergirl" in July 2023.

Other works

In April 2022, Villiers played the anti-hero, Scotty, in the music video for Wet Leg's " Ur Mum", directed by Lava La Rue. He then released a remix of LF System's "Afraid to Feel", before signing a solo publishing deal in September 2022 with Tim & Danny Music. In November 2022, he released a remix of "Noodle Poodle" by Nine8 Collective, a group composed of Lava La Rue, Mac Wetha, Bone Slim, Biig Piig, Nayana Iz, Nige and LorenzoRSV. He released a club track, "Not Puzzled", which featured Ceòl-Min, and then in July 2023, he released "To the Moon" with Hertfordshire-based rapper Mustbejohn, a song about the possibilities of a night out inspired by the UK garage and Brazilian music he was listening to at the time.

Family tree

References

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Living people
People from Saffron Walden
Singers from Essex
English drum and bass musicians
English dance musicians
Polydor Records artists
21st-century British singers