Multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Tommy Walter goes by the alias of Abandoned Pools. Walter picked up a bass guitar in grade school and by high school was a classically trained French horn player. He enrolled at the University of Pacific in Stockton, CA, where he studied and taught music theory (and such early 20th century, 12-tone and modal composers like Schoenberg, Bartók, and Stravinsky). But teaching didn't fulfill his desire to play rock music, as he sought other similar-minded musicians in the vast L.A. pop/rock scene.
A collaboration with area singer/songwriter E led to the band Eels, but Walter soon left the project despite the promise of Eeels' 1996 debut Beautiful Freak. On his own again, Walter holed up in his apartment and began writing and recording original material. Those tracks were the genesis of Abandoned Pools, which debuted with the Humanistic LP in September 2001. AP returned in 2005 with the Reverb EP and a full-length for Universal entitled Armed to the Teeth.
Tommy Walter began his career in 1995 as a founding member of the critically acclaimed band Eels. As the first group to sign to Dreamworks Records, the band toured the world in support of their release Beautiful Freak and the alternative rock hit 'Novocaine For The Soul'. At last count, the album has sold well over a million copies worldwide. In 2001, he released 'Humanistic', the Abandoned Pools debut on Extasy/Warner Brothers. The album referred to his leaving behind a seemingly carefree upbringing in the L.A. suburb of Westlake Village to pursue a career in rock, after studying French horn, theory & composition and film scoring at USC and then the University of the Pacific. That dream had its roots in Walter's childhood love of pop and rock music, beginning with the Star Wars soundtrack and Prince, then growing to include '80s U. K. new wave bands, indie guitar rock and cutting-edge electronics, all of them apparent on Humanistic as well as his Universal Records album, Armed to the Teeth. That first album went on to sell over 100k, thanks to the Modern Rock hit, "The Remedy" and tours with Remy Zero, Garbage, Lenny Kravitz, Billy Corgan and A Perfect Circle. Produced by Tommy and Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Interpol, Clinic, Erasure), Armed to the Teeth once again showcases Walter's ability to combine the macro and the micro, contrasting despair with world situations and personal affairs. The third album, 'Sublime Currency', is currently in production. Over the years, Tommy has been mixing and producing various projects and has recently been actively writing for television.