[Premiere] Tom Atkin pens a gritty letter to himself on debut single

Hull-raised, London-based songwriter and artist Tom Atkin’s debut single “Lil Fucker” is a fuzzed out piece of bliss. Over hazy guitars and a dusty trap-leaning beat, Tom’s unmistakable vocal delivers a scathing narrative that playfully toys with the crushing lows of modern life. “Lil Fucker” manages to be both commanding and blasé, and it’s the exploration of both these emotions that gives the track its power.

Co-written and produced by London-based South-American artist Attawalpa, “Lil Fucker,” along with the forthcoming debut project of the same name, were almost lost on an old hard drive until lockdown brought them back into fruition when Tom was considering his creative output.

Speaking to the debut, Tom outlines that, “’Lil Fucker’ is quite a personal song and in essence, is self-referential in regards to, on occasion taking things for granted. In regards to the production, we tried to harmonise my interests of older icons with some new, and this song and the rest of the EP tells a short but vivid story of an emotional stage in my life. I sat on this for a while and it feels like a good time to release this song in particular.”

Speak to the video he continues, “The video for ‘Lil Fucker’ is the first of a three-part short film. Each part visualises the story throughout the EP, and my idea behind this is me going through the conceptualised emotions with an alternate version of myself, or an alter ego. The story behind the video for ‘Lil Fucker,’ in particular, is having a word with ‘myself,’ if you know what I mean.”