“It was my nickname – ‘The Incident’. The teachers from my school would always be ringing up my folks saying ‘There’s been another incident’. So the teachers ended up referring to me as ‘The Incident’.” – Tom Davies
Tom, 19, and sister, Emma, 14 are a super-naturally gifted duo from Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax. With only a handful of gigs under their star-spangled belts, they already look primed for big things.
Justin Hawkins of The Darkness has already nailed his colours to the mast: “You don’t hear voices like that very often. Staggering.” The Piece Hall promoters moved swiftly to grant them two appearances on the Live Lounge stage in 2024. And their Grayston Unity gig to launch debut single All The Kiddies Doin’ Drugs sold out weeks in advance.
The glam-dram, dynamic rock outfit are rapidly building a fervent fan base. But there’s a long way to go before Tom’s ambitions for the band are realised.
“I want to take the audience to church. I really want that sort of James Brown level of energy, or Little Richard, all the greats, Elvis. I want that energy, I want to be on the precipice.”
Passionate about aesthetics and the importance of crafting a spectacular live experience, Tom evokes memories of Bolan, Bowie and Freddie Mercury. Yes, some seriously big boots. Like those luminaries, he is a natural born showman.
“I did my first ever gig at The Puzzle in Sowerby Bridge when I was three. It was a wedding do. I snuck away from my mother’s grasp. My mum was like ‘oh no, I’ve lost my child, where’s my child gone?’ Then there was a tap, tap, tap on the microphone up on the stage. I sort of resembled Liam Gallagher because I was stretching up to the microphone and then I started singing Zippy Dee Doo Da. So they got me a bar stool to stand on.”
Tom never went to secondary school. From the age of 11, ‘The Incident’ was home educated – his effervescent personality liberated from the confines of the traditional system. Emma followed suit and as a family they gradually discovered, in Calderdale, a great network – “like a brilliant underworld” – of resources and support systems for families like theirs, pursuing the home education path.
“I could never really keep my attention span. I was always just bouncing off the walls with creativity, designing cruise ships or coming up with puppet shows or whatever.”
Martin Davies is Tom and Emma’s dad – and drummer when the band play live as an expanded five-piece. “People think with home ed they just stay at home. But we were out every day, going to an event or a gathering or a museum.”
With the freedom to express themselves, Tom and Emma threw their energies into musical theatre – performing, singing, dancing and acting. Emma plays Jess Beaker, the daughter of Tracy Beaker, in the BBC show, The Beaker Girls. Her big break came during lockdown so it meant time away from the family as she was recording for weeks (sometimes months) on end in isolation with the production crew.
Tom: “It actually made us closer. We’ve always hung out. We’re best friends at the end of the day. I was always her entertainer. Ever since she was a baby, I would always be her personal jester. It’s kind of how our relationship still is.”
It was also during lockdown that Tom learned piano. Drawing on some unusual influences, like the composition techniques of film scores, his songwriting has matured quickly.
“I really respect John Williams, how he builds up melodic motifs. When he was scoring ET, that bit where Elliott flies off with his bike, everyone remembers that beautiful piece of music. But he’s actually been building that for the entire film, note by note. He has two notes in the beginning and then he adds a third note as you’re getting to know the character and it just builds. So when it pays off, it’s already familiar.”
The Incident’s debut single was recorded at The Chairworks studio in Castleford and mastered at Abbey Road. Tom had saved up a bit of money “from dog sitting”. Then, quite randomly, a guy called Martin Lingard, after seeing them play at The Grayston Unity, immediately offered to match Tom’s savings so they could go in the studio straight away. The result bears all the hallmarks of a confident, vivacious, commercial band in full flight.
“In terms of pop music and rock music, I listen to instrumentals and multi-tracks online vigorously every night. Abba instrumentals are a work of art. There’s so much in there. I call it ‘over-production’. But I see that as a compliment. That’s how I like to write. I like sensory bombardment.
“With the video too, we wanted it to be like we’re dragging you into our mental world. The opening shot, we call it the petri dish. We wanted it to be visually strong enough to be a painting. The same with the silhouette shot. We said from the beginning we literally wanted to build a silhouette of the act so that it’d be iconic and recognisable. I was very, very strong on that idea. We wanted it to be very dreamlike.”
Tom is nothing if not meticulous. He has a vision and won’t rest until it’s born out. During the recording of the single, he developed a bad cold. Displeased with the results, he insisted they go back in the studio a month later and re-do the vocals.
“I said we’ve got to do it Lennon and McCartney style, Abba style. So we were facing each other, looking each other in the eyes, and we matched each other’s vibrato and breath work. My voice bled into her mic, bled into my mic and the sound was there. We needed that live sound, that magic and we captured it, we captured the energy.”
For the single’s launch show at The Grayston, no stone was left unturned. They had four sound checks in the run-up to the gig, including two technical rehearsals.
The live band is a closeknit affair. As well as dad, Martin, on drums they have best mate, Robbie Freeman, on guitar and their uncle, Andy Mckerlie, on bass. It’s a high-energy, visceral experience. And they have a lot of fun with it. Tom arrived for the launch show in an open-top Rolls.
Martin Davies runs Halifax Drum School and has played in many kinds of bands over the years – jazz, indie, punk, DIY, metal. “It’s bizarre, being on stage with your kids and you look across and see them doing so well. This is my favourite band. I stepped in because it was hard for Tom and Emma to get regular musicians their age that could commit. And we wanted it to be at the level Tom’s playing.”
You might think, with all the histrionics of open-top cars and the scrupulous finessing of their sound production, that The Incident are a band with ego. They’re nothing of the sort. Tom has a confidence but is also astonishingly humble – at heart, just an obsessive music fan, burying himself in sound and vision.
Tom: “The band Legs On Wheels are one of my favourite young live acts to watch, because they’re so unashamedly themselves. It’s so easy to take the piss out of a prog rock band. ‘Oh, 12 minute bloody guitar solo’. I love it and loads of people love it because it’s something to go absolutely primal to and crazy to. I only wish I had the musical smarts to write the sort of complexities they do. I hope to get there one day.”
The Incident – Links & Things
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Catch them live. Their local gigs will be featured on our Live Listings page.
Photo credits: Main image – Eliza Wheatley / Tom and Emma in the studio – Kate Davies / Petri dish shot from the video made by Only Projects.
Words: Stephen Desmond
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