RISING star Tom Grennan is pleased at his success so far – but reckons the best is yet come.

The singer-songwriter will play Saint Luke’s this Saturday, and he’s already booked a return date for next year at the O2 ABC.

With debut album Lighting Matches due to arrive next March life is looking good for the Bedford native.

“There will be stuff on the record that is going to surprise everyone,” he says.

“If you’re a fan of the singles that have come out, then be warned – the full album is way better. The singles have been like the small guns and now the big cannons are loaded, mate. We’ve got a full choir on it, an orchestra, there’s brass, there’s gospel singing. I’ve gone all in on it. With a debut album you gotta go big. And if this does well, then I’ll just go bigger the next time!”

Tom’s music taps into blues and soul, and he’s got a rasping voice that belies the fact he’s only in his early twenties. Bruising pop tunes like Found What I’ve Been Looking For and Royal Highness suggest a bright future, building on his break-through collaboration with Chase & Status back in September 2016.

However life could have been very different for the troubadour. A promising footballer in his youth, Tom was on the books of Aston Villa and a few other clubs, while he has a degree in acting. He only turned to music properly in his late teens, after singing while drunk at a party.

“I was always really into music, but it was when I was 18 or 19 that I really started to write songs,” he explains.

“At school it was all about football for me. I just wanted to go to the park with a ball and not come home till late. I was a decent player, and I think anyone would have swapped music for a football career if they could. But it didn’t happen, so I’m happy that I’m doing what I’m doing now.

“When I was 18 I started writing just to get stuff off my chest, really. It was about writing music that helped me, and then it ended up that people related to it. That’s a cool feeling.”

The singer is dyslexic, but hasn’t let that affect his writing at all.

“I can’t really spell but I know what I’m writing and what to write,” he says.

“I don’t think there is a right way or wrong way (of writing) so being dyslexic doesn’t affect that at all, it’s more reading that I have problems with sometimes.”

Although Tom is now being hyped up as one of music’s next big things, he’s staying nonplussed about it all. His attitude seems to be to just keep focusing on his own songs, and he admits that he’s been avoiding most music other than grime recently, so he can concentrate on his own ideas.

“I’m trying to stay out of what’s new and what’s current,” he says.

“I’m doing my thing, and just want to concentrate on that – I don’t want other people’s melodies in my head! Grime is more exciting to me just now. I grew up on that, but I do feel it’d be good if there were some sick guitar bands coming back. There’s good bands around but there’s not an Oasis or a Franz Ferdinand.”

The past couple of years might have been a whirlwind for the singer, yet he seems calm about it all.

“You just get used to things as you go on,” he says.

“I don’t think you can ever be an expert at this, or at most things. I’m still getting the hang of it all, but my dad’s a builder and he’s probably still getting the hang of that, too!”

Tom Grennan, Saint Luke’s, Saturday, £9, 7pm and then at the O2 ABC, March 23, £13