We had the good fortune of connecting with Tom Hall and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tom, why did you pursue a creative career?
To be honest, it wasn’t really a choice; there was simply a feeling from a very young age. I was intrinsically drawn to many forms of creativity during my childhood. I should note that my mother is also very creative, and that was definitely an influence.

My first true creative passion was photography. I actually went to university to study it, but through a strange turn of events, I ended up in Kyoto, Japan, on exchange and found myself in a sound studies class. From then on out, I’ve worked with sound as my main medium (still with moving image).

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m honestly just proud to still be doing what it is that I do decades after starting, there were certainly no shortage of friends and extended family members who questions pursuing a career in the arts. I’m really fortunate to have been able to do this for the past few decades in many different settings across the globe, it’s incredible really when I think that I grew up in a remote part of Tasamania, Australia, I am pretty stubborn though, so I think that had a lot to do with it, I don’t give up easily.

I think something that makes my work ‘different’ is my ongoing curiosity and continued pursuit of new technologies and incorporating them (or not) into my work. I received some advice when I was a much younger artist that I should find ‘my sound’ and hone it. 20 years later, I’m still trying to do that, but I realized that if I do find ‘that sound’ that’s in my head that keeps me awake at night, that I might just stop altogether. It would be complete. So, actually, for my creativity it’s best I never find it, ha!

The biggest challenge these days is time. Free time has definitely diminished over the years, not just for me but for everyone. Our time is under attack. Companies now make products (social media, 24hr news cycle, politics, etc.) with the sole purpose of keeping you there, inside of it, as long as possible. They maintain distraction at all costs.

My main challenge is protecting my free time, I have to guard it vigilantly, I wouldn’t say I overcome this, it’s ongoing, this is key to the ongoing development.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If a friend was visiting Los Angeles, these are the places I would send them (day one!):

• Griffith Park and the Observatory – you really get a grip of how big LA is, and I find that the faster you have your bearings (NESW), the faster you feel comfortable.

• Coffee & Cake at Proof Atwater (just a solid old favorite for me).

• Lamb Sandwich from Dune (across the road from Proof).

• Pine & Crane DTLA is a new favorite.

• Yuca’s Taco Los Feliz – just a classic carnitas taco.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’m really a sum of parts. Obviously, I’ve put in the time, but I wouldn’t be where I am today without countless mentoring, both firsthand and subtle.

After I completed university in the mid-00s, I moved to Brisbane, Australia, mainly because it was warmer than where I grew up in Tasmania and because I had an old high-school friend. I didn’t know it at the time, but Brisbane was rapidly becoming ground zero for experimental sound in Australia. Lawrence English (Room 40 Records) and many others had been nurturing it for some time. I feel like I was there in time to see it blossom. Brisbane is not a big city, but during this era, it reached a point where there were multiple experimental sound events happening on a weekly basis. This provided countless opportunities to develop my creative practice in an inspiring and supportive environment.

Landing in Brisbane was definitely key in developing my early practice and growing in confidence enough to begin touring overseas in Europe, the UK, and the USA in the later parts of the 00s.

Website: https://tomhall.xyz

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomhallsonics/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhallsonics/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/tomhallsonics

Youtube: http://youtube.com/tomhallsonics

Other: Bandcamp: https://tomhall.bandcamp.com

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