Life and Career
Born in Los Angeles, California, the Dumont family lived in Irvine, California. Tom was the only adopted child in his family and has two siblings. Dumont's father, who played the piano, gave his son a guitar at age twelve. Dumont practiced by strumming folk songs by the likes of James Taylor. Dumont was influenced by heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and KISS. He joined his older sister's heavy metal band Rising, but left in 1988 for third wave ska band No Doubt. He has one sister named Gina and a brother named John.
Dumont studied music theory for five semesters at Orange Coast College. When the band moved into a house on Beacon Avenue in Anaheim, he wrote a poem about being addicted to television. He took the poem to Eric Stefani, who put the poem to music and came up with the song "Trapped in a Box". The song was recorded for the band's self-titled debut album and was the album's only single.
The band later self-released The Beacon Street Collection in March 1995. The same month, Dumont left his job as a file clerk at a mortgage company. He had "a good feeling" about having finished recording Tragic Kingdom and planned to fall back on promoting rock concerts if the album was not successful. Tragic Kingdom became a commercial success, certified diamond in the United States and selling sixteen million copies worldwide. When Eric left the band, Tom took leadership in writing and composing responsibilities.
After the Tragic Kingdom tour, Tom returned to his home in Long Beach, California and started surfing in 1997. Dumont is a member of The Surfrider Foundation, an environmental organization to preserve coastal life. Since Eric Stefani left, Tom Dumont, Tony Kanal and Gwen Stefani became No Doubt's primary songwriters.
During No Doubt's hiatus, Dumont produced Matt Costa's 2005 debut album, titled Songs We Sing, after hearing a demo tape by Costa.
Read more about this topic: Tom Dumont
Famous quotes containing the words life and, life and/or career:
“When they [the American soldiers] came, they found fit comrades for their courage and their devotion.... Joining hands with them, the men of America gave the greatest of all gifts, the gift of life and the gift of spirit.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Half life is over now,
And I meet full face on dark mornings
The bestial visor, bent in
By the blows of what happened to happen.
What does it prove? Sod all.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)