At 22 years old Tómas Welding proves that he has a powerful, confident singing voice and vocal delivery.
Tómas Welding is an Icelandic Alt/Pop artist from Reykjavík. Welding is also a photographer, videographer, and graphic designer who creates all of the artwork and visuals for his music project. Welding’s story is quite inspiring as he embodies the message be true to yourself and embrace who you truly are. Welding has made it known that he has Tourette Syndrome and instead of defining himself by that fact, is instead living his life and moving forward following his dreams. This is a very inspiring way to be, and an awesome message to embody for his fans.
As soon as “Arcade” started, I understood what kind of a song I was getting. Despite describing the song as Alt/Pop, I felt like “Arcade” fit right in with modern pop music and had all of the elements I would associate with the genre. A few things stood out for me in the production. The overall rhythm created by the bass and drum track felt great and had tons of sway. This is a very danceable groove and I like that Welding highlights that in the mix. Welding’s overall vocal performance is definitely a pull factor for me as well. He delivers a very confident and strong vocal performance on this track, and his tone is very pleasing to the ear.
I think the title of the song and overall metaphor Welding creates in the track is a fresh take on a story told many times before. Welding focuses his lyrics on the idea of people playing games or playing hard to get when falling in love. These games can feel like they drag on forever leaving, in Welding’s case, the main character of his song questioning whether he should stay or leave. While this kind of story isn’t a new one, I don’t remember anyone using the metaphor of an arcade to describe this kind of situation and I commend Welding for his creativity.
Overall, I think Welding does a great job of offering a song that cements him as an artist in the pop genre. His vocal performance was very ear-catching, the strong, danceable rhythm track was quite infectious, and the metaphor that holds the story together was a fresh take on an old story. I look forward to seeing/hearing what Welding comes up with next, and where he goes from here. I think he has a bright future ahead of him.
