Andrea
Very few female drummers have left their mark in the industry and managed to move crowds. Tennessee Thomas can easily be the leader of them all.
Tennessee Thomas work has always been focused on elevating the experience and spirits of power-pop fans. If you want to get the real feel of what the drummer can do, check out The Like’s “Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking? For the past 15 years, it stands perhaps the most overlooked album across the genre.
But the power and intensity that comes out of the drum sounds will make you want to listen over and over. Many cannot believe that it is actually a woman behind the throne.
Thomas worked hard with singer/guitarist Z Berg to keep the band together and give it the reputation it was enjoying. She was always seen as the most outgoing member of the band, and her love for everyone was infectious.
The band was always scaling higher, as long as she was them to make sure everything was going on smoothly. Thomas made sure that all the songs they played were top-rated during her early days with the band.
But that is not the reason she became very famous. It was her stellar songcraft that brought out the personality in her. She never played any song just because she knows how to, but she wanted every listener to feel her vibes.
Sometimes it even felt as though she was just talking to the drums, and they responded with her instruction. Her playing was highly inventive, with every song coming out with new styles. She never wanted to disappoint her fans; hence she kept coming up with new ideas to make the songs touchy.
Thomas was the founding member of the indie rock group The Like. It was formed in 2001 when the members were still teenagers.
She has been playing drums and performing on different sets since she was young. She was behind the deejaying at the Rachel Antonoff show at the New York Fashion Week in 2011. By 2014, a group that had just a few years back was already gaining a lot of traction among fans.
In 2012, she worked with a group of female activists like Lena Dunham and Alexa Chung to perform “You Don’t Own Me” as a PSA on women’s rights in the political arena. She has always been a big voice in fighting for peace and women’s rights.
She joined Jenny Lewis and Erika Forster to form the ‘supergroup’ trio, Nice as Fuck. She has remained active in her activism role, bringing about many changes along her path.
Her drumming skills have been the fuel that propels her forward, making her one of the most influential modern women figures.
You can always feel the emotions coming through the instruments whenever she sets out to perform any of her work. In 2014, she appeared in a music video for ‘Just One of the Guys’ by Jenny Lewis, working as the drummer for Lewis’s fictional band.
