Sunderland musician Tom A. Smith has announced his long-awaited debut album, The Golden Gates, and spoken publicly for the first time in a long time about living with a rare, life-limiting heart condition.
The 22-year-old singer-songwriter, who has been performing since childhood, was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, meaning he has only one functioning side of his heart.
By the age of four, he had undergone five life-saving open-heart operations, and he knows further medical intervention lies ahead.
In a personal statement accompanying the album announcement, Tom reveals how he spent much of his childhood ashamed of the surgical scars on his chest, even pretending to be ill to avoid swimming lessons and PE.
“I was scared of it. I couldn’t look at it in the mirror, I would pretend to be ill as a kid so I could miss things like swimming lessons or PE lessons because I was so scared of what the other children’s reactions may be,” he says.
“I was ashamed of it. People would say, it’s just a scar. It’s just a scar… It’s not just a scar.
“It’s a map of everything that has gotten me to where I am right now. It’s a symbol for everything myself, my family and hopefully all of you will continue to go through with me and there is absolutely nothing to be scared or ashamed of or to want to hide.”
Those scars now feature prominently on the artwork for The Golden Gates, which will be released on April 2, 2027, through Fiction Records.
Tom says he always knew he wanted his first album to address his condition, but needed to find the right time to tell his story.
“Though at first, when I started writing it, I was frustrated, angry and my emotions towards it hadn’t changed. I then started to think about how it impacted the people I love and finally I began to accept it, and in a sense, I started to appreciate it.”
He describes the process as: “Taking ownership of something that has owned me my whole life.”
Recorded in Sunderland and co-produced with Barry Hyde of The Futureheads, his former guitar teacher and long-time mentor, the 12-track album follows that emotional journey through frustration, love and acceptance.
Its first single, Carry That Weight, was co-written with The Maccabees’ Hugo White in a single day and explores Tom’s fears that his health could become a burden to someone he loves.
The album also features the urgent Everyone Else, introspective Answers and tender piano ballad Flower.
Tom first attracted attention as a young performer under the name Tom Mouse Smith and has gone on to play Glastonbury, SXSW and The Great Escape, sharing stages with artists including Elton John, The Kooks and Miles Kane.
But while his debut album is intensely personal, he is determined that it should be heard as a story of hope rather than adversity.
“The main thing for me is that this isn’t a sob story. It’s me being myself – and, as the final songs on the album show, there’s happiness in my acceptance of my situation.”
The Golden Gates is released on April 2, 2027, with Carry That Weight available now as its first single.