Tom’s Creative Canvas

Ideas be cooking today!

A special moment this weekend watching Stockport County Women with my girls (and friends).

When the goal went in, the reaction said it all.

The moments that stay with us are the ones we feel.

But what really stood out wasn’t just the result. It was the attitude on the pitch.

My daughter said to me, “They do a lot of low fives. They must be really good friends.”

Gratitude is a winning mindset.

Every tackle.
Every save.
Every pass.
Not just the goals.

Acknowledged. Valued. Celebrated.

That kind of culture says a lot. It shows my girls that success isn’t just about winning games. It’s about recognising each other, lifting each other, and being part of something bigger.

Stockport County Football Club

I've got a fun Friday question for you ...

Imagine yourself at 10 years old. What has happened between then and now that has allowed you to reach this point? How did you open the doors to get into the next room of opportunity?

I came up with 2 important things that helped me get into those rooms ...

I did it. At the start of this year, I set myself a challenge: release 8 songs.

Ideas that might never have seen the light of day unless I made a conscious effort to finish them.

This is “Six Words” 🎵

This song actually gave me a big burst of creative momentum. I started writing it last December, and while working out the lyrics and melody it put me in a space where I was recording little song ideas almost every day.

Some songs take me years to write, but Six Words came straight out of a conversation.

The main reason I didn’t release it sooner was the arrangement. After recording the original idea, I experimented with it in Suno. The first version kept that raw expression, but the more I refined it (the more generations), the more AI smoothed everything out and it started to lose something. It was too polished.

So this version is the best balance I could get and it required me to return back to the starting version.

Looking ahead, I’ve set myself a new goal: record some of these songs with human musicians. Maybe that will turn into live sessions — who knows.

When I look back on 2026, I’m pretty sure this will be one of those creative projects I’m glad I didn’t keep waiting on.

This song is called 'Darling' 🎵

Can Suno AI create duets? ... In my experience, it's not great at them. In hindsight, it would have been easier to have created the song with a male voice, and then another version with a female voice, and then cut them together. But I persisted.

But I persisted. Partly out of stubbornness. Partly curiosity.

New song 🎶 — Superstar

In the interest of keeping things fair… I wrote this ​song ​for Baby M number two.

​It's slightly more chaotic, louder, busier than the first song. You don't have to read too deeply into that 😅​ but it also leans into energy and optimism. Another little time capsule from a different chapter of life.

​Eagle eyed viewers may recognise the illustration. I created this during covid lockdown, and that's actually when Tom’s Creative Canvas was born. Not a business then. Just an idea.

This song is called 'Baby M', and it’s the very first thing I wrote when I became a dad in 2014.

Back then it only had a verse and a chorus. I didn’t finish the rest of the song until 10 years later. I’m sure I’m not the first creative to return to an unfinished piece but this one, as you can imagine, carries a lot of memory and meaning.

I was only a few years into my career when I became a dad. And it got me thinking about where work sits alongside family. How much of ourselves we allow to move between the two.

For some people, there’s a clear line. For others, it flows freely.

Perhaps there’s also this assumption that “artists” pour their personal lives into their work for everyone to see while the corporate world is expected to keep that part neatly contained. I worked within the arts, and I've worked within corporate. I setup Tom’s Creative Canvas to bridge the two more consciously because I knew some days I’d be talking to students, other days to artists, and some days to corporate professionals. Each time, presenting a slightly different version of myself.

But emotion, creativity, and storytelling matter for everyone.