After years of writing, performing, promoting, touring and not to mention producing a book & 10 original pieces of Art for his last album ‘Skybound’,Tom Baxter was ready for some time out.
“It was a great and exciting time, but by the end of it all, I felt I needed a break from music, London and my career”. So off he went to India for the best part of a year.
“For the first few months I hardly touched the guitar but as the time went by it gradually became my closest ally again…’’
“India is a fascinating country, so completely unfamiliar in so many ways, full of contradictions and challenges and it certainly made me see life from a different perspective, which is what I really needed.”
“Ultimately I think everyone who goes travelling hopes that deep down that they might unravel a missing part of themselves, but after spending a fare share of time in ashrams and yoga retreats It wasn’t long before I realised that playing the guitar was my own sort of meditation.”
“I bought an old 1970’s Enfield motorbike and drove through the Himalayas with my guitar strapped on the back – I felt like I was continuously in my own road movie – and at the end of each day, having travelled endless dusty roads, I’d brush myself down, exhausted, crack open my whiskey flask and sit there playing the guitar until I fell asleep.
On return, Tom made his way down to the South of Spain for a few months to follow up his yearning to study flamenco guitar and later wound up in Paris busking on the streets.
On arriving back in the UK, he moved all his belongings to the south Devonshire coast where he now lives and is working on his 3rd album,‘GOLDEN’
Tom is on track to release an EP later on in the year, with an album to follow in 2011. The title track ‘GOLDEN’ is available at tombaxter.com.
Tom will be playing a series of shows in the UK, IRELAND and FRANCE in NOVEMBER.
Nov 18th: La Fléche D’Or
Nov 22nd:The Tabernacle,
London Nov 24th:Whelan’s, Dublin