Shem Thomas


Shem Thomas is a singer & songwriter, located in Switzerland.
He started to make music by playing the drums and rapping vanilla ice.
In 1998 he discovered his passion for songwriting while working in France. His debut album „Back in France“ came out in 2000.
Back home he toured for one year through Switzerland, during which time his voice was discovered by the public and by other musicians. He was invited to sing for various projects in differing genres. He sang in concerts, club-parties, tournees – always as a guest singer and often improvising. His voice matured, he gained valuable experience and improved his style of singing in the fields of folk, jazz and hip hop. His singing-style came to be known as very rhythmical and charismatic.
In 2007 he wanted to do more of his own stuff again. So he got a small room-microphone, plugged it into his laptop and went straight for it. Full of stories in a crazy time of his life, he had enough material to express it all through free improvisation. The outcome was his second album in 2008, „Zimmer 291“. It is a group of 21 short music pieces, very poetic. It‘s more like an art album, not really songs. After his second album, he wanted to go back to songwriting again, so he retreated into nature.
And today, after 4 years of writing, Shem Thomas is growing up and his voice bears the fruits. They are golden and ripe. His songs are simple, but extremely beautiul. He found a perfect way to underline his voice – which is a magic sparrow – warm, powerful, full of feelings, overlowing with love. You cannot ignore his voice. Some people say, there is a golden light coming out of his mouth, when he sings. His English sounds bloody native, even his German sounds English. But whatever language he uses, he makes it to his own. I think that‘s because he describes his singing „bodily“. Everything he expresses with it comes out compact, integrated – even the story-telling is part of his corporate music. When he sings he closes his eyes and opens his heart. The calm around us is not really empty. There is a beauty in the calm which you can only feel when you start listening. That‘s something that I experienced at a Shem Thomas concert. Because Shem Thomas is one of the gifted artists who can bring out the beauty and make it feelable. As he said: „Make the content of the silence a part of your music, and you can give the beauty a shape “.