Experimental Indie Rock Band, T.O.M., Imagines Post-Apocalyptic World in First Mainstream Release

Courtesy of Scott Feinblatt.

Are you a sucker for concept albums, WALL-E-like narrative framing, or just damn good experimental music?

If so, I've got some good news for you.

The upcoming album, In a Bubble, is set to be released by experimental indie rock band T.O.M. on Tuesday, June 23.

The sole mastermind behind T.O.M. is Scott Feinblatt, a creator who has worn a number of hats over the years — journalist, filmmaker, illustrator and of course, musician.

Feinblatt has made nine albums, as well as written and recorded music for several horror films under the T.O.M. name. His musical style varies from song to song and borrows elements from industrial, punk, classic rock and folk genres.

“The songs on the album represent a cross-section of my visions, storytelling styles and musical approaches. The use of ‘bubble’ is a figurative reference for the way people and communities are often isolated from events and ideas that exist beyond them,” Feinblatt said. “Thus, this album provides listeners with a taste of life within my bubble.”

T.O.M. mastermind, Scott Feinblatt.

T.O.M. initially stood for “The Orange Man” (stylized as “T.he O.range M.an”) when Feinblatt started his project 28 years ago. While creating his first album, the image of a robot — or rather, a plump man in a circular robot suit, he specified — came to him. After drawing what he envisioned, Feinblatt felt that the man looked more like an orange. The orange man quickly became the inspiration for the name of Feinblatt’s band that made unusual music.

Not wanting his band to be confused as a reference to Donald Trump, Feinblatt decided it was time for a slight name change. This prompted him to add a narrative element to his overall project.

“Since I still wanted to keep my logo, I brainstormed what I could do with the initials, and that’s where I came up with the entire mythology. I kept the robot image — which, while it is the source of the name, has never before appeared in any of my album artwork — re-imagined it as an actual robot instead of a man in a suit, and called it a ‘Tertiary Omnificent Memory,’” he said.

In this narrative, a T.O.M. patrolling sector Z26 on Earth in the year 2153 C.E. / 68 A.F. is searching for data and artifacts that could be useful to future generations of the surviving humans who are hibernating aboard a space station.

The T.O.M. unit stumbles upon diary-like musical recordings of long-dead artist Scott Oliver, Feinblatt’s alter ego. Oliver’s songs act as “the seeds of evolution, collected by an automaton and planted into the collective consciousness of future generations.”

The robot character allowed Feinblatt to give context to a collection of songs he found difficult to categorize into a single genre that represent his musical style. It also provided him with creative ideas for promotional artwork and videos to accompany his songs.

Some songs off In a Bubble were influenced by multiple experiences in Feinblatt’s life: from relationship woes and encounters with those in low spirits to unbearably hot summer days and sandwiches good enough to get one out of a depressive funk.

While others, Feinblatt said, are cryptic, stream of consciousness songs that even he is in the dark in how they come about.

“I just like what my muse whispers in my ear, so I give her whisperings form,” he said.

Courtesy of Scott Feinblatt.

In the two years Feinblatt spent working on In a Bubble, the album presented him with learning opportunities he was previously unfamiliar with, like digitally recording his music as opposed to using analog equipment.

“Given that I wrote, performed, mixed and mastered the songs myself, there was a pretty steep learning curve that I had to face along the way, and in a lot of ways, making this album was like making a movie; it’s a marathon,” Feinblatt said. “Everything is done in phases, and getting burnt out on the whole project creates one or more walls you’ve got to get past along the way.”

Feinblatt obviously got past each of those walls and can gladly say he has complete control and ownership over his work.

He wrote, workshopped, recorded, mixed, mastered and uploaded all his songs to an online distribution platform. He will also run the publicity campaign and handle any distribution matters.

“It felt mighty rewarding to click “Approve” at the end of my online distribution platform’s submission process because it signified that the two years or so that were involved in this journey had reached the point where I could upload the product for the next phase of its life,” Feinblatt said. “Not dissimilar from the way a T.O.M. robot would transmit its data to the souls in orbit, whose reception of said data was more or less out of the robot’s purview.”

T.O.M.’s In a Bubble album cover.

In a Bubble is T.O.M.’s first widely released album. It will be available on streaming services including Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and Google Play. And for those physical music lovers, CDs will be available through popular retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Target. You can also find it on T.O.M’s website here.

When asked how this album might be useful to the future generations of surviving humans in his narrative, Feinblatt responded…

“T.O.M. is a means to document my thoughts and emotions, like a journal made from pieces of my psyche using lyrical, musical and various other auditory components. The impetus for me as it is with Oliver — and I suppose to a certain extent, as it is with the T.O.M. robot as well — remains that I must identify myself, record my journey, reflect upon the events that I observe and that’s the end of my mission. So, within that context, the question of how it may be useful to future generations of humans is tantamount to asking, ‘What is the purpose of this life?’”

He continued that it could be useful in three ways: to remind them (humans) that all lives are parts of a puzzle which will likely never be solved but one which we continue to work on, to give them something to tap their feet to, or to demonstrate how to make music that will never be featured on American Idol.

T.O.M. performs at Fullerton’s Day of Music on Sunday, June 21 at 5 p.m. For more details on the virtual event, click here.