We spoke to the producer and songwriter about her new song Broad Strokes
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY CALLUM WALKER HUTCHINSON
It’s not often that you find yourself asking someone which song on their upcoming album would be enjoyed by their childhood pet lizard. But then again, it’s not often that you get to interview TOMI.
Logging onto the Zoom call with an infectious smile, producer and songwriter Pam Autuori (TOMI) is gearing up to show the world her new track Broad Strokes. Pam is a sapphic industry icon. Her hits like If I Wasn’t Yours, Who Was I have garnered over 800,000 streams on Spotify alone and she’s written and produced alongside the likes of Tove Lo, Vérité, and Bre Kennedy.
Released today, her new song Broad Strokes was inspired by a previous long-distance relationship. While Pam could spend hours on the phone talking, her partner was happier to reply in vague and “broad stroke” terms. Broad Strokes is a song which explores the uncertainty and anxiety that comes from being with someone very different from yourself. Packed with nostalgic synths and melodies, Pam sums up the song as being “the perfect storm of synth, sad, love song vibe”.
Before Pam was TOMI, she was an emo 12-year-old who needed an escape from the hormone-fuelled angst of her teenage years. Music became that outlet for her.
It was also at 12 that Pam came out to her friends and family as a lesbian. “It was an intense time,” she explains. “I was a kid. I didn’t know what was happening. It didn’t go over that great with my family. Some of my friends thought I was weird. It was a troubling time.”
“Music was a place where I could talk about all my feelings without having to say anything. I could express my emotions through the chords I played.”
You may be wondering where the lizard comes in. I’m getting there. Pam laughs when I ask where the name comes from. “I had this lizard when I was seven and that was the lizard’s name. He lives on. Everyone thinks it’s going to be a profound story but it’s just my lizard!”
Broad Strokes comes from Pam’s album Late Bloomer which will hit your headphones on 13 October. The record is a nod to her past self, the version of herself who returned home on 13 October 2020 feeling raw and uncertain about the world.
“I felt like everything had gone somewhere else. I didn’t know my purpose, or what I was doing, or what to do with this body and mind,” she explains. “It was confusing. This record is an ode to that. I’m closing this chapter and putting it out to the world and letting it live and breathe and be whatever it’s going to be.”
Alongside being a talented singer, Pam finds joy in working alongside other musicians as a producer. She jokes that when she started in the industry it fit the stereotype of studios being full of men in suits telling women how to write their songs. Now, queer women like Pam have a space to express their love, and their music, and exert their agency in the music industry.
So, what does Pam hope listeners take from her upcoming album Late Bloomer?
“I hope that it brings a sense of clarity and understanding. I wrote this about going through my 20s – it’s a time where everything is so chaotic and so intense, and everything feels great, and everything feels like an epiphany, and everything feels like it’s going to fall apart. All of those feelings are okay and life just keeps going on. I don’t think I realised that until I went through another decade.”
Broad Strokes is out now! Keep your eyes peeled for Late Bloomer in October.
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