TOM Walker’s Leave A Light On is a pop smash that gives you hope.

A massive-sounding, mid-tempo ballad about trying to help your friends in difficulty, the hit by the Glasgow-born singer-songwriter – and now break-out global star – has so far racked up sales of over 570,000 in the UK and 1.8 million worldwide.

Having reached number one in the iTunes charts in 16 countries since its release in October 2017, Leave A Light On is starting to gain traction in Australia too, where the 26-year-old is on a promo trip when The National speaks with him.

“I thought it would be big because of the subject-matter,” says Walker, who is now based in London, where he studied music at university. Upbeat and self-effacing, he corrects himself.

“Well, it’s not that I thought it would be big – I thought, or more appropriately I hoped, that people would connect with it because of the subject-matter. It’s about addiction and touches on mental health which are subjects not everyone is talking about, but subjects I think people could use a bit of a dialogue on, especially as it seems that every other song in the charts is about jewellery and clubs and Lamborghinis.”

Walker is currently in Australia before returning to the UK for a full tour in support of his debut album What A Time To Be Alive. Produced by Mike Spencer (Years And Years, Rudimental, Jamiroquai), the album’s title is no ironic hipster joke – he means it. Walker makes pop with depth and the bravery to find reasons for optimism in a troubled world. Written or co-written by Walker, tracks such as the gusty Blessings and Dominoes speak of resilience, and the fact that there are more good people on the planet than the doom-laden news headlines would have us believe.

“There are lots of songs in the charts which have a great melody and they are great earworms but they don’t have a lot of substance in them,” says Walker. “The whole thing with the album was to make it about everyday life that everyone can relate to, and to give them a glimmer of hope as well as a look at what’s important to me. It’s made with the hope that people will reflect on what’s important to them as well.”

Walker says he’s no overnight success, and no one-man show either. Though his gravelly voice is a distinctive feature of his work, he “came late to the party”, and only started singing his own compositions because he didn’t know any vocalists when he moved to London to study. On the album he even shows he has a workable falsetto in Now You’re Gone, a break-up duet sung with Swedish pop star Zara Larsson.

“I made that track with [producer] Steve Mac and a girl called Chelsea Grimes about two years ago, and we were waiting for the right time to put it out,” says Walker. “One day in the studio, Steve was working with Zara and played her the track and she absolutely adored it. She decided to have a whack at the vocal.”

He continues: “Strangely, I didn’t think our voices would work well together, but we have a really nice back and fourth. She’s obviously a whole lot bigger than I am and she’s doing her own thing, so it’s very cool she jumped on the track and I’m absolutely buzzing about her being on my debut album”.

Walker first heard Larsson performing a track also produced by Spencer on Radio 1. Walker enjoyed working with the producer, who he says brings together “the best of the old school and the new”.

“He’s got this studio out in the sticks,” Walker says. “There were ducks that would sometimes walk around the studio. He’s got a parrot as well which flies around. The parrot got stuck in a tree one day and half way through a vocal session we had to stop and go to rescue it.”

Spencer is one of the over 2000 people whose image features on the cover art to the album. Designed and created by artist Craig Alan, the work features every single individual who has contributed to Walker’s record in some way, from his management team and people at Relentless Records, to his friends and family.

“The whole concept of the album for me was all the people involved coming together to make a bigger thing,” says Walker. “But I didn’t know how I wanted to see it realised until I saw a painting of Elvis by an artist called Craig Alan. The record company agreed to commission the painting, and I had to go through my Facebook and request photos from everybody.”

Walker adds: “There’s been a lot of people working on this, and who have influenced this, no matter big or small, and it’s a massive painting, like my own personal version of Where’s Wally?”

See Tom Walker perform at Glasgow’s QMU on October 10. Tickets cost £14. What A Time To Be Alive is out October 19 via Relentless Records.

www.iamtomwalker.com