So now you’ve read about our stage names and the band name, so let me tell you the unusual connection to a real-life rum running vessel.
As any good artist does, we googled our band name to make sure there wasn’t magically a Tommy August and the Rum Syndicate out there. Hey, you never know. To our surprise, an article popped up about a schooner named the Tom August. Schooners are Mimi’s favorite type of sailing vessel so we had to keep digging deeper. The article we were reading was just a list of possibly wrecked vessels lost during prohibition. It didn’t say much about the Tom August. It was just a name, type, and date.
A little more internet sleuthing later and we found this book called Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America and in it were mentions of a rum running schooner called the Tom August that ran from the Caribbean to New Jersey for a crime syndicate. We both were in shock. Could the name be any more perfect? Tommy being from New Jersey, us living in the Caribbean, and Mimi’s affinity for rum and schooners… we took it as the sign we needed.
Thus, Tommy August & the Rum Syndicate was born!
See you next time!
