Photo: Joseph William (download)

Booking/Information - [email protected]

Tomo Nakayama is an acclaimed singer/songwriter based in Seattle, Washington. Born in Kochi, Japan to a Vietnamese father and Japanese mother, Tomo’s work both as a solo artist and as frontman in his chamber-pop band Grand Hallway have been praised by NPR, New York Times, and KEXP. Known for his crystalline high-tenor voice, intricate fingerpicking, cinematic production style, and simple, poetic lyrics imbued with warmth and humanity and images of the natural world, Tomo’s songs have drawn comparisons to Paul Simon, Elliott Smith, and Sigur Ros. Jesse Sykes called him a “self-assembled human cathedral”. He has also composed music for film and television, and starred as an actor alongside Ellen Page in Lynn Shelton’s Sundance Grand Jury nominated movie “Touchy Feely”. He was Artist in Residence at Seattle’s Town Hall, during which time he wrote and recorded his solo debut album, Fog On The Lens, co-produced and mixed by Yuuki Matthews (The Shins, David Bazan) and released by Porchlight Records (U.S.) and & Records (Japan). For the record’s release, Tomo and Yuuki played an astounding and exhausting 14 shows in 1 day throughout Seattle, highlighting various independent small businesses. This was followed by a successful tour of Japan and the US, and a few shows in Europe as well. Fog On The Lens spent 8 weeks on the CMJ Top 200 and was named “Album of the Month” by Seattle Met. Tomo spent the majority of 2016 writing and recording a bunch of new songs, as well as busking at SeaTac airport, where he met and sang for travelers from all over the world. Let’s see, what else. Tomo is a Virgo and he enjoys cooking and baseball. A new solo album will be released in 2017.

:::PRESS

“Without exaggeration, misconception or cliché, Tomo’s singing voice is angelic. It’s boyish in tone, or perhaps womanish, tender, beautiful, clear and strong. All of those things, but the word that feels most apropos is pure.“ - City Arts

“Emotional, sensitive, mind-blowing vocals. Nakayama is the rare, true falsetto, and his latest work Fog on the Lens was recorded during a residency at Town Hall Seattle, where he was literally given the keys to the building to play and reord any time day or night. In the crowd he draws, immersed in the sound he makes, you’ll be your truest self.“ - American Standard Time

“Tomo Nakayama’s songs on his first solo record, Fog on the Lens, begin as simple seeds. His gracefully delicate coos carry introspective lyrics of love and wistful solidarity which grow as notes stream from his fingers through rapidly fingerpicked guitar strings or slowly depressed piano keys. Then, once they’ve germinated, Yuuki Matthews comes in with bursts of spontaneous chattering synthesized bustle, allowing the songs to fully blossom. It’s digital naturalism that pulsates with life and humanity.” - “Album of the Month” - Seattle Met Magazine

“The most compelling moment is a musical interlude in which Jenny and Paul attend a performance by Tomo Nakayama, the lead singer of the Seattle band Grand Hallway. Delivered by Mr. Nakayama in a plaintive cry as he accompanies himself on guitar, his ballad “Horses” distills the inchoate longings of these likable characters more effectively than any spoken words. “Is it a blessing or a curse to be found?” the lyrics wonder. “Is it a burden or a gift to be bound?” - New York Times

“As the movie crescendos towards its peak and even suggests (if only for a moment) that all the partners are with the wrong people, it is soundtracked to Nakayama’s deeply empathetic “Horses,” a gorgeous ballad about our desire to be loved and understood. Some characters find themselves entrenched in sadness about their situations—the missed connections they’ll never really have—some say goodbye to old connections and others come to epiphanies about what they need in life. On top of it all Nakayama just crushes it all emotionally with his gorgeously soaring song. We literally felt the hair on the back of our neck stand up when we first saw this striking and deeply human moment, that’s fantastic musically and otherwise.“ - Indiewire

“The cast is superb from top to bottom, though I was particularly moved by a small role played by musician Tomo Nakayama. He wrote the song Horses especially for the film, and as the credits rolled I raced to the Internet to hear it again.” - USA Today

“It was like the most transcendent experience I’ve had in a live music situation.  Literally, at the time, I thought to myself, “That voice in this space has to go into one of my movies.”  So, it’s extremely satisfying that I was able to get him involved, and he turned out to be such a wonderful actor. I mean, he holds his own with Ellen Page. It’s amazing.” - Lynn Shelton

“He’s a self-assembled human cathedral. He doesn’t need the bells and whistles. He’s one of the lucky ones in that he doesn’t need a band to communicate. He’s transcendent on his own. Some people have a little more ghost in them, that juju that can’t be put into words.” - Jesse Sykes