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How lockdown helped Tom Walker 'write loads' of his new album

Being stuck indoors during lockdown has given a lot of people more time to focus on their creative endeavours 鈹€ including Brit Award-winning singer-songwriter Tom Walker.

He spoke to TUNE about how lockdown has given him the opportunity to write new songs for the follow-up to his debut album What A Time To Be Alive, and treated the show to an exclusive performance of new track Wait For You.

Tom Walker 鈥� Wait For You

Tom Walker performs 'Wait For You' at home for TUNE.

Tom knows that lockdown has affected different people in different ways and is acutely aware of just how hard it has hit some of those people closest to him:

"It’s really tough for some people. I’ve got a lot of mates that have had to move back home out of their flats and stuff to save money. I just wanted to write something that was a bit positive and hopeful."

Wait For You, however, is not based on an experience of someone living through lockdown, but rather the inspiration Tom got from the way one of his friends reacted to a traumatic experience 15 years ago with a positive outlook:

"[It was] a traumatic and scary thing [for my friend] to deal with at the time, but it’s turned them into a nice, bubbly, amazing person who’s better-equipped to deal with life now. I think that’s something special 鈹€ especially at a time like this where the whole world is flipped upside down on its head."

Although lockdown has impacted Tom's ability to undertake his tour, it certainly hasn't quelled his ability for songwriting:

"I've done 12 songs over the last 8 weeks 鈹€ which is a lot really when you consider it's been writing on Zoom sessions and stuff like that.

"There's quiet a lot to write about at the moment, I guess that’s the one silver lining from the whole situation that I can take."

TUNE host Kerr Okan joking that you could write songs about the different parts of your house spawned an impromptu, MTV Cribs-style guided tour of Tom's room 鈹€ with a poster of a Stevie Wonder-headlined festival one of the room contents Tom highlighted:

"I was playing one of the stages at 11 o'clock in the morning... so technically I've supported Stevie Wonder."

Kerr also quizzed Tom on why the singer can often be heard speaking with a thick Scottish accent.

"My whole family are Scottish, so I speak to them in a Scottish accent and to English people in an English accent."

The Walker family moving from Glasgow to England when Tom was three-and-a-half years old meant that Tom has been adopting both accents for most of his life:

"I was super young, but of course grew up in a Glaswegian household 鈹€ it just wasn’t in Scotland. I was obviously at school with English kids, so I’ve got this weird thing where I just switch accents."