In the cover photo for this song there is a woman with her back to the camera. She is preparing the food for the family picnic and ensuring no one goes unfed. This is Jean, Tom’s grandmother. Jean passed on before Tom had the chance to meet her, but he still sees her in the garden and in the orchards his mum likes to paint. He still feels her presence in his life, and so ‘Jean’ is a letter to his grandmother to say, “I see you in everything.”

Around the time that Tom lost a young close friend, he begun to see death in a different light. He saw that death doesn’t have to have permanence or to be the end of a spirit’s life - we go on in the lives of those around us. He chose to convey these messages in a song rich with folk melodies, as for him, folk is a middle ground between saying things that often go unsaid, and music. To Tom, folk is a traditional language of self-reflection.

‘Jean’ features Tom’s iconic style of soft guitar and his husky voice that unravels a story painted in abstract visionary lyricism. Tom’s friend, Pia Nesvara, also accompanies the track with her allaying vocals. Another friend of Tom’s, Ryan Lynch, features on the flute, an instrument Tom has grown to appreciate more lately. ‘Jean’ is a song about death but also about the life of a child looking to the elders, and so the flute was the perfect instrument to illustrate these deeper feelings with a playful nature.

‘Jean’ is out officially this Friday, with a homemade video compiled from old family VHS videos on the way, before A Living Home is set to drop in August.