November 2022 saw, TesseracT vocalist, Daniel Tompkins’ joined by Amos Williams (TesseracT), Mike Malyan (Monuments), Paul Ortiz (Chimpspanner), and Pete Skipper (In Colour) for a lavish live stream event and now the glorious “Ruins: Live Experience”available digitally for the first time.
On the 26th November, I’ll be broadcasting a full album performance of my 2nd solo record Ruins – brought to you by the producers of TesseracT’s PORTALS – and I’d love you to be there with me.
Watch the trailer:
Ruins: Live Experience will be streaming globally on Saturday 26 November at 8pm GMT / 3pm EST / 12pm PDT.
Let me give you some context of how this came together, who is involved with me and what comes next! In January this year I had the pleasure of playing my first ever live shows as a solo artist around the UK, performing Ruins in full alongside my good friends Amos Williams, Paul Ortiz (Chimp Spanner), Mike Malyan (Monuments) and Pete Skipper (In Colour).
The shows were very well received but as great as it was to be one of the first acts back on the circuit post pandemic, it was short-lived and many people missed the events. There was also a social push to bring the line-up to Europe and the US, which – given circumstances at the time – simply wasn’t possible.
I knew that missing out on the shows would inevitably cause disappointment, and so I decided to mark the occasion by filming a full album performance at Kinetic Group in Corby, UK with help from Richard Oakes (Dark Fable Media) and Tom Campbell (MIRRAD), co-producers of TesseracT’s PORTALS; and so Ruins: Live Experience was born.
I’m so grateful to the guys for helping me bring this event to life on stage and on video, it turned out great and I’m so excited to welcome you to the live stream, where in addition to the performance, we’ll be hosting an after show Q&A with the band.
Paul and I are currently working on the next solo album, which expands even further into the prog metal realm, so this feels like the perfect time to close the chapter on Ruins and to have a wonderful memory to look back on. I really hope you’ll be able to join us all. Until then…
Singer songwriter and TesseracT vocalist Daniel Tompkins, has announced the release of two new solo singles “The Abyss”, which is released today, Thursday 30th June and “Frenzy” on the 7th July to coincide with his collaboration with Alpha Delta Brewery to launch a DIPA – “Liquid Hype”
“I’ve had these songs in the pipeline for some time after a spell of writing last year. They showcase a different side of me that’s been bubbling away. I really felt like I needed to ramp up the energy and these two tracks definitely get me excited for the new album that I’m working on with Mac Christensen ‘Deeper Kind’ and Paul Ortiz aka ‘Chimpspanner'”
Whilst The Abyss is a upbeat song about rising above uncertainty, Frenzy, which you can hear next week, is a full-frontal assault – it’s like screaming in the mirror at yourself to keep going, Tompkins comments.
He continues “I wrote these songs last year, handled the guitars, all tracked with my OD Guitars ‘Cybele’ and decided to bring in Mac Christensen aka Deeper Kind (White Moth Black Butterfly) as a co-producer, on these two songs – he’s really helped to bring them to life.
The mix and master was handled by Forrester Savell (Producer, Mixer) who I’ve worked with previously on Skyharbor’s ‘Guiding Lights’ and WMBB’s ‘The Cost of Dreaming’ released last year on Kscope. And talking of WMBB, we are currently working on the next album, too.“
Daniel has teamed up with Newcastle’s Alpha Delta brewery to launch his own IPA –
“I’m also very excited to announce that the songs will be accompanied with my very own Double IPA with Alpha Delta Brewery, they are master brewers who really know their craft. The DIPA is aptly called ‘Liquid Hype’ brewed with Strata and Citra hops, it’s an 8.5% hazy with passionfruit notes – perfect for the summer. So yes, I’m bringing the hype!”
Alpha Delta are equally excited about the collaboration
“We met Daniel at The Delta Lounge, after a TesseracT gig, he was taken by our beers and when it was suggested to collaborate on a brew, it seemed like the obvious thing to do…We’re really looking forward to the release of his new music and are chuffed to be working with him…it’s a big, juicy DIPA, the sort of beer that we became famous for and we’re sure it will find some new advocates amongst Daniel’s fans.”
“Liquid Hype” is on sale now HERE Please note it is unable to be shipped Internationally at this time.
May 2019 saw TesseracT’s lead vocalist and songwriter release his debut solo album Castles, his first foray into a more pop rock electronic sound, which he then followed with Ruins which saw Tompkins rework his debut alongside producer Paul Ortiz (Chimp Spanner), re-writing the music with more aggression and a truer, darker tone. Ruins also featured guest artists and additional co-creators. Paul Ortiz rewrote the music and co-produced, Plini plays guitar on the opener plus the new version featured a brand new staring Trivium frontman and guitarist, Matt Heafy.
For more information, tracks and videos see https://DanielTompkins.lnk.to/Ruins
Daniel will be touring the UK in January 22 performing four intimate shows in support of his latest album RUINS.
The band line up includes Daniel performing on guitar and vocals, Amos Williams (TesseracT) on bass guitar, Mike Malyan (Monuments) on drums, Paul Ortiz (Chimp Spanner) on lead guitar and Pete Skipper (In Colour) on guitar. Support acts are yet to be announced.
Daniel had the following to say:
“I’m both nervous and excited about the prospect of touring my solo album for the first time. This will be new territory performing both vocals and guitar live for the first time but sharing the stage with my very good friends Amos, Mike, Paul and Pete will be such a privilege. These shows will be an intimate experience full of high energy and I hope to see and meet you all there!”
“Ruins” is Tompkins re-interpretation of the title track of his debut album “Castles” accompanied with a brand new and mesmerisingly beautiful music video directed by ‘Found Format Films’
Daniel explains the song and video’s meaning “’Ruins’ is a rollercoaster of a song and a true reflection of all that we’re about, musically. It touches on the original concept surrounding fractured relationships, tragic mistakes, compulsion and addiction – the things that can cause irreparable harm to people’s lives and ‘Ruins’ represents the aftermath”
“The song was co-produced between both Paul Ortiz (Chimp Spanner) and myself. Having released Castles in 2019 (Produced by Eddie Head) I had the urge to recreate and inject a new life into it as a prog rock / metal record with the help of Paul who rewrote the music from scratch. Vocally, I really feel that this track is a very honest reflection of where my head is currently at and perhaps a nod to things to come both vocally and musically!”
The music video produced by Kyle Kadow and Steven Cleavland of ‘Found Format Films’ see’s Paul and Daniel performing together for the first time on greenscreen with fantastic VFX. The style and theme of the video, inspired by the original song ‘Castles’, centres around the theme of corruption, compulsion and revenge, as the characters are slowly intoxicated by their own greed, ultimately leading to their own destruction and their lives left in Ruins.”
The forthcoming album Ruins, set to be released on 11th December on Kscope, sees Tompkins rework Castles alongside producer Paul Ortiz (Chimp Spanner) showcasing re-written music with more aggression and a truer, darker tone. Castles was originally created by co-producer and friend Eddie Head (Haji’s Kitchen) and whilst the lyrical and conceptual side still represents the same ideas, the new version Ruins is significantly different to Castles with the addition of Tompkins’ signature aggressive versus clean vocal style. It was felt that renaming the album and each song was appropriate and aside from the lyrics, it is essentially a completely new album.