Tomar Williams was born in Las Vegas and moved with his family to Austin, Texas in 1986. He got his start singing lead and playing various instruments on the Chitlin Circuit with his family band as a youngster. After years with the family band, Tomar branched out and established himself on the Austin music scene as a keyboardist. In the 90s, Tomar and his brother, Salih, formed the production team “Carnival Beats”. They went on to produce iconic Hip- Hop tracks for Big Mo, Mike Jones, and many more.
In 2015, Tomar decided to return to his roots in soul music and was introduced to The FCs, a new instrumental band on the Austin scene. Tomar and the FCs was born. In October of that year, the band self recorded and released their first EP, “Day by Day”. Deborah Sengupta Stith of the Austin American Statesman selected it as one of her top releases of the year writing, “Williams shows his own soul chops with searing vocals that drip with blood, sweat and tears”.
In what has become a tradition, the band opened 2016 with a NYE show at the historic Austin Continental Club. They were selected to play an official showcase at SXSW in March. In June, NPR Music picked Tomar and the FCs out of hundreds of Austin entries to represent the city for their Tiny Desk Concert series. The band became mainstays around the Austin and built up a solid following in Texas with regular shows in San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas.
“Heart Attack”, the band’s debut album, was released in November of 2016. It was recorded and mixed at Level One studio with Grammy winning artist/engineer Adrian Quesada (Brownout, Grupo Fantasma, and Echocentrics). Sam Harrell of KUTX.org wrote that the album is, “Pure soul, pure energy…Heart Attack, the single from the band’s latest album of the same name, is an electric three minute ride of some of the purest blues/soul we’ve heard lately.”
In January of 2017, the band was selected as the KUTX Artist of the Month. The band’s songs were featured daily on the station. They were asked to play iconic Austin record store Waterloo Record’s first in-store performance of 2017. The band had a number of festival appearances in 2017 including Viva Big Bend, River Revival, and East Side Kings, all culminating with an appearance at the Austin City Limits (ACL) music festival and a performance at Circuit of the Americas for the Formula One US Grand Prix in October. They were selected as The Austin Music Foundation’s artist of the month for September and Austin 360’s Artist of the Month for October. They are hard at work on their 3rd recording, due out in 2018.
Tomar Williams – Vocals
David Earl – Organ
Mitch Fischels – Bass
Andy Tenberg – Guitar
Paul Kresowik – Drums
