Matt Tong
Tong in 2007
Tong in 2007
Background information
Birth nameMatthew Chee Hung Tong
Born (1979-04-29) 29 April 1979
OriginBournemouth, Dorset, England
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)
  • Drums
  • percussion
Years active2002–present
Member ofAlgiers
Formerly ofBloc Party

Matthew Chee Hung Tong (born 29 April 1979) is a British musician from Bournemouth, England. He is best known as the drummer of Bloc Party from 2002 to 2013 and has been the drummer for Algiers since 2015.

Early life

Tong was born in Bournemouth, England to a British mother and a Malaysian father.[1][2] He is a public supporter of the Bournemouth F.C. football team.[3]

Career

Tong joined Bloc Party in 2002, being chosen from eight other contenders for the role.[4] On 9 November 2006, Tong suffered a collapsed lung after opening for Panic! at the Disco in Atlanta and was admitted to the hospital, causing Bloc Party to miss the next few shows on the tour.[5] Tong said in 2009, "I wouldn't mind trying something else for a while" regarding the uncertainty of Bloc Party's future.[6] Tong left Bloc Party during the band's summer 2013 tour, after recording four albums with the band. Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke alluded to simmering tensions that had been boiling up behind the scenes that were never verbalised, as well as disagreements over cocaine usage.[7] In 2022, Okereke said "I don’t really want either of them in my life right now" of Tong and bassist Gordon Moakes, who also left Bloc Party in 2015 after 13 years.[8]

Tong played the drums on No Devotion's 2015 debut album Permanence, stepping in to finish the final four songs after Luke Johnson left the band in the middle of recording.[9] Tong also drummed in a new band L'Amour Bleu under the alias "She-Tong".[10] He also formed the band Red Love with producer Alex Newport, whose debut album came out in 2017.[11]

In 2015, Tong joined the band Algiers, first as a touring member before being brought on as the band's permanent drummer.[12]

In 2022, Tong played on the song "Frankenstein" from Rina Sawayama's second album Hold the Girl. Sawayama asked producer/songwriter Paul Epworth, who had produced the Bloc Party albums Silent Alarm and Intimacy, to recruit Tong for the song. Sawayama said that Tong was an inspiration to her as a fellow Asian in the music industry. Tong's hands were covered in blood following the recording.[13]

Drumming style

Tong described himself as "notoriously sloppy at timekeeping". He wrote the drum parts on Silent Alarm as alternating between high and low intensity to give himself a physical break, for he became tired easily after smoking a pack of cigarettes per day. Tong said that he was not an athletic person and always struggled at sports, so drumming became too fast for his own comfort. During live performances, he becomes a "mood drummer" who changes the speed of his performance based on crowd reaction.[12]

Personal life

Tong has lived in New York City since 2010.[14]

Tong married Brooke Vermillion, the touring DJ of Kindness, in 2006.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Bloc rocking beats | Philstar.com". www.philstar.com. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  2. ↑ NME (2007-01-25). "Bloc Party preview new album in Bournemouth". NME. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  3. ↑ "Fan Talk with Matt Tong: Why I'm banging the drum for Andoni Iraola at Bournemouth | LiveScore". www.livescore.com. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  4. ↑ Williams, Jenessa (2022-12-06). "'I will outshine them all': the enduring genius of Bloc Party". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  5. ↑ NME (2006-11-10). "Bloc Party drummer suffers collapsed lung". NME. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  6. ↑ "The Quietus | News | Drummer To Leave Bloc Party?". The Quietus. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  7. ↑ Jonze, Tim (2015-11-26). "Arguments, apologies and scouring YouTube for drummers: how Kele got Bloc Party restarted". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  8. ↑ Roth, Madeline (2022-05-01). "Bloc Party's Kele Okereke on Their 'Cold' New Album: 'Everyone's F-cking Everyone Over'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  9. ↑ "Former Lostprophets drummer quits new band No Devotion". BBC News. 2015-01-09. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  10. ↑ "Bloc Party's Matt Tong shares four tracks from new post-punk project L'Amour Bleu". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  11. ↑ Campbell, Kyle (2017-02-06). "Red Love - Red Love". RadioUTD. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  12. 1 2 Tyler-Ameen, Daoud (2023-06-13). "Matt Tong, Algiers' elastic timekeeper, surrenders to the song". NPR.
  13. ↑ Ewens, Hannah (2022-05-30). "Rina Sawayama: holding herself tight". Rolling Stone UK. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  14. ↑ Herlingshaw, Brett (2020-08-16). "Matt Tong on Bloc Party, Algiers' success and working with Massive Attack". Soundsphere magazine. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  15. ↑ "Bloc Party's drummer is latest casualty of toughest job in rock". The Independent. 2006-11-11. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
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