Sofa Session: Tom Grennan

Tom Grennan plays a Sofa Session for Jo, including music from his latest album, Evering Road.

Tom Grennan’s second album documents the break-up of Tom’s relationship of three years, and its aftermath. But Evering Road – named after the couple’s former home in Clapton, East London – is the polar opposite of a self-pitying break-up album. Instead, its 14 masterful, redemptive anthems form “a sorry letter and a thank-you letter” to Tom’s ex, as well as the soundtrack to your own universal euphoric escapism.

Although the album was completed weeks before lockdown, songs as comforting as ‘Something Better’ and ‘Little Bit Of Love’ or the defiant holler of ‘If Only’ and ‘Amen’ have the communal widescreen emotional impact to bring everyone together, even when crowds couldn’t happen.

“It’s an album that can help people out with their own situation,” states Tom. “Once it’s out in the world, these songs belong to other people, who can take them on. Once a song means something else to someone else, amazing! They’ve created their own story. That helps them and me move on, and that’s what an album is for.”

Tom admits “There were demons around” before the break-up. “I was caught up in a web of stupidity and I had to leave, because I was doing her wrong. I was hurting her, and I was also hurting myself. I knew when I left it was best for both of us.” The powerful video for ‘Little Bit Of Love’ sees Tom examine the toxic masculinity he’s trying to avoid. “The album is about how I’ve grown into a different person. The people I was hanging around with, the area I lived in, all these different influences led me into a bad territory. I was doing silly things and not thinking about anything. But I’ve got my head screwed on now. I’m 25, not a young kid anymore.”

Tom’s gold-certified debut Lighting Matches was one of 2018’s Top 10 best-selling debuts.