Tom Brown.
After getting a drum kit for their 7th birthday, it didn’t take long for Tom Brown (real name Tom Fawkner) to fall in love with music. “I remember learning the drums by playing along to Led Zeppelin IV. Then when I was about 14 and living in Katherine in the Northern Territory I got access to a laptop with Ableton and that’s when I started making up my own songs, I was finally able to layer instruments! That’s when I picked up the guitar and started to sing and write lyrics,” Brown says.
Now 22 and based in Fremantle, Western Australia, you can hear these formative experiences seep into through their music both sonically and lyrically in quite a conscious way: “The main goal for this first album is to capture exactly how I was feeling at the time without trying to sound smart and without fear of how it could be perceived. I want to be as honest as possible, and this is why I decided to make the album in my bedroom”. The footprints of other bedroom pop artists who’ve shaped Brown’s sound and expression loom close by, such as Alex G, Clairo, and Car Seat Headrest. But to limit Brown’s music to only this label risks leaving out their knack for surpassing a confined atmosphere to hit musical moments much larger across the album, stitched together by a strong emotive thread. Potent vocal and guitar lines layer and linger in heads for days to come and skate atop succinct lo-fi production; introducing Tom Brown as a young artist setting the bar high and setting themselves up for an enticing year.