GAVIN MARTIN
For Tom Walker, the year couldn’t have got off to a better start. In January, on the first day in his manager’s office after a Christmas break, he found out he’d been nominated for the BRITs Best Breakthrough Award.
In February, he followed in the footsteps of Ed Sheeran, Rag’n’Bone Man and Dua Lipa by winning the gong and, in March, his debut album, What A Time To Be Alive, hit the top of the charts. Since then it has sold enough to earn him a silver disc.
Not bad, for starters.
“It’s been quite the journey, to be honest with you,” says Tom, 27. “It’s quite hard to take in sometimes.
“I just went out and made the best
album I could. I killed myself making it over the last four years, so I’m glad it’s done as well as it has.”
Tom, of course, didn’t spring from nowhere. Scots-born, Manchesterraised, London-based, he followed a familiar route through the singersongwriting sausage factory.
Inspired by the Arctic Monkeys, the teenage AC/DC fan moved into the profitable pop furrow Ed and Meghan, Harry, Wills and Kate Mr Rag’n’Bone have ploughed in recent years.
“I really wasn’t a pop music guy when I got into music,” says Tom. “It was all stuff that was based around guitar. It’s changed and evolved over the years.”
Studying songwriting at the London Centre of Contemporary Music had a decisive effect.
He says: “My mates there showed me such a variety of different music from all over the world and it opened my eyes a lot. There weren’t any limitations as to what genres you play.” Among his growing fanbase are the young royals, who have asked him to play a gig for their Royal Foundation charity. Tom reveals: “I met Harry and Meghan, Kate and William, and they were all absolutely lovely to me, really down to earth and kind of with it.”
As his calendar fills up fast, Tom is eyeing headline shows at Glastonbury and Manchester Arena .
He’s aware that the life of a touring musician can be a strain on his longterm relationship with his girlfriend of six years, Annie, now his fiancée.
“It definitely has its challenges,” he says. “We struggle with it sometimes. When I met my girlfriend, I didn’t actually have a job and I was busking to make money while trying to do the whole music thing, and I was struggling to make it work out. But now we’re in such different positions, so it’s cool.” With the majority of its calamitous tunes written during the unravelling of frontman Matt Shultz’s relationship with model Juliette Buchs, the fifth album by the band from Kentucky hits several marks.
There are combative tunes that play to the band’s impactful live shows and swoon spectaculars (Love’s The Only Way). With touring bud Beck guesting on Night Running and a Teflon-coated effort from Florence and The Machine associate John Hill, the confidence is striking. Cued do worse.
I killed myself making the album so I’m glad it’s done
THE ROLLING STONES