Tom from Tooth is busy folding zines when we catch him. Not in a tortured-poet way, not in a “conceptual art project about paper” way, just in a very practical, DIY-band-on-the-move way. There’s a run of UK dates looming, and someone’s got to do the admin. Today, that someone is him.
“We’ve got lots of zine folding to do,” he says, as if this is the most normal sentence in the world. Which, in Tooth’s world, it probably is.
Tooth are Tom (guitar, vocals), Ben (lead guitar), Charlie (bass) and Roy (drums): four Londoners who grew up in and around the city and have quietly embedded themselves in its music scene. They hang around Scooter Cafe in Waterloo. They’ve had big nights at The George Tavern. “We really feel a sense of belonging here.”
The band itself started in the least glamorous way possible: school. Tom, Ben and Charlie bonded over a shared obsession with 80s and 90s alternative rock, started jamming, and, crucially, kept going even when the songs weren’t very good.
“We wrote many songs back then; none of them were that great,” Tom laughs. “But I think we knew they would start getting better if we kept trying.”
After sixth form, they decided to pursue the band seriously. Roy arrived via a mutual friend and, according to Tom, it was immediate: “We knew right away, ‘We NEED this guy in our band’.”
Every band has a “this might actually be something” moment. For Tooth, it came in the form of a slightly sleazy Soho residency at The Blue Posts in September 2023. Every Friday. Paid in beer.
“It was the first set of shows we played,” Tom says. “We had a lot of fun… but it felt like the first time we were starting to be taken seriously by a few people and gained a small following.”
From those sticky-floored beginnings, they’ve grown into one of London’s buzziest new live names, though you get the sense that, for Tooth, the “buzz” is secondary to the brotherly bond.
“We see ourselves more as a group of mates than a band,” Tom explains. “We thrive off collaboration and communication.” Yes, they argue, but in the way siblings do. “You just instantly forget whatever the disagreement was and crack on as normal.”
“We had a lot of fun, despite only getting paid in beer”
That same ease defines their new single, ‘Medicine’. It was only the second song they wrote together as this version of Tooth, and the first in what Tom calls their “soon-to-be signature” guitar tuning (D#A#CFA#D#, if you’re asking).
He brought in the initial riff. The rest came together quickly. Lyrically, it revealed itself as a love song – or at least, a song about “an incessant need for someone”. The “someone” wasn’t specific; the emotion was. “I felt like the lyrics were playing with a pretty universal set of emotions,” he says, before adding: “I just thought the chorus hook was wicked.”
Early on, Tooth were, in Tom’s words, “pretty narrow-minded” about what they wanted to sound like. Sonic Youth, Interpol – they had the usual cool-kid touchstones. Now, they’re less interested in emulating and more interested in instinct. “We play whatever we feel like in the moment; it keeps things refreshing and exciting.”
At the core of it all isn’t genre or ambition: it’s fun. That’s the thing Tom keeps circling back to; the band started because it was enjoyable, and they want to protect that. “As long as we’re always having a good time, we’ll be playing together for eternity.”
If you’re pressing play on Tooth for the first time, Tom hopes you feel “excited and hopeful”. There’s so much great guitar music bubbling up right now, he says – if Tooth can contribute even a fraction of that spark, that’s a win.
Live, though, is where they truly feel at home. A free-entry show with Morn last year stands out as their wildest: the kind of night where ceilings drip, and strangers leave as friends. In fact, it was so bonding that Tom now lives with two members of Morn. This is what happens when you share a stage and a sauna-level humidity.
Looking ahead, they’re excited by bigger rooms and bigger crowds, but mainly by the prospect of getting weirder. A lengthier project is on the horizon, eventually. More interesting songs; new corners to turn. The idea of writing a body of work together feels like the next great adventure.
On their days off, Tooth are still busy. There’s university work to catch up on. Tom is currently reading Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima, a novel about a man who puts his life up for sale in a newspaper ad, because, of course, he is. He also writes constantly, often on a classical guitar, crafting folkier little “acoustic ditties” in between the fuzz and feedback.
Tooth might be building a reputation for sweaty shows and elastic guitar lines, but at heart, they’re just four mates from London who love alternative rock, love each other and love the feeling of a chorus landing just right.
As for what’s next? They’re not saying much. “Keep your ears and eyes peeled.” Zines won’t fold themselves, after all.
Tooth’s single ‘Medicine’ is out now.
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