“Your eyes don’t lie, is this our last goodbye? I see it written on your face.” The brand new single from Australian based musical prodigy, Tom Jackson, is a straight up heart-breaker of a tune. Recorded in his home studio, ‘Goodbye’ sees Jackson playing every instrument himself as well as writing and recording the track. Working closely alongside producers to get the exact feel that he was looking for, Jackson said that the instrumental side of things “was heavily inspired by Khalid and Post Malone.” The musician’s vocal performance deserves a special mention as well. At just 19 years of age, Tom showcases remarkable confidence and undeniable talent. With a wide array of influences; everyone from The 1975 and 5 Seconds of Summer to Shawn Mendes and Khalid, Tom Jackson has managed to craft his own distinctive sound, and that will stand him in very good stead going forward.
Dave Matthews said that somebody’s broken heart can become your favourite song. ‘Goodbye’ is that song!
INDIE TOP 39
What does the song mean to you?
The process behind writing ‘Goodbye’ was a very therapeutic one. It’s about the night that my first proper relationship ended. I have found that my first experience with heart-break has been the most impactful and this song is not only my way of saying some things that I never got to say at the time, but also my way of saying goodbye to those feelings and moving on.
Tell us about your creative process and how the song came to be?
I normally start by building the instrumental to capture the vibe that I’m chasing and then I’ll structure vocals into that. In this instance, for ‘Goodbye,’ it started in 2018 with my good friend and drummer Oscar who I went to school with. He was showing me some beats he’d been working on and one of the synth lines in the track grabbed my ear straight away. We did some work on getting a rough groove down and then I took it back to my home studio. I finished writing and recording the track myself until I was happy with how it was all sitting. The song went through a lot of different variations, and I found it difficult to try and get the right kind of vibe out of it. I am currently working with Manny Park and Riley Knapp for my new EP, so the next step was sending it to them. After 2 years of back and forth, the song was finally finished in a way that I am super happy with.
What are your favourite lyrics in the song?
This is a tricky one that I haven’t actually thought about haha. I think my favorites in this song are either: “What’s left to say when words have come too late” or “I don’t know what to say ‘cause you knew best.” They both kind of say the same thing but I find a lot of the time I come up with things that I should have said after the argument is already over and it’s too late. I wanted to capture that feeling of when someone isn’t listening to you because they’ve already made up their mind so what’s the point of even arguing.
What do you want to achieve in the next 12 months with your music?
It’s been my dream to be a professional touring artist and play big shows around the world. I guess I want to continue to grow as an artist and hopefully expand my audience as much as possible. A big focus of mine at the moment is performing as much as possible. My band and I have quite a few gigs lined up at some local venues and I have my first headliner on the 20th of August which I’m super excited about. My new EP is also being finished up so I guess just releasing more music and playing as many shows as I can and seeing what happens from there.
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Now you can listen to all the 39 songs in one place, right here on Spotify!
This coverage was created in collaboration with Musosoup as part of the #SustainableCurator movement.
