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Tom Freund
American singer-songwriter
Thomas Hagström Freund is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Freund's music consists of elements of folk rock, americana and alternative rock.
Freund met Ben Harper when he was attending Pitzer College in Claremont, California. In 1992 the duo released an album, Pleasure and Pain.
Not long after, he joined the alternative country group The Silos as their bassist, and moved to Austin, Texas. He released his debut solo album, North American Long Weekend, in 1998 and has released albums on his own Surf Road Records since 2000.
Tom attended Horace Mann School, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and Greenwich High School. During high school, Tom was a member of the jazz ensemble as an upright bass player. He was also a member of the prestigious Tri-State McDonald's High School Jazz Ensemble, which landed him an audition with Elizabeth Swados. Swados was impressed by his musical talents and cast Tom in her 1987 production of Swing as a part of the Next Wave festival at BAM. In the production, Tom played guitar, upright bass and sang both a solo number and as a member of the ensemble. After graduating high school, Freund immediately became involved in the Off Broadway theater scene while taking classes at Columbia University. During this time, Tom was also playing...
The limited-release of Pleasure And Pain in 1992 helped launch both Freund and Harper's careers. Harper signed a record deal with Virgin Records while Freund spent several years playing bass with acclaimed roots-rock band The Silos. In 1998, Freund released his solo debut, North American Long Weekend, on the Mercury subsidiary Red Ant Records. The record received an avalanche of critical accolades, most notably in The New York Times in which Ann Powers called it an "unexpected gem" and ranked it #3 in her year-end best-of poll.
