Sandi Thom

Sandi Thom, born Alexandria Thom in Banff, Aberdeenshire, is a Scottish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She attends Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen and later becomes the youngest student accepted at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA). She graduates from LIPA in 2003 with a BA (Hons) in Performing Arts.

Career

Thom moves to London in 2004 to focus on songwriting and works with co-writers Jake Field, Duncan Thompson and Tom Gilbert. She signs to Windswept Pacific Music and its UK arm, P&P Songs, in 2005, and receives £25,000. Her debut single, I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair), is first issued on the independent label Viking Legacy before being re-released through RCA Records UK after she signs to Sony.

She gains wider recognition in 2006 through a series of webcasts from her basement in Tooting and the commercial breakthrough of I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair). The single reaches number one in the UK singles chart, reaches the top 10 in Ireland, and spends ten consecutive weeks at number one in Australia, where it becomes the highest-selling single of 2006. It is later nominated for Best British Single at the Brit Awards. Thom performs on Top of the Pops in May 2006.

Albums and recordings

Thom's debut album, Smile... It Confuses People, is released in 2006 and debuts at number one in the UK, selling over 700,000 copies worldwide. Her second album, The Pink & the Lily, follows in 2008. In 2009, Sony/BMG releases The Best of Sandi Thom without her consent to fulfil contractual obligations.

Her third studio album, Merchants and Thieves, appears in 2010 and is released independently. The lead single, This Ol' World, features guitarist Joe Bonamassa, who is then her boyfriend. Her fourth studio album, Flesh and Blood, is released in 2012 and is recorded in Nashville at 16 Ton Studios. It includes guest producer Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes, along with Audley Freed and Rolling Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys.

Thom's fifth studio album, The Covers Collection, is released in 2013. She presents it as an acoustic set of songs she listens to as a teenager, including material associated with Nirvana, Guns N' Roses, Pearl Jam, Heart and Fleetwood Mac. She plays all the instruments on the record and produces it herself. Her album Ghosts follows in 2019.

Other work

Thom assists charity appeals for Oxfam's work in Malawi.