Tom’s Foolery

Ziggy Keairns

Tom’s Foolery are a Minneapolis-based music group, primarily consisting of members Giacomo Siniscalchi, Sebastian Tusa, Dain Hamilton, and Jasper Strayer. I sat down with Giacomo to discuss their latest song, “Frog and Toad Vibe,” as well as their journey from the formation of Tom’s Foolery to today.

What is the inspiration behind the name Tom's foolery?

G: It's really stupid. It was just because I thought it was kind of funny. We had other names, but we kind of just wanted to do like a pun, like a bad joke as a band name. At least that was my idea. And I think most of my ideas too. And so Tom’s Foolery is just like tomfoolery, but it's Tom and that 's it. The only other name we were really thinking about was Jebediah Townhouse, which is like a character from Regular Show which we all really like. Well, I think most of us really like the show, but we ended up just going with Tom’s Foolery because it was just one of those things where we ran out of ideas. They were like, “This is fine.”

What made you want to make music/what inspired you to begin making music?

G: I always grew up listening to music. I think we all did. I mean, I know Sebastian, our drummer, has been playing with his family since he was like a kid, playing in church and all that. He's actually the drummer in another band I’m in too, Waterworks, that's how we met. But he's just been playing music his whole life. Dane has been, he’s a bassist, but he's actually an insanely good guitar player, but he's a close friend of mine. Originally I just wanted to be in a three piece band, so I was like, “I'm already playing guitar, so you can play bass.” And he's like a super metal kind of, like metal head insane, like seven string guitar owner and all that. So he's also been playing music his whole life. Jasper, I actually don't really know how he got into music. I've just been listening to music a crazy amount since I was a kid, and, I mean, I get everyone listens to music, so I'm not like, special or anything, but I just, I love it so much, and I got into it a lot during high school, and so it just kind of progressed. And, so I’ve just been playing a lot. 

How would you describe your band's musical style?

G: I think we try not to take ourselves too seriously. I guess it we’re inspired by, like Midwest Emo, which is like twinkly riffs and pretending that you're good at guitar, but you're not actually that good, which is kind of playing fast sometimes, but it's not that impressive. And just kind of emotional while a little screaming, but still very melodic.

Are there any artists that inspire you?

G: Yeah, I have a really long list, for sure. The Hotelier. I'm wearing a shirt by them right now. And then bands like Macseal, Sunny Day Real Estate. Title Fight, of course, that's like a big one. Everyone in the scene really respects them. I'm kind of like a music engineering guy, so I really like producers as well as bands. I really like Will Yip, who is a producer, and he worked with bands like Title Fight, Turnstile, and Turnover. And I really just love everything that he does, kind of that melodic hardcore a lot of the time. Free Throw, Born Without Bones, and I guess the last one is Goo Goo Dolls.

How did the band form?

G: I am in a band called The Waterworks with Sebastian and two of my other friends and I kind of wanted to do more, not that I didn't like it, not that I didn't have a say or anything. We are all super at working together and all that. But I wanted to do stuff that was kind of like, very much more me, you know, where I don't have to, like, compromise as much, to kind of not be restricted, which is, it's fine to be restricted. I love working with other people, but I just wanted to do a specific thing, and I didn't want to have other people do it if they didn't want to do it, you know. So I talked to the drummer from that band, Sebastian, and he was like, “Yes, let's do this. That sounds awesome.” So then I started writing songs, and he would put drums on them, and then, kind of by random chance. So, I came back to the university last year over spring break, or like, before I think it was before the second semester started. I want to say, like, a week before that, but a week before school started, and Dane was still living in a dorm, but he also wanted to get there earlier, which I didn't really understand, because I was like, “that's kind of weird.” I didn't think that doors would open so early. And he was like, “No, I just have a job.” But he thought when I said I'm gonna get there early, he thought, like the Friday before school started, but I meant the Friday a week before school started. And so he had to crash at my place because the dorms were just closed when we got there. He was like, “wait what?” Because he thought he was under the impression that school started that Monday. So he was just crashing at my place, and I was working on this music, which was kind of why I went back earlier, just so I could focus on that. And so he was there already. And so I was like, why don't you try to come up with some, like, bass ideas or something. And so he just kind of started writing, and there were parts that I knew would be kind of hard to teach other people to play, and I was like, maybe he wants to join. Then he was more than happy to, so that was pretty random, not very planned. It just kind of happened the way it was. And then Jasper, he's like a mutual friend. He was a mutual friend. And I had always heard of him, but I don't think I ever really met him. Until a show, my friends and I used to run a venue called Bizarro World, and so we had a show there and he came, and he and I started talking. My friend said he's a good guitar player. I was like, interesting. And I was actually wearing this shirt (Hotelier shirt). He pointed it out. And we started talking about music, we just had a lot of musical taste in common. And so I was like, why not? Why not have another guitarist, guitar player, and he's really cool, and he's been awesome. So that's kind of how we piece together, really random, not very well thought out, but we're not very thought out.

What was the inspiration for this new release of Frog and Toad Vibe?

G: I tried to write it to be kind of funny. I was trying to come up with like stupid things I was paranoid of, like, if I'm driving on the highway and see, like a black Ford Explorer, I'd slow down. And then it kind of turned a little bit less funny, I guess. But yeah, it's just about being paranoid about like stupid things, and, yeah, kind of trying to be funny about it, but I don't, I realized that maybe it doesn't come off like that. My parents were kind of worried. 

What can we look forward to regarding Tom's Foolery? Are there any live performances or new music coming up?

G; Yeah, we're playing at Pillar Forum on the ninth, just next week on Thursday. Yeah, Thursday, October 9. And we're working on music, not recording it yet, but we have a couple more, like, some good amount of songs, so hopefully we'll get those down soon. We're just kind of working on getting better as a band together.