His interest in music is largely down to his sister, who took him to small gigs of then-tiny artists she’d discovered on Tumblr in the early 2010s; the likes of The 1975, twenty one pilots and Ed Sheeran. He picked up the guitar after noticing how quickly those artists shot to fame.

And that’s exactly what Thomas is doing. Divine timing meant his move to London lined up with a TikTok boom – the platform where he found the most success after years of posting music to YouTube – and a global pandemic where he’d spend almost two years building up an online fanbase, releasing music and waiting to take both IRL.

“The small number of shows I’ve done before this tour were really small; they were so chill. But for these ones, I felt like Justin Bieber. There were fucking security guards that, like, their job was to make sure I was comfortable and safe. Which is amazing and incredible, but at the same time, they were constantly just like, ‘are you okay? Are you uncomfortable?’ And I was like, I don’t know! I got to meet a lot of people, but it was kind of scary at times and rushed. I do like meeting people, though, and I don’t want to ever stop doing that.”

Going into 2022, Thomas is armed with a new EP, his first release in almost a year. ‘Victoria’ sheds any last traces of his bedroom pop beginnings and builds something bigger. It’s concert-ready and darker in places, particularly on the title-track, which centres around a heartfelt story about a friend of his who passed away.

“I went through a bit of a crisis after my second EP, and I think I relearnt how I like making music and the music I want to make. The result is I didn’t release music for like 11 months, and then you know, just spent time – this is really deep sorry, but – I very much learned how to write based on proper personal experience.

While the process might have changed, a lot of the influences haven’t. Largely sitting alongside the work of his indie boy contemporaries, ‘Victoria’ also has hints of The 1975 at their most ballad-y (think ‘Robbers’ and ‘A Change of Heart’) and a clear potential to go arena-sized (which BTW, he’ll do later this year when he supports Sigrid on tour).

To be honest, it’s hard to take anything Thomas says as rude. He’s cheeky, yes, and effortlessly charming, and both are traits that he pulls through into his songwriting, penning little love stories and delivering them with a Matty Healy via Charlie from Busted (what a comparison to make in 2022) vocal.

Maybe that’s how he convinced his mum to let him move halfway across the globe at 18 to pursue his music dreams, instead of going to university (he was a child prodigy, you know, won a maths award in Year 10 and everything). Luckily for mum, he’s won the bet and then some.

After spending the last couple of years relegated to his bedroom, Thomas is ready to see the world (he mentions he’s jet-lagged from being in LA and New York; in a couple of days, he’d be jetting off to Paris), and you know, the world should be ready to see Thomas too. In an era of indie sad boys, he’s a big lovesick puppy slobbering all over.

Taken from the April 2022 edition of Dork, out now. Thomas Headon’s EP ‘Victoria’ is out now.