The Tide Is High

19 August 2014 | 10:36 pm | Bryget Chrisfield

I don’t really miss playing, but I love watching good games and kicking the footy with mates.

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Vance Joy (James Keogh on his footy records) possesses such a welcoming smile and warm presence that he’d be capable of making a jonesing crackhead feel at ease. He’s casually dressed, seated at a table in a boardroom at Mushroom Group’s HQ in Albert Park and those trademark unruly curls frame a genetically blessed face that’s too kind to be intimidating. He thoughtfully sips on black tea, teabag left in the cup, throughout our chat.

Having attended a Lorde concert the previous evening, during which the Kiwi songstress thanked her fanbase for every letter and handcrafted offering, this scribe wonders what kind of gifts Keogh receives. “I’ve only received a couple of small things, you know,” he shares. “I got one when I was signing at Groovin The Moo and this girl, actually she was a jeweller, she had written some lyrics on this little necklace thing. [She] gave it to me and it was so good! Then I got a teddy bear with a little card. And I got this beautiful, handwritten note saying, ‘I love your songs’… It’s so nice to have someone saying that to you.”

Keogh speaks at a million miles an hour, which necessitates the activation of slow playback on this dictaphone for transcribing purposes (for the first time ever). We go on to discuss an early Vance Joy performance at House Of Bricks – a small, boutique studio space in Collingwood. “Oh, god,” he whispers. “I think that might have been my little EP thing.” The EP of which Keogh speaks, God Loves You When You’re Dancing, was released back in March 2013. “That was a special night,” he remembers. “Yeah, House Of Bricks, that was just through a friend that I know – he was kinda running it – and it was a very low-key gallery for just, like, local artists and stuff. And I said, ‘Can I have a small – you know, family, friends and a few media people and record people to come and celebrate the EP release, and I’ll just set up?’ Yeah, those things are really cool, really special, ‘cause you’re just in the room with people – very intimate.” 

Since then, Keogh has graduated to not-so-intimate performance spaces such as Glastonbury, Lollapalooza and Splendour In The Grass (twice) well before his debut album was scheduled to drop. Keogh’s diction is outstanding throughout the Ryan Hadlock-produced Dream Your Life Away, which highlights the artist’s endearing turn of phrase. “Oh, thank you,” he says sincerely, before handballing credit to Hadlock: “I think you’re not always the best judge of [what] your best vocal take [is] and I feel like Ryan was good at coaching a great vocal take.”

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When you delve into Vance Joy lyric sheets, his words are carefully considered, drenched in charm and also surprisingly unique for such a young songwriter. So it comes as no surprise that his mum is an English teacher. “She gave me a lotta tips,” Keogh admits. “I think around Year 9 I started getting better [at English] – when I was about 14 – because I’d have an essay and I’d need a conclusion, and mum would just reel off a conclusion. Off the bat!… So I think having someone that can give you an example of good work helped me get better at English and I eventually got decent and, you know, loved English. And I never was a massive reader, but I’d really hone my essays with her help and I think that’s definitely influenced my songwriting.”

It’s easy to assume that masterfully written lyrics take their sweet time and torture lyricists, but Keogh agrees the phrases that connect with listeners are impossible to predict: “You might not even be aware when you’ve written a line that will react with people.”

There’s a line in Keogh’s smash hit single Riptide (also known to many as the Medibank song) that suggests Keogh has a massive crush on Michelle Pfeiffer: “Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you’ve ever seen.” He confesses: “Ah, I do! I do for those films, like, Fabulous Baker Boys and Batman Returns.” Catwoman, huh? He laughs self-consciously, “She looked so good in that! Like, amazing… Yeah, I’ve got a crush on her, but I think at the time I was just writing the song and I guess – what comes to mind when you think of a larger-than-life actress, you know? Big star power. I feel like her impression on the movie industry is – I dunno, I feel like it’s a lasting reference in that sense ‘cause, yeah! I mean, a lot of those things, like, you look at Family Guy – it’s all these references and you can totally date a movie by referencing popular culture.” And also Michelle Pfeiffer is one helluva pretty name that just rolls off the tongue. “Yeah, maybe that’s what it is as well that makes it work,” Keogh allows.

Riptide is right up there (to this pair of ears anyway) with Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know and Pharrell’s Happy in terms of it being a song that, despite extreme over-exposure, still stands up due to undeniably stellar songwriting. The song transports the listener back to family seaside holidays, teen crushes, first pashes at surf lifesaving club discos (or in the sand dunes if you were a bit slutty) and endless beach time discussing the previous night’s activities. “Riptide Motel is this motel in Queenscliff,” Keogh says. “I dunno if that actually was the reason why I said ‘Riptide’ but there was some kinda connection in some way to that beach ‘cause it’s so beautiful. We used to go holidaying in Queenscliff my whole life and it’s my favourite beach place. For me, [the song] brings back those memories of going there for holidays.” Although he’s yet to feature on a Queenscliff Music Festival line-up, Keogh offers, “Actually, that was my first live music experience: going there when I was a little kid.”

The song came in at number one in our most recent Hottest 100, ahead of Lorde’s Royals, and Keogh is the first to point out the result was an upset of sorts: “She was hot favourite, you know? Yeah, it’s crazy.” So where was Keogh as the results unfolded? “I was in New Zealand,” he recalls. “We were playing Laneway Festival, and we were in Auckland, and got off the plane and, um, we heard that Play With Fire was number 95. So it was just, like, we were in the 80s or something, and we had the afternoon to chill out. And then we kinda knew that – the station tell you that you might be in the top ten. They don’t know [the results], but they’re going, ‘On all our intuition, we think this is probably going to be in the top ten so we’re going to get you on the phone at this time.’

“So you’re with, like, ten other artists on the phone and counting down. You’re sitting in a studio and my managers were there, my band was there… There was a few Mushroom people and label people from New Zealand, and then there’s the radio people, ‘cause they brought us into some New Zealand studio. And so we were just sitting there and, yeah! It was unexpected, but that was a cool moment. It was nice to be around people ‘cause you could just get told one-on-one and be like, ‘Sweet!’”

There was no chance Keogh could wake up the next morning and wonder whether his win was a dream. “I got a bunch of text messages and I saw some good videos,” Keogh tells. “My mates were at a party, at a barbecue, and it was so good! They were losing their shit, so I’m so glad that that happened – to be able to see that, like, them at that party just dancing around and screaming. It was epic. So much elation, you know?” 

If this music thing doesn’t work out for him (unlikely), Keogh played VFL footy for two years with Coburg Football Club. Does he miss kicking a ball around? “Ahhhh, a little bit,” he ponders. “Not in the sense that – I don’t really miss playing, but I love watching good games and kicking the footy with mates. I’ve got a hacky sack at the moment, which is kind of tiding me over for just, ah, entertainment.”