Tom Sparks
Before the British Musical Invasion of the 1960's, I was crawling around and listening to music by artists such as Elvis Presley, Bobby Rydell and The Miracles. However, when I crawled in front of the television in early 1964 and saw The Beatles performing songs they had written themselves, I (like many others) realized that was something I wanted to do. Obviously, my results have not exactly matched those four guys from Liverpool, but over the years I’ve had some great times and gained a lot of experience working as a musician, songwriter, audio engineer and music producer. Today, it’s nice to use that knowledge and experience to write and record songs with other songwriters and performers. Not only does the learning process continue, but the finished songs are better than ever. And even though the Music Industry has been going through some major changes over the last few years, the one thing that hasn't changed is this: If your song is really great, it will get noticed very fast.
As a musician, I've played drums, guitar, bass and keyboards in many Chicago-area bands over my career. Some of the more popular groups were The Mixed Emotions (my first band - check out the picture on the Photos page), Ironic Plague (now there's a name for you), Northern Front, Bunkhouse, Danny & The Twisters, and of course, The Bandits! In 1998, I decided to stop playing live gigs and concentrate solely on the one thing I enjoy most - recording original songs and marketing them to other artists, producers, publishers and music libraries within the Music Industry. Since that time, I've written songs with some truly outstanding songwriters, such as:
Lyricists: Georgia Harrell, Kim Stewart, Melissa Richard, Jehara, Cat Welch, Diane Richardson and Teri Weston.
Songwriter/musicians: Cindy Keeling, John Calabrese, Rik Mallin and Lori Clark.
Songwriter/performers: Constance Walsh, Melissa Bauer, Dana Wittman, Stacy Donahue and Paula Mengarelli.
Songwriter/musician/performers: Jill Dawson, Andi Morici and Amy Carlson.
I've also had the pleasure of recording and producing artists such as Nancy T, The Garritys, Dana Wittman, Constance Walsh, Melody Mallin, Stacy Donahue and (most recently) Andi Morici. As a member of Taxi, I've have had quite a few songs forwarded to publishers and recording artist representatives, and have landed a number of publishing deals. I'm an active member of Taxi, The Chicago Songwriters Collective, Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), and am a voting member of The Recording Academy. I like good, well-crafted songs more than a particular musical genre, and am always looking to try something new in order to make the song more memorable for the listener.
I appreciate you taking the time to vist my website. Please check out the photos, other links, and of course, the music (click on the song title and you'll be able to read the lyrics while listening to the songs). Thanks again and hope you visit again soon.