It has been nearly six years since Theo Tams was in the national spotlight. The final Canadian Idol winner in 2008 has seen his post-Idol life take him to Toronto, where he now resides, and continues to make music. His newest release is a six-song EP called Back Pocket, which was released in September.

GayCalgary.com last spoke to the former Albertan with the release of his debut album Give It All Away in 2009. A lot has has happened to Tams since then.

"It has been, in a way, just this incredible journey from Idol," he says. "Idol was such a personal thing for me, being on that show, it is ultimately my coming out story really. I was touring for a couple of years and performed for the troops in Afghanistan – which was insane. Then I took a good year and a half off doing no music at all and reconnecting with who I was before the show. I was reconnecting with friends and family I had lost touch with. Being on a show like that – and getting thrust into the industry so quickly – it is very easy to lose yourself a little bit. It was important for me to reconnect with myself, and then start the process over again, but on my own terms. I have been writing my own material and working with producers and a team that I was able to hand pick. The strongest and most personal music I have released to date is the EP that just came out."

Tams is now an independent artist, no longer affiliated with Sony Music which released Give It All Away. Leaving a label can be a difficult decision, but one that Tams was ready to face.

"For me it wasn’t necessarily a decision – it was the only decision. They were a big part of the first couple of years of my career, but the decision to leave was 100 per cent mutual. They weren’t, necessarily, willing to let me grow artistically in the way that I needed to, and I don’t know if I was willing to compromise my own artistic integrity enough to be the product they were looking for," he said, adding that pursuing music independently is a lot more satisfying. "It is a bit harder of a path to take, but it is a lot more gratifying. I don’t have the cloud of a label to answer to, and can do my own thing, and tell my own stories while still having a team to take advice from. But it is a team I get to choose – not [be] thrust into. It has been a more organic process."

Being without a label has been made easier by the Internet era. The ability to release individual songs through iTunes and engage fans through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been the key to success for multiple artists in the past few years, and Tams has utilized these tools to keep on the radar.

"It is the new way. Record labels are becoming less and less of a machine these days because the art of self-promotion has gone rampant. There definitely is something to be said about that. It is such a balance between marketing your music, and also how far you want to go with letting people into the depth of who you are as a person, outside of a performer and a songwriter. That is what makes it really special and cool."

With the release of Back Pocket and the first single "Stay" Tams is keeping busy, working in the studio with other projects while also promoting the new songs.

"It has been in the works a good two and a half to three years and it is only six songs!" he says of the EP. "There were so many times when I thought it was done and was like Ok, I am ready. Let’s go. There was this insecurity that it wasn’t quite finished yet. Then I wrote the song "Hang On For Tomorrow", which was the final track we did. When that song was written, I felt we have the six songs that best represent where my life is at. Out of the six songs on that record five are about one specific person, and it tells the arc of this story that was important for me to tell. It was nice to do a project that is smaller and more intimate. When you do a full-length record you end up with six of seven really strong songs and the rest are just filler. I don’t want to release that kind of project. I want every song I release to have its own life and breath, and not release something to meet a time commitment to a full release."

With six years having passed since the final season of Canadian Idol, aside from Jacob Hoggard, who was runner up in Season 3 and now fronts Hedley, Season 4 winner Eva Avila and Season 5 third place runner up Carly Rae Jepson have had mainstream success. Others continue to make music independently or have had success in musical theatre. Tams looks at the positives of that experience and what he learned from the show.

"For me to say that expectations were met – whether mine or the public’s – would be a bit of a stretch. I had five seasons before me and I had seen what those winners had done, and [what] their career path looked like, and I knew that mine most likely wasn’t going to be that different. Idol was simply a very small stepping stone into this crazy industry. For me, that is what it was, and it fulfilled its purpose that way. It is hard to look back in hindsight and wonder if I didn’t do the show where would my career be? Would it be better or would I have not even have had the opportunities I have now? It is almost a waste of energy to look back. It was such an incredible experience, for me personally, and I have to look back on it that way. Some of the friendships I made and the experience alone; being on a show like Idol or X-Factor is a crash course on being in this industry. If you accept it for what it is, rather than the glorious expectations that are not only suggested to the viewing audience but the participants of the show, if you strip it down to what you can learn being on it, then it becomes the program it was intended to be: to recognize talent and give it even the smallest kick start into the industry."

Tams’s 2009 album Give It All Away was one of the strongest releases from an Idol participant. Despite not rushing the album, and Tams getting a number of songwriting credits on the album, it didn’t end up being the success that it should have been.

"I would say that there are a few factors. Just being branded as an ‘Idol winner’ immediately discredits the talent and artistry behind a product. I was the sixth winner and Sony Canada was contracted to do eight winners of the show. They see you as a priority for maybe nine months and that’s it. Since I took nine months to make the record, I don’t know that it got the momentum and marketing behind it that it deserved. It had a couple of really great singles that established me on A/C radio. To ask myself the ‘what ifs’ about that record, I don’t know how helpful that is for my sanity or career moving forward. Focusing on this project – and projects in my future – is a much better use of my time."

Tams is busy not only with the new EP but also with his band Beyond The Mountain. Along with Kyra Crilly (cello/viola/melodica), Jacob Mouka (vocals/guitar), and Rafael Rodriguez (percussion), the bands sound is very different from his solo music.

"I have never been in a band before, and while I definitely have experience co-writing, co-writing for a band is so different because every single opinion has to be validated and heard. Some of the songs in Beyond the Mountain would never be on my solo records. I think that is what makes them so special in both projects. It is interesting to see where my instincts as a solo artist takes me, compared to what I can contribute to other artists, and see what happens when we all put our own flair onto these songs. It is the exact same thing with Ali (Slaight, who Tams has released Christmas singles with). Her songwriting instincts are so different then mine. We wrote an original Christmas tune this year and I just heard the first mix of it and am really excited. It is so different, but that is what makes it really fun – to see where someone else is coming from, and mix it with where I am coming from, and find that sweet balance."

Before Adam Lambert made headlines on American Idol, Tams won his season and was the first gay winner of the show. He paid homage with a same-sex couple in the video for "Lazy Lovers" and was not closeted, but in interviews and with media his focus was more on the music and he did not discuss his sexuality much.

"It is because I had just won the show. It was never about being not as comfortable, but about trying to shift the focus, which is still something I am constantly trying to do. I am 100 per cent open and very proud, and in a great relationship that I love speaking about. But when it comes to my music let’s talk about the music; that is why I do it. It was a mountain to climb right after I won because, not only was I the winner of Canadian Idol, I was the first ‘openly gay winner of an Idol anywhere’. It was this role that I had to assume. If we are going to be promoting this record, and I am pushed into the role, how much attention is going to that instead of the music? That is just a balance, which is what has been so great about this project. It isn’t spoken so much about anymore because it is just known, which is more comfortable for me, and hopefully the listeners as well."

With more and more artists out, like Sam Smith and Adam Lambert, Tams feels that there is a shift of perception of LGBT artists.

"I think that is what every gay artist out there is working towards – it being much more socially acceptable. Those little pro-noun shifts. Why shouldn’t we be able to say ‘he’ instead of ‘she’? I think public acceptance is starting to shift, but we aren’t entirely there. But the start of the shift is a positive thing."

While currently in studio with Slaight finishing off some Christmas songs, Tams is hoping to tour in 2015. Aside from an opening spot on tour with Matt Dusk and some appearances at the Lethbridge Exhibition, Tams hasn’t played his home province much and is excited to return.

"We probably won’t consider it until February. The band is releasing a project as well at that time and we are thinking of touring as well. To be able to combine the two tours would be ideal. That is definitely on the horizon. We would probably split it into three smaller tours. Do Ontario and Montreal as one, and an East Coast tour, and then a prairie tour. I love playing back at home; it has always been such a welcoming audience. It is a shame that I haven’t been able to do it more. The focus has been on the EP. To be able to go back and showcase these new songs will be such a privilege, so I hope it will happen for sure."

Having built a life in Toronto, leaving his friends and partner to hit the road is also something he is readying for.

"That is definitely something that I don’t know if it is a worry. It isn’t so much mentally preparing myself as preparing my partner for the fact that I am going to be gone. Just the foundation of any great relationship is communication. I know I am supported and encouraged by him in a way that I don’t think I ever have been. We are both really excited that this EP is out and seeing the single starting to chart. To have someone in my life for the last three and a half years, and having built this project together in a weird way, and celebrate the success of it is really exciting."

Back Pocket is an upbeat and positive record. Often piano-driven music can be quite somber, but there is an energy to the songs that will make you smile. Talking to Tams, it is clear that he is in a very good place, and very happy with his career and life.

"I listen to songs that I wrote ten or twelve years ago and there is this underlying darkness and sadness to them. There is nothing wrong with that – it was a vice for me. I still think that I have a bad day and the first thing I want to do is sit down at the piano and turn the lights off and light candles and have a glass of wine and meditate with this instrument – try and find a way to sort through these emotions. What I have done, over the past couple of years, is to challenge myself to not just do that in challenging times, but also when I am feeling amazing and excited and really happy to sit down and express those feelings through music. It isn’t something I instinctually do, and something I feel I accomplished on this EP. With songs like "When You’re Not Around" and "Mojave Sun" I kind of dove into a different way of approaching songwriting. I think I am much more secure in who I am as an artist and a person than I was six years ago, and I hope that is something that resonates with the people who listen."