Adelaide singer songwriter Tom West recently released his stunning EP Oncoming Clouds after spending the past month wowing audiences internationally playing shows in the US and Canada including official showcases at Canadian Music Week (CMW).
Oncoming Clouds built around West’s love for adventure, whether that be in stories, books, films or his own life. Conjuring up experiences from his mind’s eye, West’s music breezes by like a daydream themed around West’s lush vocals, uplifting choruses and the interplay of acoustic, electric guitars and banjo.
West explains the meaning behind this EP “For me, the rest of the EP kind of focuses into Big Balloon musically, and it’s a nice thematic counterweight to the rest of Oncoming Clouds which is fairly mellow. It is my favourite song from the record.” To celebrate the released of this impressive record, West has given us a track by track run down of the EP which you can check out below.
Easy, Love
I wrote ‘Easy, Love’ pretty much in one moment while I was sitting on a balcony in Brisbane in September last year and it didn’t really take much tinkering after that.
At the time I was thinking about some feedback I’d received from my family (perhaps jokingly) that my songs were too deep and meaningful (which they’re not really!) and that I should write something straightforward. I therefore decided to pen something that I thought was super, super simple and relatable – Easy, Love.
The Call
‘The Call’ was one of the first songs I wrote out of the current collection. I did something that I wouldn’t usually do: I sat down and set out to write a catchy song without really having any ideas to start with.
So, I think, consequently the song and lyrics are a fairly pure reflection of my thoughts at that time, and best summarises the mood of the EP. I also spent a rather lot of time getting the overdubs sounding right, particularly the guitar parts and vocal harmonies.
Icarus
This song came together out of a couple of different concepts that I had on the boil for some time, but could never get quite right – especially the refrain in the chorus. I think that it was the acoustic guitar part that underlies most of the song that eventually tied everything together. In a similar vein to The Call the imagery focuses on a search for something while also contemplating how close to the sun you’re willing to fly.
Big Balloon
‘Big Balloon’ is a song about ultimately about adventure, I think. I love adventure, whether it is in stories, films, or my own life (which is usually not very adventurous, but I sometimes try) so I focused on some experiences and pictures that I have in my mind’s eye related to that theme and I aimed to work those images into the song. I think that they all kind of merged into a daydream like mash-up, which I quite like.
As I developed the basic parts to the song, the acoustic guitar, the drum line and the melody, it felt natural that this song would be a more upbeat one; so I continued down that path by boosting the choruses with some lush vocal parts (kindly supplied by my friends) and then the electric guitar. A lot of these parts were tracked at Todd Sibbin’s studio and he supplied the banjo riffs that roll through, and emphasize, the song.
For me, the rest of the EP kind of focuses into ‘Big Balloon’ musically, and it’s a nice thematic counterweight to the rest of Oncoming Clouds which is fairly mellow. It is my favorite song from the record.
City on the Lake
This is possibly the oldest song that I wrote for the EP. It is pretty much a reflection of a time that I was in Toronto, Canada, a few years ago – hence the title ‘City on the Lake’. Though the demoing process the song took on a few different sounds, eventually landing on the dark and kind of brooding vibe that it takes on for the record.
There is Nothing Else
This song started with the guitar riff that I play in the chorus parts, which I quite like. With that as a starting point, I built up from there a song about feeling lost and ultimately discovering, and finding comfort in, a vast expanse. Musically, I really like the fake-marimba riff that continues through the song, which was a part that I just played around with in my demos that ended up sticking.
A Shadow of Myself
The simplest song musically from the EP, and one of my favourite to play live, ‘A Shadow’ was written as I must have been having a nostalgic moment. John kindly added the pump organ to the chorus and outro which really makes the song.
Oncoming Clouds
This was another song that had been floating around for a while and that I had never really done anything with. It was quite a spontaneous decision to have this one mixed by John, and it bumped out another song that I had thought might have been a single from the EP.
I’m a big sucker for tracks that the finish albums of EP having a huge crescendo and in my demoing I guess I’d subconsciously (or deliberately) made Oncoming Clouds into just that kind of song, so there was very little work that had to be done on it in the studio, and that’s possibly why it snuck onto the EP. I’m glad that it did though, because its another songs that captures the mood of the record nicely, and is now obviously the title track.
Upcoming Shows
Sunday July 26 | The Grace Emily, Adelaide
More info at Tom West’s Facebook
