Musician overcomes hearing loss to release album

"I’ve recorded this album as a celebration of my hearing and overcoming a serious and lifelong condition."

Tom Gockelen-Kozlowski says it was "shattering" to learn he could lose his hearing at any moment, and he spent the next three years listening to music non-stop.

"My productivity at work dived while I was thinking ‘maybe this is the last time I can listen to The Strokes’ Is This It,'" he says.

Diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2), he has lost all hearing on his left side and half on his right, but nevertheless he is about to release his debut album.

Tom, 37, from Oxford, goes under the stage name Tom Gk and has used a hearing aid since his mid-20s. He explains that NF2 "basically means I grow non-cancerous tumours on my nerves".

He says: "They really like growing in the head and around the ears... but the NHS is a marvellous thing and I started on an experimental drug [Bevacizumab] and it’s kept my hearing basically the same for 10 years."

Nevertheless, he had to make changes, including leaving his job as a music critic for the Daily Telegraph. During his time there he gave glowing reviews, such as the "moving sense of world-weariness" from Bob Dylan at Hop Farm Festival, and some less so (Keane's Night Train EP was "ploddingly predictable").

So he launched himself into comedy, writing four hour-long shows, including Hearing Loss: The Musical, which he performed at Edinburgh Fringe. He still takes to the stage weekly with improv group the Oxford Imps.

But Tom's big ambition was to make an album while he still could.

On a songwriting retreat organised by Mercury Prize-nominated folk singer Kathryn Williams he met up with Polly Paulusma, who he asked to produce his new batch of songs and help him through the process.

The focus was on tracks with catchy hooks, centred around Tom's guitar and voice. His love of acts like The Beatles, Beck, The White Stripes, XTC and others shines through.

"I wonder whether because I don’t have the hearing range that everybody does, whether that kind of memorable melody is the top thing," he says.

The result is the album Somehow We Made it, released on 31 January, and which he describes as "about me and the people around me - it’s been a journey".

First single Winning is a personal song that draws on the idea of cherishing life in the face of adversity.

"There’s a part of you that says I must now take full advantage of everything," he says.

"That I must live for the moment, I must be winning. The conceit of the song is that it’s pretty hard to do that."

Another track, One Star, was inspired by a particularly scathing review, in which the former critic received a taste of his own medicine.

It lyrics - "I’m a five star dreamer, four star musician/I’m a three star comic with some two star jokes/You’re my one star, I love you the most" - sum up Tom Gk's self-deprecating humour, prevalent in most of his work.

"You’ve got to [see the funny side]. Maybe I’ve got a lot of dark things I could sing about but I think that brings humour to my music."

About One Star he says: "You feel very exposed and naked when you have a review... I channelled that vulnerability and decided to turn it into a love song."

Tom admits when he plays live he cannot hear the audience. "You’re looking at the faces," he says, but he also enjoys the "blissful ignorance".

He adds: "When there's other noises about I can completely go to pieces". As a result performing solo currently suits him best, with the "idea of maybe being in a band scarier".

"Who knows? Maybe the next stage is me playing Glenn Miller style with a 26-piece big band."

Neurofibromatosis type 2

A genetic condition that causes tumours to grow along nerves, such as those responsible for hearing and balance.

Symptoms include:

• hearing loss that gradually gets worse over time

• hearing ringing or buzzing in the ears (tinnitus)

• balance problems – particularly when moving in the dark or walking on uneven ground

Source: NHS

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