Thomas White (musician)
Thomas White (born 30 April 1984) is an English, Brighton-based songwriter, singer, musician, producer and visual artist. Along with their brother, Alex, they form the nucleus of psych-pop band The Electric Soft Parade. To date, they have released four albums and a six-track EP. They also contributes vocals and guitar to cult Brighton super-group Brakes, and drums and bass to Restlesslist and Clowns respectively. Besides performing solo and in their own groups, White regularly appears as a session player for, among others, Patrick Wolf, British Sea Power, Levellers and Sparks. Early life. Educated  at Davigdor Infants, Somerhill Juniors and Hove Park schools, they began learning the piano at the age of five, picking up the violin a year later and teaching themself guitar, drums and clarinet in their early teens. White formed their first band (Fixed Ascent, later The Feltro Media) at the age of 13, with their brother, Alex, and school-friend Alistair Gavan (later of Diomedes, Sparrow and Villareal). They signed their first record deal (with DB Records) whilst still 16 and studying for their GCSEs. Section::::"I Dream of Black". June 2008 saw the release of their debut solo album, "I  Dream of Black". Recorded entirely on cassette four-track, the album was considered extremely lo-fi by both fans and critics alike. Section::::"The Maximalist". A follow-up, 'The Maximalist' (Cooking Vinyl) arrived in March 2010. Whilst still played, recorded and mixed by White themself, the album features a markedly more complex, hi-fi sound, and a sleeve designed by the American artist, Keith Boadwee. The album was released to generally positive reviews, with "Uncut" magazine awarding four stars, stating: "The Maximalist opens the dam of ostensibly conflicting styles and releases the deluge in all its crazily self-confident, so-wrong -it's-right glory. White fuses elements of The Who, Chicago, My Bloody Valentine, Queens Of The Stone Age, Badalamenti and Badfinger, which is not just a feat of cut-and-paste engineering, but also proof of his verve, vivid imagination and fervent love of music." Tour dates to support the album have varied from full-on rock shows with a five-piece band, intimate cabaret performances, often featuring a number of cover versions ("I'll See You in My Dreams" and "You Can Have Him (I Don't Want Him)", among others) to festival dates with an expanded 13-piece  line-up, featuring a choir dressed in psychedelic robes. Section::::"Yalla!". On 26 March 2011, White streamed their third solo album for free via YouTube. Entitled 'Yalla!" (Egyptian Arabic for 'let's go') the album was written and recorded over two weeks in the small town of Dahab, South Sinai. Featuring only acoustic guitar and vocal, the album details the limbo at the end of a long relationship compared to that of moving to a foreign country, making myriad references to the sea, shorelines, water, the sun, colours, the weather, travel and nature. All accompanying videos feature footage taken in Brighton , Dahab and Cairo. "Yalla!" was released physically in the UK and digitally worldwide by Bleeding Heart Recordings in March 2012.