Love, life, loss and the number eight

However, the number’s infinite symmetry is about beginnings and endings, life and death, for Goulburn Valley-born musician and actor Tom Nethersole.

Weaving its way backwards and forwards throughout his life, it’s the day of December he was born, the age he was when his mum died, the number of tracks on his newly released EP, Father, Son and the space in between, and the date in November he’ll perform songs from it live to a Shepparton audience.

“I see it (the number eight) as a sign that I’m on the right path, but I also wouldn’t see it as a lucky number, as other people would, because it’s so tied to these conflicting, very nuanced experiences,” Nethersole said.

“It reminds me that I’m human and we’re all experiencing this one life; it’s the good, the bad and the ugly.”

Four of the EP’s eight tracks have been released since March this year, each on a day that correlates with the birthday of one of Nethersole’s much-loved family members.

The EP itself was released on October 23; his father’s 60th birthday.

“It feels very sweet and very intentional to have done it that way,” Nethersole said.

The EP is about vulnerability, boyhood and coming of age; moving out and moving on.

“While it’s been a blessed life, very privileged, it’s always going to be challenging when things happen like losing my mum and growing up queer in regional Victoria,” Nethersole said.

“I think those kind of things can very much shape you.

“Even the little events, they can dictate those formative years.”

Featuring songs including Ardmona Rd, which explores the fantasy of bringing a future partner home to meet the family, the bus, a memoir of being confided in by another person who was queer, and DON’T KNOW WHY, a duet with Jax Giles-Webb about the relationships that keep you awake at night, the EP takes a deep dive into raw emotion.

Nethersole’s favourite track on it, however, is number seven, the mess that i am, released on his late mum’s September 30 birthday.

“It’s very honest and very vulnerable, about where I was with my mental health and how scared I was,” Nethersole said.

“I got to go over to Los Angeles to work with two other artists over there on that song and that felt really cool and cathartic to be sharing these really vulnerable stories with artists that I respect so much and who helped develop this song into what it is.”

Created with queer collaborators and four international producers, the EP has pop and folk influences from Ryan Beatty, Noah Kahan and Conan Gray, yet remains true to Nethersole’s own style.

“My music is like a soft punch to the gut,” he said.

“It’s very folk and centres around the brutal, the exciting and the vulnerable of our lives.”

The official launch of the EP will be at Brunswick’s Bergy Bandroom on November 15, but before that, Nethersole will perform a set at GV Pride’s Out in the Open Festival in Shepparton on November 8.

In December, he’ll take to the stage in Ballarat at Spilt Milk before embarking on a national tour next year.

Follow Tom Nethersole on his Facebook or Instagram, or listen to his music on Apple Music or Spotify.