No shackles for Tom Santa

Tom is a UC resident from Geelong studying a business degree at RMIT. Tom grew up playing soccer but he also has a side passion for music, which recently garnered him worldwide attention. We spoke to Tom about his time at UC and how he ended up signing a record deal!

What have been your most memorable college experiences so far?

It has to be O-Week for sure. Meeting all the lovely people here, having a couple of drinks with mates at orientation events and just enjoying everyone’s company. Then the UC ball was my favourite event; suiting up with the lads can’t be beaten. It was an amazing night seeing everyone dressed up and having a laugh.

What made you choose to come to college?

I had mates here last year so I popped by a few times and loved every single visit. The culture is like no other, and everyone I met was amazing. I wanted to surround myself with supportive people so I thought, why not come to College!

How long have you been making music and how did you start?

I started off playing drums back in the day. One day my older sister went to Falls Festival and showed me videos of the event. I was instantly captured by the lights and the loud music, so I downloaded some software on my computer and slowly taught myself how to produce music by experimenting with different genres. That’s how it started! I came across the house/tech house genre and loved how diverse it could be, so I stuck with it.

As the years passed I began releasing music on SoundCloud and started gaining a fan base. I came across a sample by Mary Mary called Shackles and had an idea. The spark of inspiration became a project and my single Rainfall (Shackles) came out perfectly. Just after this most recent Christmas, I’ve been approached by some of the biggest labels around the world wanting to sign the single, including Polydor Records, Ministry Of Sound, Relentless Records and Universal Music. I felt Polydor was the right home for me, so I’m now a Polydor artist and have released the single all over the world. It has accumulated close to 10 million streams worldwide. I couldn’t be any happier, but there’s a long way to go.

What is your dream job?

My dream job is music producing and performing live and I’m lucky enough to be doing that right now.

Where do we find your music?

You can find me on Spotify, SoundCloud and Apple Music as Tom Santa. You can also follow me on Instagram @tomsanta_. The link in bio will take you to all my music platforms or scan the QR code below!