Chichester singer-songwriter Tom Odell plays Bexhill in new era as independent artist

Tom released his new single Best Day Of My Life this spring via independent label, Mtheory/UROK– his first single as an independent artist.

Spokeswoman Katie Baptie said: “Having fulfilled his major label record deal in 2021, Tom began to look ahead to a new era, a new way of working, and embarked on an independent new chapter of his acclaimed career that sees him reclaiming control and taking back the reins of his artistry.

“Best Day Of My Life marks the first single of that new chapter. Perhaps one of the most poignant songs he’s ever written, the single tackles the emotional peaks and troughs of being alive and experiencing moments of euphoria following bouts of sadness. His newfound sense of freedom and clarity is palpable in the lyrics.”

Tom said: “I feel so free, so liberated to be an independent artist. Honestly there’s a huge amount of relief in this music, of just getting to do exactly what I want to do. I wanted to not cram in as many hooks as I could, not have the chorus at the front of the song, just create an environment where people can sit with the music and breathe.”

Discussing the single, he added: “I guess the idea behind this song was from my experience of sadness. After you’ve been through a really hard time, there are these incredible peaks of euphoria, these moments of almost uncontrollable joy, which you’re almost suspicious of.”

Katie added: “The accompanying official music video is a hypnotic animation of a person cycling. It was created by director Manshen Lo and produced by Nexus Studios. Perhaps best known for designing the cover of Sally Rooney’s latest novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, Lo’s approach to drawing has its roots in East Asia, whilst taking influence from sequential art and the ligne-claire style.

“Singer, songwriter and musician, Tom Odell was propelled straight to the forefront of the mainstream when his debut EP, Songs From Another Love, was released in 2012, catching mass attention and leading him to win a BRITs Critics’ Choice Award in 2013 and a place in BBC’s coveted Sound Of list. Later that year, his platinum-selling debut album Long Way Down was released to critical acclaim and went straight to #1 on the UK Albums Chart. Rightfully praised for his songwriting prowess, in 2014 Tom won the prestigious title of Songwriter Of The Year at the Ivor Novello Awards before his stunning cover of The Beatles’ ‘Real Love’ accompanied the highly anticipated and long-cherished John Lewis Christmas advert. Tom went on to release his second studio album, Wrong Crowd, in 2016, which charted at #2 and is BPI certified Gold, and his third studio album, Jubilee Road, was released in 2018.

“Tom’s dedicated work ethic became an obsession that culminated in crippling anxiety, leading to a dark period of mental health that Tom wrote his way through. These broader lyrical horizons needed to be matched by a musical expansion, coming in the form of his genre-bending 2021 fourth studio album, Monsters, the final album to fulfil his major label record deal with Columbia Records. The album’s DIY and electronic sound was crafted in a threadbare way using instruments he had to hand during the height of the pandemic like Moog synths - a move underpinned by both necessity and a desire to explore. Now an independent artist, free from the constraints of a major label, Tom Odell has stripped things back.”