British singer-songwriter Tom Grennan has expressed concern that he could be falling into the trap of making what he calls “boring pop”.
The 29-year-old’s track Not Over Yet, with rapper and YouTuber KSI, is his highest single chart performance as it reached number four, while two of his albums – 2021’s Everything Road and 2023’s What Ifs And Maybes – have been chart toppers.
Grennan told the Big Issue magazine: “I didn’t want to do music that was just gonna place me in this box. I wanted to be experimental, and not just doing down-the-line boring pop.
“I just felt like I was kind of slipping into something that I wasn’t in love with. So I was like, well, I need to start making the music that I love. Do it in my own way, and not fall down the trap of making music … shit pop basically, shit music. Wasn’t down for it.
“I felt like I was just kind of … not getting lazy with it, because I’ve never been lazy with it, but I was making decisions where it was like, ‘yeah that’ll do’ kind of thing. But yeah, not this one.”
Grennan says he had a wake-up call from his manager before releasing his new single, Higher on Friday.
He says his manager said: “There’s going to be 100 more of you, you’ve got one chance of this, like what are you doing?”
Grennan also says he has changed his habits by “training my bollocks off at the gym” from 6am, swapping who he hangs out with, and keeping to the same diet and sleeping patterns.
He said: “I don’t know how far I can go into this without me sounding like … I was just in a bad place, you know what I’m saying?
“I was doing all sorts of crazy shit, and now I’m not, and they’re just the changes I had to make.”
He is set to busk in his adoptive home of Coventry on September 26 to support the Big Issue.
“The Big Issue is an important magazine,” Grennan says.
“I think it helps a lot of people get back on their feet. It also highlights a lot of the things that are going on in the UK and across other places.”
Grennan’s other charity work has included completing 2024 London Marathon for homelessness charity Shelter, playing in Soccer Aid’s charity football match for Unicef, and being part of a charity version of Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water to raise funds for survivors of the Grenfell tragedy.
The Bedford-born singer has been nominated for gongs at the 2022 Brits – British song of the year for Little Bit Of Love and best rock/alternative act. He was given a nod again for best rock/alternative act in 2023.
At the 2022 Ivor Novello Awards, he was nominated for best song for Let’s Go Home Together, a track he did with Ella Henderson.
Read the full interview with Tom Grennan in this week’s Big Issue, out now.
