Biography
Tom America (born Heerlen, The Netherlands, 1949) is a Dutch musician, songwriter and singer, who was in various experimental and New Wave bands from 1974 onwards, including MstrubietM, Gasphetti (also known as Sammie America's Gasphetti) and, most famously, MAM (1981-1994). Tom America called himself Sammie America at this time.
Since the demise of MAM, Tom America embarked on a solo career, in which he explored 'sound poetry' on a few occasions. His solo debut album, Tjielp Tjielp (1997) turns the experimental poetry of Jan Hanlo into sound. De winter? De Winter! (2000) features songs built from voice recordings of people speaking the local dialect of the town of Tilburg.
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America made voice recordings of many Dutch poets, including Tonnus Oosterhoff, Willem Jan Otten, P.F. Thomése, Esther Porcelijn and Remco Campert, and built music and sound collages from them.
2025 saw the release of Ja ik ben vastgelopen ('Yes I'm stuck'), an album based on voice recordings / interviews with his good friend (and artist) Paul Bogaers, following the latter's decision that he as failed as an artist.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.