My demons are the inner voice saying: "I'm not good enough...

SINGER TOM GRENNAN REFLECTS ON HIS NEW ALBUM, AND THE MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES HE HAS HAD TO FACE UP TO.

- BY NAOMI CLARKE AND HANNAH ROBERTS

GRAPPLING with our inner demons is a challenge that escapes no one. And amid collecting No.1 albums, landing Brit Award nominations and selling out arenas over the last few years, Tom Grennan has had to face his head on.

"I think my demons are very much the inner voice saying: 'I'm not good enough", the Bedfordborn singer, 29, reveals.

"Being able to switch off that voice is a hard thing," he admits.

"My mind is a loud place and what helps is obviously music, and my exercise and therapy. It really helps."

Tom has been using his music as a vehicle to process his feelings of imposter syndrome. And although his new single Shadowboxing has the punchy beat of a pop banger, it explores the heavier story of taking on your inner critic for a few rounds in the ring.

The song parallels the singer's own life as he has masked his own negative emotions in the past with a smile.

"I've got a lot of imperfections and if I don't work at them in a positive way then I could easily fall down the trap of becoming somebody who I don't like and who I don't want to be," he says.

"I've met that person a few times, and it's not a nice place to be.

"I've learned that in life, and in your 20s, you're meant to have people come and have people go.

You can't always have everybody you thought that you would have in your life, they won't always be there.