Tom Walker, Acclaimed British Singer/Songwriter With A Powerful Voice, Talks About His Excellent New Album, I AM

It was five years ago that British singer/songwriter Tom Walker released his debut album, What a Time to be Alive, which propelled him to stardom in the U.K. and Europe. His single “Leave a Light On” became a hit, and Walker was named British Breakthrough Act at the prestigious BRIT Awards in London (previous winners include Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa and Sam Smith).

Walker, who is known for his powerful, soulful lead vocals and his heartfelt, honest songwriting, had hits with his songs “Leave a Light On” and “Just You and I,” and he toured the U.K. and Europe. He also played shows in the U.S., Australia and other countries.

Now fast forward to 2024, Walker has just released his long-awaited second album, called I AM (on Relentless/Epic Records). This album is an excellent collection of songs that fully delivers on the promise that his first album displayed. Walker now seems poised to expand his large following in the U.K. and Europe, and attract new fans in the U.S. and worldwide.

I AM contains 12 songs (plus an interlude), that show a more personal, introspective side of Walker’s music and personality. As he explains on the album and song title, “I’ve called it I AM because it’s the culmination of me trying to figure out who I am for the last four years. This record is a snapshot of what’s been going on in my life, and what’s been happening to me…what’s made me happy or sad, ecstatic or miserable.”

The album opens strongly with his uptempo, high energy songs, “Holy Ghost” and “Burn.” Then the tone shifts slightly with his songs, “Head Underwater” and “Freaking Out.” Other highlights include the ballads “The Best Is Yet to Come” and “Lifeline,” the passionate “Kissed By God,” and “Wait For You,” which is an emotional duet with talented German singer/songwriter, Zoe Wees.

Walker wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album. He collaborated on several songs with Los Angeles-based writers/producers, the McDonough Brothers (Connor, Riley & Toby McDonough), and with writer/producer Ryan Daly and songwriter, Castle. In addition, he wrote “Kissed By God” with hit songwriter/producer Toby Gad, and “Freaking Out” with Tofer Brown, Jamie Hartman & Jon Green. Notably, he wrote the songs “SOS” and “Stigma” by himself.

Now with the release of his album, Walker is looking forward to performing live and going on tour. This past week, he played live in the U.K. to celebrate the release of his album, and he’ll be coming to North America soon to play shows in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and Montreal. Then he returns to the U.K. and Europe, where he’ll be headlining shows, as well as opening on a major tour with rock band, The Script.

We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Tom Walker. He discusses the making of his new album I AM, and how he wrote key songs such as “Holy Ghost,” “Burn,” “Freaking Out,” “Lifeline,” “Wait For You” and “SOS.”

DK: In 2017 you had a breakthrough hit with your song, “Leave a Light On.” What inspired you to write that song?

Tom Walker: It was a song about a friend of mine who was struggling…it was someone who was depressed, drinking a lot and feeling a bit lost. I’d never really encountered that before with any of my friends. I was really concerned, and when I’m worked up I need to process things, and my own self-version of therapy is to write a song about it. So I put all my feeling and thoughts into it, and wrote the song with a wonderful songwriter named Steve Mac. We wrote that song the first time we’d written together, and it ended up being a launch pad for my career…it was crazy.

DK: Back then you had a lot of success, being named Best Breakthrough Act at the BRIT Awards. So what was it like to put out your first album, have a hit and get that recognition?

Walker: It was a whirlwind. We went from playing in these 300 capacity venues in Manchester, to suddenly playing much bigger venues and touring in Australia and New Zealand. My music career took me to all these places I never expected. It was an incredible journey, but it all happened very quickly. It was hard to keep up at times.

DK: It’s now been five years since you released your first album, What a Time to Be Alive. Can you talk about your journey over the past few years, leading up to making your new album?

Walker: Well it was a slow start, if I’m honest, I finished touring the first album in February 2020, and then in March 2020 the whole world closed for two years (due to the pandemic). So I went from gigging and touring and visiting all of these exciting and wonderful new places, and being in these great studios and working with  amazing writers across the U.K. and America, to being stuck at home. And I found it really difficult to be creative and feel inspired.

During Covid, I jumped on Zoom and tried to do loads of writing sessions. But I ended up using only one or two songs out of the 20 or 30 I wrote. I think what I should have done is sat in my pants and played Xbox (laughs), and taken a little break. Instead I felt this overwhelming need to keep going and that was actually to my detriment. It wasn’t until I took a bit of time away from music, and then I met (songwriters & producers) the McDonough brothers out in Los Angeles that things started to click. I loved writing with the McDonough brothers and Ryan Daly and Castle. Once we got moving, we wrote this album so fast, and I was proud of the songs, plus the elevation and production they brought to the project. They are such talented producers and writers.

DK: I liked the songs on your album that you released a year or two ago, such as “Wait For You” and “Lifeline.” Can you talk about those songs?

Walker: I wrote “Wait For You” with Cam Blackwood & Joel Pott, who are two of my favorite writers. It was one of my first sessions we did back from Covid, and it was amazing. And I was keen to get another artist to feature on it. Then I heard about Zoe Wees, who is this amazing vocalist from Germany. She’s able to do this incredibly raspy vocal that I don’t often hear female singers do, and I thought she would match the tone of the song. So she agreed to jump on, and this was still during the pandemic, so we couldn’t collaborate in person. We did it remotely. Then a couple months ago we finally met up in Germany and performed the song live together, which was an exciting moment.

With “Lifeline,” I wrote that with the McDonough brothers. I had lost a friend of mine which was very unexpected…it really caught me off guard. It was a new form of grief that I’d not dealt with before. You know you’re gonna lose a grandparent; it’s often at the end of their life and it’s expected. But with this I really struggled, because none of us were ready in any way and we didn’t see it coming. Then I explained the situation and story to the McDonough brothers, and we came up with these beautiful chords and melody. But we didn’t have any lyrics yet. So that night I took the chords back to my Airbnb and I had a couple of beers. Then this song poured out of me, and it was this collection of things I’d wanted to say that I hadn’t been able to process properly. I wrote the song that night and I brought it to the McDonough brothers, Ryan Daly and Castle, and they helped me finesse it and turn it into the song that it is.

DK: You’ve just released your new album called I AM. Can you talk about the making of this album?

Walker: Most of it was made with the McDonough brothers—half of it we did in Los Angeles and half we did in London. This is a total different album for me…it’s a much more introspective album. It’s a lot more personal than the first one was. I felt the first album was a collection of stories about my friends and my family and also myself. But this album is more of a deep dive into the last five years of my life, and what I’ve become as a musician, a person, a partner and friend, and who I am to all the people around me. So that’s why it’s called I AM.

DK: Your album starts off powerfully with your songs “Holy Ghost” and “Burn.” What inspired you to wrote those songs?

Walker: “Holy Ghost” is about my wife, Annie. We got married last year in April, and I wrote that song just before we were due to get married. I wanted to write a love song that wasn’t your conventional, sickly sweet love song…it had an edge to it. It maybe didn’t sound like a love song until you discovered the lyrics and read into it more. So that was the meaning behind that…celebrating me and my wife getting together. It’s been 11 years that we’ve been together, and we finally tied the knot.

With “Burn,” I wrote it because me and the McDonough brothers had been working together for two months, and my record label came into the studio in London and listened to what we had. We played “Holy Ghost” and “Lifeline,” and that was all we had at that point. But they were really demos; the production wasn’t done. And I didn’t want them to come in and hear anything because the songs were not fully formed. That day they were like, “Oh we’re not really sure about these,” and kind of shit all over everything (laughs). It was really difficult for me. And then the next day I came into the studio obviously raging, and I sat down and thought…I’d given everything to this project…my blood, my sweat, my tears, working five years straight, and they came in and poo-pooed everything. So I sat down and I wrote “Burn” about them, and it’s funny because when it was finished, it was probably the head of the label’s favorite song. He absolutely loved it (laughs). So it was kind of full circle. They were like, “Now that everything’s finished we can see the vision you were going for.” And obviously they love the album because we’re putting it out together, and we’ve since made up. But I thought that was a really funny little moment.

DK: One of my favorite songs on your new album is “Kissed By God,” which has a great chorus. How did you write that song?

Walker: I wrote it with Toby Gad, and he’s got this beautiful, lovely piano—a Bosendorfer piano which he shipped from Germany. We wrote the song on that piano. I don’t play piano, but somehow I wrote those chords that day on that piano, out of nowhere. And it has this crazy time signature (laughs); it wasn’t in the standard 4/4 signature. Me and Toby wrote that song together—we wrote the whole thing on the piano and we recorded it that day. It’s about my wonderful wife, Annie, and what she means to me. It’s a celebration of our relationship together.

DK: On your new album, besides the songs we’ve discussed, what are your favorite songs?

Walker: There’s a song called “S.O.S.” on the album which we’ve haven’t teased yet, and we haven’t played it live yet. I really love it because I wrote it on my own. It was after having a bit of a wobble personally in my life, where I was not having a good time and really struggling. So I called up a friend and he got straight in the car and drove over, and we sat and had a few ciders and he consoled me, and I thought it was a really beautiful moment. It was someone that I’ve known for many years, and the minute I really needed them, they came running in like a hero and saved the day. And I think friends like that are difficult to come by. When I needed that person the most and they came running…it was a beautiful thing to have in your life. That’s what “S.O.S.” is about.

DK: I also like your song, “Freaking Out.” Were you freaking out about something when you wrote this song?

Walker: Yeah I was. I wrote that after we started gigging again after the pandemic was easing off. At that first gig, I felt like I was almost having an anxiety attack before going onstage. Then when I was onstage, I messed up a lot of the lyrics and forgot my place and I really struggled. I guess I was maybe out of practice, but also to have that many people together for the first time, it felt so strange after a year-and-a-half of trying to stay six meters away from everybody (laughs). So I wrote that to capture that moment of anxiety and nervousness.

DK:  I visited the tour page of your website, and currently you’re playing many shows in the U.K., and then you’re coming to play shows in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and Montreal. Can you talk about your live shows and your touring?

Walker: From now until the end of the year, it’s booked solid. I’ve got a U.K. tour this week to celebrate the release of the album, and that goes straight into the U.S. tour. Then I start my own European headline tour, and then I’m supporting The Script on their European and U.K. tour. So now until mid-December I’m doing shows, which is amazing but also a bit overwhelming (laughs) to think about. But I’m super excited