Tom Did It is not a typical wannabe pop star or rap artist. He hails from rural Hertfordshire for one and he’s influenced by alt rock as much as he is rap. The video for his first full release ‘Stupid Love’ is quite charming. Filmed on his family’s farm he sings about young love and heartbreak on top of some nice, snappy catchy beats and rhythms.
Tom said: “Stupid Love marks the moment I knew I could do music full time. It’s the first time I dug deep and allowed my emotions to take over and write the song for me. It allowed me to express myself the way I never thought I could. Stupid Love opened my mind consciously.
“The track depicts my love for the journey I am embarking on, my love for the place I’m in, and also touches on themes of physical love and heartbreak that I have experienced in my life. Stupid Love is about me loving stupidly which in some kind of way is peaceful.”
All of Tom’s songs begin their life in his home studio, nicknamed The Barn and lit by a neon sign purchased alongside his recording equipment. It’s a DIY “safe haven” built to act as a place for creativity and experimentation. After enjoying early success with the 2020 single “Outside,” Tom was offered lucrative opportunities to pursue his artistry further. He declined label deals, though, preferring to hone his craft from the safety of the studio he and his dad built when music was a pipe dream. That level of self-determination is telling of Tom’s character, a young artist with unshakable self belief and a drive to achieve excellence like no other. In three short years he has worked with Chip, Morrison, Nafe Smallz, Sigma, Sigala, and Steel Banglez. He also linked up with Skepta’s Big Smoke Corp for management.
Straddling genre lines is not always the easiest thing, with the temptation to double down on one sound always present. That wouldn’t be honest to Tom, though, who sees himself as part of a new generation of superstar artists such as Post Malone or Dominc Fike, who are able to operate using the full width of the musical landscape. He grew up with Amy Winehouse and The Rolling Stones playing on the home stereo but found his own passion through Skepta and Boy Better Know.
As a 20-year-old who found his voice during the pandemic, a time in which young people’s lives were turned upside down, Tom speaks for a generation still trying to find their feet in a radically different society. “I feel like I’ve lived three different lives in four years,” he says with a laugh. Growing as a person, be it through relationships, grief, mourning, substance abuse, and mental health struggles, all make their way into his lyrics. As, too, do more celebratory moments that form the backbone of his more uplifting songs. The world is in a state of change and he wants to be the one to talk about it. “As a teenage guy you go through heartbreak, mental health troubles, finding yourself as a person. I’m finding myself and relating that to other people’s journeys, and relating it back to love and back to my career, motivation, and ambition. I think it’s a very relatable set of things I’m talking about.”
The single Stupid Love by Tom Did It is out now.
