# Tommy Villiers

Thomas George Villiers is an English musician from Saffron Walden. After being introduced to dance music via his brother, he began producing drum and bass tracks and uploading them to SoundCloud. While at the Royal Northern College of Music, he joined See Thru Hands and cofounded Porij, with whom he released one and two EPs respectively. In mid-2020, he formed Piri & Tommy with Piri, with whom he released the mixtape Froge.mp3, which they promoted with Froge.tour, and several singles including "Soft Spot", "Beachin", "On & On", "Feel It", "Updown", and "Nice 2 Me". He also played Scotty in the music video for Wet Leg's "Ur Mum" and has released several singles including a remix of LF System's "Afraid to Feel".

## Life and career
### Early life

Thomas George Villiers 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 skills to any high school band that would entertain him. While there, he started a funk rock band, Room C. In 2016, he played at that year's Justice Service for the County of Essex. When he was in sixth form, his older brother began taking him to house parties, where he developed an interest in dance music. After receiving a Mac and deciding he wanted to replicate what he was hearing, he began producing drum and bass tracks, uploading them to SoundCloud, and DJing at house parties.

### Bands

Villiers attended the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), from which he holds a degree in popular music. While there,$^{:29:33}$ he joined the bands See Thru Hands and Porij, the former after being recruited at a jam session to join four personal friends of the band's vocalist. By January 2019, See Thru Hands had released an EP, Hot City/Connectivity, which David Sue of Manchester Evening News compared to Prince, Chic, Hot Chip, and New Order. A reviewer for DIY later described "Hot City" as "disco-inflected post-punk" and Paul Carr of PopMatters compared its introduction to that of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition".
Villiers set up Porij in early 2019 with other students from his RNCM course. Just before the second United Kingdom COVID-19 lockdown, he matched with Piri 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.$^{:38:07}$ Their first date was at Piccadilly Gardens, at which they bonded over a shared love of disco. After it was realised that Piri could sing and Villiers could produce, they set about writing together. The first song they recorded, "Sunlight", was a house song. She later moved into his student house in Manchester and formed Piri & Tommy with him. Porij released the Breakfast EP in November 2020 and the Baby Face EP in September 2021. Villiers left this band in early 2022 to concentrate on Piri & Tommy, remaining in Porij long enough to gain writing credits on their third EP, Outlines.
Piri & Tommy released "It's a Match" in March 2021,$^{:37:50}$ a disco song made after both experimented with numerous genres. 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. The latter took its name from a nickname they used to give each other and featured "Sunlight", "Soft Spot", "Beachin", "Words", "On & On", and "Player 2", with Villiers providing lead vocals on the last of these. They promoted the mixtape with Froge.tour, which ran from 2 to 19 November. A week after the tour finished, the pair split up and did not talk to each other until April 2023,$^{:44:20}$ though Robin Murray of Clash reported in January 2023 that Piri and Villiers would release previously recorded music and planned to work together in the future.
Later that month, they featured on MJ Cole's "Feel It", to which Villiers contributed a guitar solo. Piri and Villiers followed this with "Updown" in February 2023 and "Nice 2 Me" in May 2023. In July 2023, the pair released "Lovergirl" as independent artists,$^{:1:19:39}$ followed by "Bluetooth" in October and "Christmas Time" in November. In August 2024, they announced an EP and released the liquid drum and bass track "99%" from it. The following month, having remixed Lucy Tun's "Come to My House", they announced that the EP would be called About Dancing and released the dance-pop track "Dog". About Dancing was released that November. In February 2023, he played as part of Ninety One Living Room's house band Dojo Dojo and in April 2024, he performed as half of Toast Club.

### Solo career

In April 2022, Villiers played the anti-hero, Scotty, in the music video for Wet Leg's "Ur Mum", directed by Lava La Rue; in an interview in June 2023, he stated that he got the job after supporting Nine8 Collective,$^{:6:02}$ a group composed of Lava La Rue, Mac Wetha, Bone Slim, Biig Piig, Nayana Iz, Nige and LorenzoRSV, and after being interviewed for the role in the venue's green room by La Rue.$^{:6:02}$ By September 2022, he had released a remix of LF System's "Afraid to Feel"; that month, he signed a solo publishing deal in September 2022 with Tim & Danny Music. In November 2022, he released a remix of "Noodle Poodle" by Nine8 Collective. By July 2023, he had released "Not Puzzled" featuring Ceòl-Min; that month, he released "To the Moon" with Hertfordshire-based rapper Mustbejohn, a song about the possibilities of a night out.

## Artistry

In May 2021, Villiers cited Coco Bryce as an inspiration on the grounds that no two of his breaks were the same. "To the Moon" was inspired by the UK garage and Brazilian music he and Mustbejohn were listening to during studio sessions, while Toast Club were inspired by yacht rock and California sound. Dork wrote in August 2024 that Villiers took inspiration from "everything from Daft Punk music videos to black midi press shoots".

## Discography
### Mixtapes

| Title | Details |
| Froge.mp3 (Piri & Tommy) | Released: 21 October 2022 Label: Polydor Format: Digital download, streaming |

### Singles
#### As lead artist

Singles as lead artist :
| Title | Year | Album |
| "Change a Thing" | 2019 | Non-album singles |
| "Poinciana" | 2020 | Non-album singles |
| "Soft Spot" (Piri & Tommy Villiers) | 2021 | Froge.mp3 |
| "Beachin" (Piri & Tommy) | 2022 | Froge.mp3 |
| "Words" (Piri & Tommy) | 2022 | Froge.mp3 |
| "On & On" (Piri & Tommy) | 2022 | Froge.mp3 |
| "Unlock It" (Piri & Tommy) | 2022 | Non-album singles |
| "Not Puzzled" (Tommy Villiers & Ceòl-Mìn) | 2022 | Non-album singles |
| "Updown" (Piri & Tommy Villiers) | 2023 | Non-album singles |
| "Nice 2 Me" (Piri & Tommy Villiers) | 2023 | Non-album singles |
| "To the Moon" (Tommy Villiers & Mustbejohn) | 2023 | Non-album singles |
| "Lovergirl" (Piri & Tommy) | 2023 | Non-album singles |
| "Strangers to Lovers" (Tommy Villiers & Nat Slater) | 2023 | Non-album singles |
| "Bluetooth" (Piri & Tommy) | 2023 | Non-album singles |
| "Christmas Time" (Piri & Tommy) | 2023 | Non-album singles |
| "Marmalade (For Your Love)" (Flourish & Tommy Villiers) | 2024 | Embrace |
| "Top Bins" (Tommy Villiers & KiLLOWEN) | 2024 | Non-album singles |
| "99%" (Piri & Tommy) | 2024 | Non-album singles |
| "Dog" (Piri & Tommy) | 2024 | Non-album singles |

#### As featured artist

Singles as featured artist :
| Title | Year | Album | Ref. |
| "Feel It" (MJ Cole featuring Piri & Tommy Villiers) | 2023 | Non-album singles | |
| "Garage Talk (Ur Dun Out)" (Bone Slim & Tommy Villiers) | 2023 | Non-album singles | |

### Writing credits

| Song | Year | Artist | Co-writers | Ref. |
| "It's a Match" | 2021 | Piri | Sophie McBurnie | |
| "Morning Blues" | 2023 | Emzo | Emilion Buckz, Sophie McBurnie | |

### Remixes

| Song | Year | Artist | Co-producers | Album |
| "Boxes" | 2018 | Darcie | None | Non-album singles |
| "Tiptoeing" | 2021 | Hope Tala | None | Non-album singles |
| "Border Control" | 2022 | See Thru Hands | None | Non-album singles |
| "Circles" | 2022 | B-ahwe | None | Motions Remixes |
| "Afraid to Feel" | 2022 | LF System | None | Non-album single |
| "Noodle Poodle" | 2022 | NiNE8 | None | 98 Nights |
| "Looking for Love" | 2023 | Disclosure | None | Alchemy (The Remixes) |
| "Head" | 2023 | Maisi, Piri | None | Non-album singles |
| "Come to My House" | 2024 | Lucy Tun | Piri | Non-album singles |
| "Know Better" | 2024 | India Shan, Jake Elliott | None | Non-album singles |
| "Thunder" | 2025 | Mackwood, Eerf Evil, Kianja | None | Non-album singles |

### Other credits

| Album | Year | Artist | Notes |
| Garage Classical | 2019 | DJ Spoony | Villiers played guitar on this album, which included "Flowers", which charted at numbers 48 and 26 on the UK Albums Chart and UK Dance Singles Chart. |