Tom Denney

Tom Denney — American guitarist — is a co-founder of A Day to Remember and the principal author of the formula that defined the band. He was in the group from its formation in Ocala, Florida, and co-wrote the material of the early records, including Homesick (2009) — the work that took A Day to Remember into the American mainstream and established the model a whole generation would copy: pop punk and metalcore alternating within the same song, a melodic chorus followed by a breakdown. He left soon afterwards, in 2009, at the exact moment the band was reaching its largest audience. The decision was his own: Denney went on to work as a producer, and built a solid career in that function, recording and producing bands of the American heavy rock circuit from his own studio. It is an unusual case. Most musicians who leave a band at its peak do so through conflict or exhaustion; Denney traded the stage for the studio chair and remained active in the same world by another route, helping shape the sound of bands that inherited the format he himself helped create.