A NEW rock song from Wellington musician Tom Westlake titled ‘Something to Hope For’ has been chosen as one of the top ten national finalists of the UK Song Academy Young Songwriter Competition 2017.

Tom started writing and performing his own songs aged 14 and has not stopped since. He has had his songs played on BBC and commercial radio and continues to seize every opportunity to perform, on his own and with his band, Last One Home. The band released their first single ‘Bring Down the Storm’ last December to much acclaim.

‘Something To Hope For’ is about not knowing where your life is taking you or what the future holds but having hope that your sacrifices will one day lead you to where you want to be.

Tom wrote the song at the beginning of this year, played the main instruments, performed the vocal tracks, recorded it all and produced and edited it on Logic Pro X, adding in extra instruments and orchestral parts to create the huge-sounding ambient rock song.

Tom said: “I’m very pleased that the track has reached the finals because this means that it will be listened to by a whole range of influential people in the music industry, such as performer Tom Odell and other songwriters and producers like Conor Maynard and Eg White.

“I hope to get some useful feedback and it’s really encouraging to have my song-writing potential recognised at this early stage in my career.”

The winner will be chosen in May and all finalists will perform in London in June to an audience which will include some of the judges. Tom is looking forward to getting on stage to deliver a storming, show-stopping set. 

Tom and Last One Home can be seen locally at Fake Festival in Longrun Meadow on Saturday, July 29, and at the Cobblestones in Bridgwater on Friday, June 2.