One To Watch: Tom A Smith on meeting Elton John, North-East supremacy with Sam Fender and his new EP
16.08.2022 - 18:09
/ officialcharts.com
There is working for the graft, and then there is playing your first gig aged just eight (eight!) years old and securing your first Glastonbury slot at 11.
Meet Tom A Smith, now the wisened old age of 18, the indie-rock singer who is destined for great things.
Hailing from Sunderland, Tom is the latest in a line of bright music hopefuls from the North of England, such as Sam Fender and L Devine, two contemporaries he happens to count as friends.
With the release of his recent second EP, EP 2, Tom is ready to grow up and grow out in his craft. He makes sparkling, crunching indie-rock with the soul and melody of great pop tunes, present in tracks like Man Overboard and Could I Live With Being Fake. And the greatest thing about it all? The best is yet to come.
You know, when we released the first EP, we were chuffed [with the reaction] but the second has been even more fantastic. Every single song seems to be going down really well - the next single Man Overboard is being received really well, which I'm buzzing with.
It's getting a bit of play too, you know, and I'm doing shows now and people know the words [to the songs], which is amazing so early on.
Yeah, I've been performing live for a good 10 years now, but [it's great to hear this reaction] after the last two years with lockdown and that. I wrote about 200 tunes, you know, and to see the songs I wrote at like 3am in my bedroom getting sung back by people at Truck Festival and Glastonbury is just amazing.
Yeah, we didn't know how long we were going to be locked down for. I think I had about 10 or 11 songs at the time, but I thought...this is what I wanna do. So I gave it a go.
And obviously, I'm only 18, I've not had a lot of life experience - what do I write a