Tomas Kalnoky

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Tomas Kalnoky

Background information
Origin	Keasbey, New Jersey, USA
Genre(s)	Ska, Acoustic, Punk
Years active	1995 – present
Label(s)	Victory
Associated acts	Streetlight Manifesto Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution

Tomas Kalnoky (born in Prague, Czech Republic) is the lead singer/guitarist and songwriter of the bands Streetlight Manifesto and Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution He also held this position in the famed 3rd-wave ska band Catch 22, but left the band after making only one album (their debut, entitled Keasbey Nights) to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. His first foray into the music world began with the punk band Gimp, with whom he released one cassette, Smiles for Macavity, before moving onto Catch 22. Gimp can best be looked at as quintessential 90's pop punk, vaguely reminiscent of early Blink 182, albeit with more of an edge and more expressive lyrics. It was in Gimp that Kalnoky first wrote the song "Supernothing" which later appeared on the Catch 22 demo Rules of the Game and the album Keasbey Nights. However the original version is a much slower acoustic song, which features Tomas's brother Achilles Kalnoky on violin (Achilles would later appear on the Bandits EP A Call to Arms). Tomas is also involved in The RISC Group, of which very little is known.

Kalnoky has a unique singing voice, which slightly changed during the period between his participation in Catch 22 (throaty and raspy) and Streetlight Manifesto (slightly nasal, although he seems to return to a raspier sound in the Streetlight Manifesto version of Keasbey Nights). In both of these bands, he uses a unique guitar technique that is an innovative take on the ska strumming method. Kalnoky uses the classic upstroke technique, but unlike the usual upbeats that are traditional in the sound of first-wave and two-tone ska, Kalnoky plays them in double time while the band is playing at normal tempo, which gives the music a much more manic feel than Streetlight's ska contemporaries. Tomas played an Ibanez AS83 in the early days of Streetlight Manifesto, and now plays a Gibson ES-335. The AS83 may have been one of the items stolen when the band was robbed on Oct. 2nd, 2005.

Kalnoky's influences are many, the blending of which creates Streetlight's signature sound. Kalnoky cites The Drifters as a favorite band, and has also mentioned the Squirrel Nut Zippers as a big influence. The influences which manifest themselves in Streetlight are not purely musical, as the song "Here's to Life" refers to authors J.D. Salinger, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus, artist Vincent Van Gogh, and musician Kurt Cobain.