The Hull singer-songwriter, whose last album ‘Night Tales’ came out in 2020, teased his new single last month. He announced the release alongside a few live performances, including a live session for BBC Introducing.
Over the last six years Tom has released four studio albums, his 2016 debut ‘From The Outside In’ reached #32 in the iTunes singer-songwriter chart.
‘No Shame/No Rain’ serves as the first taste of Kay’s upcoming album that is due for release next year on his own label Drown The Noise Recordings.
Tom said: “This is the first track I’ve released in nearly two years and these are my first performances as a solo artist since 2019. I wrote, recorded and released the last album in the early stages of the pandemic as a project to keep me occupied but the way the government treated us musicians and artists was shocking. That played a part in me just stopping what I was doing altogether and focusing on other things in life. I started a new business and then my daughter was born. But after some time away I’m ready to get back to it and feel more confident in what I’m doing than I probably ever have in my career.”
The track was produced by Pat D and Carl Conway-Davis of The Broken Orchestra, who Tom has worked with closely for the last five years.
“I wanted to push this new album a little further into that world of subtlety and sometimes even embrace moments of almost silence. The last album was self-produced during the first lockdown, so I was excited to get back in a real studio for this one and working with Pat and Carl again was great. After five years of working together on several different projects, they immediately just know where I’m going with it and I’m excited to continue that journey.”
‘No Shame/No Rain’ will be available from all major digital music retailers and streaming services on Friday 3 June.
You can follow Tom Kay on Bandcamp and Facebook and his upcoming performances include:
Tuesday 5 July – St John’s Hotel, Hull
Friday 8 July – O’Rileys, Hull (with Loudhailer Electric Company and Sleeperman)
Saturday 16 July – BBC Introducing Live Session on BBC Radio Humberside