Rolo Tomassi

Rolo Tomassi
Rolo Tomassi live at Slottsfjell Festival 2011 in Tunsberg, Norway. From left to right: Eva Spence, Edward Dutton and James Spence.
Background information
Origin	Sheffield, England
Genres	Mathcore, experimental rock, progressive rock, hardcore punk
Years active	2005 (2005)–present
Labels	Destination Moon, Holy Roar, Hassle
Associated acts	Body Hound
Members	Eva Spence James Spence Chris Cayford Nathan Fairweather Tom Pitts
Past members	Joseph Thorpe Joe Nicholson Edward Dutton

Rolo Tomassi are a British mathcore band from Sheffield, England. Their name is taken from dialogue in the film L.A. Confidential. The band is known for their strong DIY ethic, and chaotic style and performances.

The band released two albums on Hassle Records: Hysterics (2008) and the Diplo-produced Cosmology (2010). After creating their own record label Destination Moon in 2011 they released Eternal Youth, a compilation album of B-sides, remixes and rarities from throughout their career. They released their third album Astraea in 2012 with the first line-up change in their career, and Grievances in 2015 with the second line-up change.

Shortly before the band formed, Eva Spence was in a small garage band for a few months as a keyboardist. The band was looking for an aggressive vocalist to help make it a six piece band but Eva stepped up to give screaming a go. To practice she and her brother, James Spence, would scream in their parents car, with very loud music on; the music was to help overcome their shyness. The two have collaborated in bands since they were both 13 years old.

Rolo Tomassi formed in 2005 in the town of , taking their name from a concept in the 1997 neo-noir film L.A. Confidential. When Rolo Tomassi formed they sought to keep the band as DIY as possible; achieving this by hand-making their first releases and organizing many DIY shows. Not long after forming, the band had written some songs and immediately began to perform at local venues/pubs to small crowds. At this time they released some of their first material on to a 3 Track Demo CD which they could sell at the shows in which they were performing. The demo CD-R was released under James Spence's (keyboardist/vocalist) independent label which he named "Mayday!". There are eight releases under this label. After a split EP with Mirror! Mirror! (limited to 333 copies and released through Speedowax) the band signed to Holy Roar Records and released a self-titled EP featuring re-recorded songs from previous demos and EPs along with new songs.