Christopher William Tomson (born March 6, 1984), commonly known by his initials "CT", is an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the drummer for New York–based indie rock band Vampire Weekend. He is also the lead vocalist and guitarist for a side project called Dams of the West, for which he writes and records the entirety of its music.
Background
Tomson grew up on a farm in the Imlaystown section of Upper Freehold Township, New Jersey, and later recorded parts of Vampire Weekend's first album there.
[Daniel, Jayanthi. "A Weekend on the Upper West Side", The New York Sun, June 1, 2007. Accessed August 16, 2012. "The band, which plans to release 1,000 copies of a new EP on June 16 before launching a month-long national tour in July, records its songs on a laptop in friends' basements and at Mr. Tomson's parents' house in Imlaystown, N.J., — not far, as Messrs. Koenig and Baio pointed out separately, from the Six Flags Great Adventure theme park."] His father is an engineer whose family is of
Irish people and
Ukrainians heritage (he studied abroad in Ireland in college). His mother is an administrator whose family is of English and German heritage. He graduated from the
Peddie School as a salutatorian and then from Columbia University where he studied economics and music. Tomson enjoys
photography and is an avid
soccer fan; his favorite club is Tottenham Hotspur.
Tomson is also a huge fan of
Phish,
The Band, and the
Jambands.com After living in the Greenpoint neighborhood of
Brooklyn for several years, he moved to
Los Angeles in 2019.
In 2008, he was involved in a hit-and-run incident in London after the NME Awards. He was taken to hospital to be treated for neck injuries but was released with no notable injuries.
Musical career
Prior to forming Vampire Weekend, Tomson played with
Ezra Koenig in the "serious"
rap group called L’Homme Run.
Tomson met the members of Vampire Weekend while attending Columbia University—he took music classes with Rostam Batmanglij and started the group in their senior year. The name of the group comes from the movie of the same name that Ezra Koenig and his friends made over a summer vacation. They self-produced their first album after graduation while concurrently working full-time jobs (Tomson worked as an archivist for a record label). Their next three albums— Contra (2010), Modern Vampires of the City (2013), and Father of the Bride (2019)—all reached number one on the US album charts.
In February 2017, Tomson released his first solo album, Youngish American, under the pseudonym Dams of the West.
External links