Tomas Kalnoky

Kalnoky on January 25, 2008 in Berlin

Tomas Kalnoky (* 24. December 1980 ) is a US -American singer , guitarist and songwriter of Czech origin. He was first known as the front man of Catch 22 , from May 2003 he is active at Streetlight Manifesto . Stylistically, his music can mainly be classified as Ska-Punk .

Life

Childhood and youth

Kalnoky and his parents left Prague when he was four years old. First they moved to Greece , later to Keasbey in the US state of New Jersey . It was there that Kalnoky spent most of his youth.

Music career

Kalnoky made his first recordings with the punk band Gimp in 1995. He had already written the first songs here. A little later he founded the ska punk band Catch 22. The band celebrated a great success in 1998 with the release of the album Keasbey Nights . The album, whose 14 songs were all written by Kalnoky, is considered by many connoisseurs of the scene to be one of the best ska-punk albums of the 1990s. Kalnoky left the band shortly after the album was recorded to study at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia .

In 2001 Kalnoky finally returned to the stage. Together with musician colleagues he founded the Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution as a kind of hobby project. Here he was no longer limited to Ska and Punk, classical and Eastern European influences could be heard for the first time. This is followed by the EP A Call to Arms .

In 2002 he started Streetlight Manifesto with three former members each of Catch 22 and One Cool Guy (another ska-punk band from New Jersey). Thanks to this constellation, the new band immediately achieved a high level of popularity. The album Everything Goes Numb , released in 2003, was a comparatively great success of the ska-punk genre. For many who were disappointed with the later Catch 22 albums without Kalnoky, it is the true Keasbey Nights successor and is once again considered one of the best ska punk albums. This was followed by club and festival tours with Streetlight Manifesto through the USA and Europe . In between he made time for smaller club tours with the Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution.

Victory Records was planning a re-release of Keasbey Nights since 2005 , the actual album unchanged for it with some bonus tracks. Kalnoky was critical of this. It was finally agreed on a new recording. At the beginning of 2006 Kalnoky went into the studio with Streetlight Manifesto and in April of the same year the new version was released.

Discography

Gimp

• Smiles for Macavity (1995), cassette

Catch 22

• Rules of the Game (1997), Extended Play (EP), cassette
• Keasbey Nights (1998; Victory Records)

Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution

• A Call to Arms (2001), EP

Streetlight Manifesto

• Demo (2002), EP
• Everything Goes Numb (August 26, 2003; Victory Records)
• Keasbey Nights (March 7, 2006; Victory Records)
• Somewhere In The Between (November 13, 2007; Victory Records)
• 99 Songs Of Revolution (March 12, 2010; Victory Records)
• The Hands That Thieve (April 30, 2013; Victory Records)

Toh Kay

• You By Me: Vol. 1 (with Dan Potthast from MU330 ) (November 16, 2010)
• Streetlight Lullabies (November 22, 2011)
• The Hand That Thieves (April 30, 2013)
• You By Me: Vol. 2 (with Sycamore Smith ) (August 12, 2012)

Web links

Commons : Tomas Kalnoky  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files