If you only know Tom Skinner from The Smile, you're getting maybe a third of the picture. Yes, he's the drummer sitting behind Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood in that band, playing tight, twitchy, almost mechanical patterns that somehow still breathe. But go back a decade and you'll find him inside Sons of Kemet, the tuba-and-two-drummers project led by Shabaka Hutchings that helped kick open the door for London's jazz scene to get loud, danceable, and political all at once.

What makes Skinner interesting isn't that he can do a lot of different things — plenty of session drummers can do that. It's that he sounds like himself no matter what he's doing. There's a specific quality to his playing: loose but locked, never flashy, always listening. He's not the kind of drummer who fills every gap. He lets space do some of the work, which is rarer than it sounds in a genre that often rewards density.

His solo record Voices of Bishara (2023), released on the International Anthem label, is the clearest look at what's going on in his head when nobody else is steering. It's a spiritual jazz record in the loosest sense — long, patient tracks built around repetition and mood rather than solos and hooks. It doesn't sound like a drummer's record, which is exactly the point. Skinner isn't interested in showing off his chops; he's interested in building a room you want to stay in.

The thread running through all of it — Kemet, The Smile, his own work — is a kind of restraint that reads as confidence. He's not chasing attention. He shows up, plays exactly what the music needs, and leaves. That's a harder skill than it sounds, and it's why he keeps getting called by people who could hire anyone.