Bio

Keeping alive the blood, beauty, and desire in his playing, Tom Lattanand expresses a unique voice as a guitarist, composer, and audio engineer. His live performances and recordings are fluid, cohesive works—combining the raw unpredictability of emotion with the felt sense of patterns in nature: rings, whorls, knots.

Employing a mix of finger style technique and percussive rhythms to the steel string acoustic—Tom utters simultaneous melodic voices with dense sonic textures from a single instrument. Many of the compositions were born from place-based improvisations, then evolved into pitch-black portraits of the experience. Watching Lattanand perform solo, one has the sense that he is engaged in a duet with the unseen, playing a language in which he is endeavoring to name his own sound.

The raw and subtle solo repertoire developed as a contrast to Lattanand’s other various musical endeavors. His electric projects showcase a tech savvy musicality and virtuosity. An array of tools at his disposal, he utilizes loopers and synths within multilayered compositions. In various projects and collaborations such as Root Logic, Strike Iron, and Ettie Street Project, Lattanand plays electric guitar with an in-the pocket intensity, mixing in syncopated rhythms, while balancing dissonance with soul. His blues playing is undeniably powerful, yet he is not afraid to explore complex harmony. The band setting showcases the multidimensional aspects of Tom as a musician, composer, and audio engineer. His audience comes to expect an overall sound that is powerful, ambient, bluesy, danceable, and textured.

In 1977, 1 year old Tom Lattanand moved with his family from Thailand to the United States. Years of classical piano lessons segued, at age 11, to the guitar. He was a teenager who listened to hair metal, classic rock, and the alternative rock bands of the 90s. College was focused on studying classical guitar and composition, while listening to music in the likes of Stravinski, Bach, Mozart, Miles Davis, and Coltrane. Tom moved to San Francisco in 1998 to meet up with close musician friends and further etch his path. After many years firmly rooted in the Bay Area, Tom continues to practice a musical nomadism, allowing him to collaborate with artists of all stripes and grooves. He currently works as chief recording and mix engineer for Rock and Roll legend Mickey Hart, and continues to collaborate and perform in the Bay Area music and arts community.