Theo Tams is rediscovering his identity as an artist. With his upcoming EP, the Canadian singer/songwriter demonstrates a remarkable command of R&B-laced pop music, his silky tenor the unwavering guiding light. As evidenced on lead single, “Therapy,” a sticky mid-tempo jam, Tams slides across the melody with an enrapturing charm, and his vulnerability is as much on display.
Two years since his last record, 2018’s Call the Doctor, what is most evident is his fearlessness to cannonball right into fresh sonic waves. “I knew that I really wanted to just dive into this evolution and a different sound. All the new music was an exercise in the spirit of saying yes to new things,” he says. “There’s so many times that I feel the industry or public perception put me in a box. Going into this project, I realized regardless of whether they put me in a box, it was my job to burst out of it.”
Tams also needed to rearrange tendencies to fall back into his own self-imposed creative categories. His songwriting remains at the heart of this new strain of pop, yet he peels back layers in ways he hadn’t explored before. “I just don’t know how to love you / Just don’t know how to be / Committed to you, baby / So effortlessly,” he sings, grappling with a resurging self-sabotage.
“It is definitely something that I continue to fight against and try to recognize. It’s about finding the person you’re meant to be with but not believing in your ability to love them the way they need it,” Tams explains of the song, “or the way you think you can give it. It’s about second guessing everything even though it feels perfect. You’re scared that it feels so right, so you start looking for what could be wrong.”
With the slow burning production of standout track, “Jekyll Hyde Love,” Tams explores both the positive and negative intensities he brings to his relationship. “I’m a total Cancer so I feel that when I’m on, I’m on,” he explains. “But when I’m off, I’m full on terrible. Part of growing older has been accepting my weaknesses and learning how to coast.” The song was written about those aspects in a relationship, accepting the fact that those extremes can also be what keeps things fresh, new, and exciting. “I’d rather be on a roller coaster than a merry-go-round any day,” says Tams.
Tams investigates his flaws on “Fixable,” which he explains is “really about stubbornness. “I think that’s one of my biggest weaknesses sometimes, being really hard headed. It can serve me well in certain situations but romantically it’s a downfall.” Through downtempo and smooth R&B, Tams expresses that wish to be more malleable and flexible, captured in the song’s refrain of “bend before the break.”
“[It’s] the moment where you really have to decide if things have gone too far, or if there is still passion to fix the cracks. [There is] also [the realization] that broken parts and fucked moments are an unfortunate part of having a heart,” he adds.