“Be Up A Hello is a phrase that was used in my circle of friends when we were teenagers growing up in Essex but in particular it reminds me of a very good friend called Chris Marshall, who very sadly died of natural causes last year. He was only 44. I was devastated. I loved him to bits. He was only a year older than me but was like a father-figure in some ways. He made sure we were all safe when we were running around Chelmsford like little maniacs. Chris was very technically minded and we both went on a journey when we were kids, learning about synthesis, about how sound is mixed, about how samplers work… So with this album I tried to go back to the ways of making music that we’d investigated as kids. I went back to the analogue equipment.”
Ultimately Tom hopes Be Up A Hello stands up as new music which also pays tribute to a good mate who had to leave the party early. He concludes: “When we were 16, Chris and I used to listen to a lot of music driving about in his Dad’s Ford Escort. Before I started releasing records, this was the first outlet I ever had for my music, the first time I ever observed the effect my tracks would have on other people. Just outside Chelmsford there was this old disused and derelict barn you could just drive right into. We’d park the car up, open the car doors, crank the stereo up full and that was our club. And it was perfect.”