Nadeem SalaamTender Glue “Dirty Friends” Premiere
Enter Tender Glue, a man’s world that is made up of Tom Gluewicki and his journey to NYC. Tom was originally born and raised in Poland and later moved to New York in 2002, he explains his first encounter with playing music when he was twelve years old after he had fixed a broken guitar that his brother brought home. Tender Glue’s musical genres include some elements of post punk, combined with acoustic and lo-fi sounds. “Dirty Friends” is off his last EP Wait For Steady Light, though the project is announcing a new LP called Steady Light, being released later this summer, August 26, 2016.
The latest from this NYC based bedroom artist is a video for “Dirty Friends” featuring Gluewicki and toy robots taking over New York! Behold! As they zip fearlessly off train lines and alley ways. This video combines some of the most visually nuanced layering i’ve seen in a bit. From photos randomly taking up portions of the screen to multiple videos creating a tapestry of images.
When we spoke to Tom Gluewicki, we asked what his inspirations were for his latest project, he said, “The video was both filmed and edited by me. It came from an idea I had in my head about these toy robots that I had. Like most of my work, the end product was spontaneous and I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be. I went around Brooklyn filming random shots and added in the robots and myself using a green screen. I also filmed my dog Loli, who ended up passing away a few months after that’s why the video is in memory of her.” (Below is the album trailer for his last record that is an intimate portrayal, to the left a photo of Tom and his dog Loli, R.I.P.)
Photo by: Janise Lazarate
On the upcoming release of Steady Light, Gluewicki also stated that, “It is a culmination of raw recordings, composed with minimal equipment using the resources I had in my home. It is a continuation of the previously released EP, Wait For Steady Light. The inspiration of the album comes from real life experiences.”
I think Gluewicki’s voice is an unassuming rock vocal that fits in the context of his music in a refreshing way, the lo-fi elements warm up a minimal no frills approach to his songwriting style, but it’s the person coming through the voice that touches and captivates so wonderfully. At times it even has a capacity to be stirringly sad as much as it is the workings of a writer and artist not any bit of a stranger to the subtle and nuanced nature of showing your story through song there are hopeful moments too.
Gluewicki’s Tender Glue has the ability to be the lone voice strumming along to an empty train station platform, while the world is going about their destinations blinded to the sounds coming from his guitar, Tom has a gift, he is either here for now or gone for tomorrow on his music and these projects seem to me, are a small snapshot of a person’s story while they’re just trying to get their shit together.
It’s real, it’s not shiny, it’s all the good, all the bad, all the beautiful things we hope to capture into songs, for Gluewicki, luckily the imagination never ends at the song and only begins.
Steady Light LP will be available August 26, 2016, a great place to look would be one of the below:
https://tenderglue.com // https://tenderglue.bandcamp.com // https://www.facebook.com/TenderGlue