Starting out sounding like a voice memo, Thomas Porter releases new sentimental love song "Tired".
"Tired" is relatable and real. Sunny acoustic ukulele strums usher you into a glorious lo-fi medley where warm, breezy vocals muse on a life with the person you love. There is something so pure and lovely about just being tired with the person you love and not worried about running off to the next thing. I know my girlfriend and I both are working a lot and when I heard this song it made me think about the time we just spend doing nothing other than enjoying each other's company not needing anything else. Love can be shown in more ways than grand gestures and big displays of affection. Sometimes just making the choice to spend that tired time together is a love language in and of itself.
Upon first listen of the debut track you’d think Thomas Porter was a novice who struck gold. With its effortless pop sound and undeniably refreshing hook, "Tired"'s simplicity makes it quaint and memorable. However, Porter is no novice; he picked up his first instrument at just seven years old and later began writing music at age 11. "I’ve been learning saxophone since I was in year 2 at school," he shares. "I don’t play it much anymore but I went through all of the classical training. So, I am a classically trained saxophone player and it gave me that base level of classical training."
Taking that bedrock of musical knowledge and converting it into pop-music-magic follows the cues that Porter has taken from his musical heroes, including the likes of Foster The People and Australia’s own Cat Empire. Other inspirations include The Beach Boys, specifically their album Pet Sounds. "That wall of sound, I live and die by that," says Porter. "Brian Wilson did everything himself, everything was an absolute hodge-podge of 'that shouldn’t work' but it did and that’s how I approach everything.”
With the emergence of artists like Flume and Porter Robinson as international stars, Porter was drawn to the world of EDM, producing tracks and posting them to Soundcloud under a pseudonym where he built a small yet loyal following of online fans.
Always evolving though, Porter drifted away from EDM back to his roots as a creator. His new-found fan base provided him with a sense of confidence to once again return to his first musical passion– writing his own songs and expressing himself in as an honest a way as possible. Thus the music of today’s Thomas Porter was finally born. Debut single "Tired," released via stalwart indie label Dew Process, marks the beginning of more dreamy things to come from this singer-songwriter.
"For me this feels like pop music for people that don’t necessarily want to admit they love pop music in a lot of ways," says Porter. "I’m hoping that people see the honesty of it. That they see real rawness. Authenticity is so hard to come by now. I’m a lot of things and I’m not a lot of things, but I realize that all I have is this."
Review by Hannah Schneider