In conversation with Vance Joy

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This article was published 12/08/2015 (3945 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Vance Joy is on a roll.

The Australian singer-songwriter (whose real name is James Keogh) signed a five-album deal with Atlantic in 2013. He’s attained critical and commercial success for his ukulele-tinged blockbuster single Riptide from his first full-length album, 2014’s Dream Your Life Away, and was hand-picked to be an opening act for the biggest pop star in the universe, Taylor Swift.

To say things are good would be a massive understatement, but the 27-year-old is taking his success in stride, sounding humble, if not a little tired, via phone from Vancouver, only hours before playing in front of tens of thousands of fans as part of Swift’s 1989 World Tour. the folk-pop sensation plays Interstellar Rodeo at The Forks on Sunday, Aug. 16, at 7:20 p.m.

Free Press: How’s the tour with Taylor going so far?

Vance Joy: It’s been really fun; she’s a legend. Obviously it’s bigger crowds than I’ve ever played to before… most people have heard Riptide, but for the rest of the set, it’s playing to a crowd that you haven’t really won over yet, which is great. I’ve got three more months or so to go and it’s been a really good experience.

FP: Why do you think fans have latched on to Riptide so tightly? What about it makes it so successful?

VJ: I think songs have to be special and put together well; well-written and with the right amount of flavour. On the radio, the songs that jump out at you have that flavour, their ingredients are really good… like you’re cooking someone something pretty potent. Sometimes you just get the mix right, so there’s some luck in that. It could have a small life or it could do more than you ever imagine. It makes you think, you know, you never really know exactly what the formula is.

FP: With your first single being such a hit, where do you go from there? Do you worry about matching that success?

VJ: The only thing you can do is keep writing songs and keep touring, and every song has to live its own life. A good thing is trying to just let the songs come when they come… you just write the songs that are there to be written and as long as you have the feeling that it’s a good song, people will like it and some people will really love it. I’ve written other songs that have given me a similar feeling of pride and none of those songs have ever been as popular as Riptide, but that’s kind of hard to get.

FP: Your success felt very fast watching it from the outside — did it feel that way from the inside as well?

VJ: It was definitely quick in terms of like ‘What’s coming next? Doing this, doing this, doing this.’ I had the dream to start doing music back in 2009-10, but I didn’t have much to show for myself other than a couple of songs. It took a while for that all to formulate and finally I wrote a few songs and got some attention but that was in the start of 2012. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since then.

FP: How do you motivate yourself to perform at your peak when you’re playing so many shows, night after night?

VJ: You care about putting on good shows, so you want it to be good every night; in that way, you just try and build on it and build on it… Not every show is going to be the best show ever, but that’s the personal desire that you develop as a performer. Feeling more comfortable onstage, saying things you’ve never said before, just performing more strongly every night. And I think if that’s the goal, you’re going to be around the mark every time.

FP: When did you start getting into music?

VJ: I started playing when I was probably seven or eight — piano lessons at primary school. I wasn’t particularly in love with going to piano lessons; I didn’t like that I had to practise. I picked up a guitar when I was 14 and tried to learn a few popular songs, and once I could play Nirvana songs and stuff like that, then I started getting addicted and wanted to learn more.

FP: Is your family musical as well?

VJ: My dad loves music and enjoys singing but never did anything with it. My mom is really good with lyrics and stuff. My sister plays a little bit of guitar and my brother plays a bit of piano, but I was the one repeatedly playing, pissing everyone off because I was playing while they were trying to watch television (laughs).

FP: Does your mom ever send you ideas for lyrics?

VJ: Sometimes, yeah! She’s an English teacher and she can string a good sentence together — better than I can (laughs) — so I’m happy to hear what she’s got to say. 

FP: Dream Your Life Away is full of songs from your EP (God Loves You When You’re Dancing) and other songs you had years to work on. Is there more pressure now that you have less time to work on your second (and third and fourth and fifth) album?

VJ: It’s funny, because I have a lot of loose ends with songs that I might have had started four years ago but they just never found a place. A lot of the songs can be a long time coming and even though the distance between albums is two years, there might be songs that have wanted to be written for five years, so in that way, you’re always building on stuff that’s been there for a while. But it’s true when you have less time, you’ve got less time to really hone those songs before you record them.

FP: So you’re already working on new stuff for the next album then?

VJ: I think I’m always wanting to write new songs and always chipping away. It’s best for it to be a natural process — you have to just pick up the guitar when you feel like doing it. If there’s no desire to do it, it’s maybe not worth it. But, some days you do just have do it… you’ve certainly gotta sit down and make some of it happen sometimes, because if you don’t ever do that, and you wait for the perfect moment, you’ll be waiting all your life.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @Nirerabel