With a mission to make looping part of mainstream Aussie music, this musician is on track to become our next big music star regardless of whether or not he wins the reality singing show.

“I’ve never seen a vocal looper before,” Voice coach Kelly Rowland tells BW Magazine.

“I’d seen Ed Sheeran build his records that he has already done or sometimes he’d have a new one out of the bag that he’d put in to his shows but this just started something different and something new and something cool — and I wanted to be a part of it.”

The former Destiny’s Child singer says she was “over the moon” when Perry chose her to guide him through the competition.

Still learning the ins and outs of looping, Rowland is already looking at ways the pair can work together.

“Sam ticks every box,” she says, beaming with pride.

“He is extremely humble and he has the talent to back the controversy as well. We are already talking about going into the studio together to put something in motion because I feel like he has such a huge following after the rest of the world has watched him. Even people back home (in the United States) are asking me about him, which is awesome because he has got everyone talking about him and his name is on the tip of everybody’s tongue.”

By controversy, Rowland is referring to rival Voice coach Boy George’s questions over Perry’s place in the competition in the earlier stages of this season.

After Perry chose Rowland as his coach, Boy George quipped that the show is “called The Voice, not The Technology”. He asked if Perry’s ‘looping’ was an unfair advantage over others, who simply sing. Looping, Perry explains, is the use of a “loop station” recording machine with his voice.

“It just repeats what you put into it,” the singer says.

“It was built for guitarists originally and you usually put an instrument in it, so you can play the rhythm for your song and add another layer and then another layer — like Ed Sheeran does. He uses his feet and I used to use my feet. Now they have brought out a new loop station where you can operate the looper with your hands.

“The difference with me is that instead of plugging a guitar in, I plug a microphone in and the sound to my vocal chords for that. I loop my voice instead of an instrument … It is literally a wheel of music — you lay a loop and it repeats, repeats, repeats.”

Singer and comedian Reggie Watts is another loop artist, while British superstars Radiohead have used the technique on their track Give Up The Ghost.

Of the controversy, Perry says he and Boy George are “all good”.

“I get that it is controversial but I am using my voice and there are rules to the show and I am not breaking them,” he says. “Boy George gave me a fist bump on stage on Sunday night and he’s been tweeting me so we are good now. I think it is super important to be different as a musician, that is why I do it and a lot of people are supporting me and getting behind me. I get the controversy but I am over it, we are done. We are moving on.”

Alongside Rowland, Boy George and fellow mentors Delta Goodrem and Joe Jonas have been blown away as Perry put his looping touch to tracks including Prince’s When Doves Cry, Destiny’s Child’s Survivor and Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise.

But it was Perry’s cover of Madonna’s Like A Prayer that led Boy George to change his perception of him as an artist.

“I think people see the machines and think it is doing it all for me,” Perry explains.

“I keep seeing comments like autotune, which is something I’d never touch. I am using reverbs and delays to make my harmonies big and loop my voice and make choruses in the same way that the band have a choir for the other artists or a sound engineer is putting delays and reverbs on the other contestants voices. You just can’t see that. I am doing it all live in front of you and controlling my whole sound. If I make a mistake, if I miss any of the loops, if I come in flat, if my beatbox is slightly out of time, the whole song would loop out of time, I can’t go back and re-do it.”

Rowland herself has been at the centre of plenty of controversy over her years at the top of the charts as a solo artist and as a member of one of the world’s biggest girl groups. She says it is nothing to be afraid of.

“Think about how Destiny’s Child survived with controversy,” she says.

“Controversy comes with the territory when it comes to being in the public eye. Everyone has got something to say, who gives a shit? It is a part of the world I have been in for 22 years now. I remember when Destiny’s Child was having member changes and that was something where every interview we went to, everybody had something to say. At the end of the day it really didn’t matter because we were on people’s lips. There was something being said.”

Perry, who is 28, hails from Perth, where he lives with his fiance Liberty Hills.

He has been working as a professional musician for the past five years, previously working with a sign writing company before touring the world with stage shows everywhere from Germany to Broadway in New York City.

“I loop myself as well as drummers and keyboard players — and then acrobats and stuff would perform in front of us,” he says. “We’ve been touring that in entertainment centres all around the world.”

The Voice is Perry’s chance to make it as a solo artist, with the series winner to sign a recording deal with Universal Music Australia.

Online betting agency Sportsbet has Perry favourite to win the series, with odds of $1.60, ahead of Sheldon Riley at $3.50 and Ayden Califiore at $8.

Winning, though, is strangely not at the front of Perry’s mind. For now, that is.

“I am not here to compete,” he says. “I see it as just a performance. I get my song, I work hard on it and I perform it.

“If they like it, they get behind it and I get to do it again next week. Everyone goes home at one stage but I am not bothered, as long as I am happy with my performance each week then I get the opportunity to do it again, that is the way I look at it.”

As for life after The Voice, Perry isn’t going there yet. He’s simply focused on one day at a time and with the competition heading into its final few weeks, he’s got a lot of work ahead of him.

“It is a bit unknown for me at the moment. I am the kind of guy that just follows my feet and doesn’t really know what he is doing tomorrow. There’s some things been said.

“Kelly is liking what I am doing. A lot of people are following me on the social media, which is great. So I am going to try to stay true to what I do and push my artistry and get looping out to more of a mainstream audience.”

“Hopefully I will get some kids buying them and learning it. I think a loop station is a great tool as a musician to learn how to write music. I have got no idea what the future holds to be honest. I would obviously love to work with Kelly in the future but I am just taking every day as it comes.”

And while The Voice is yet to produce a star on the same level of former talent shows Australia Idol or The X Factor — who count Guy Sebastian, Jessica Mauboy and Samantha Jade among their alumni — Rowland is already looking ahead and believes Perry has a real future internationally — the singer is determined to make sure of it. And with only Perry and 16-year-old Bella Paige left on her team, Rowland has a lot of time to devote to the young looper to boost his chances.

“I feel like the world is his, we are just so lucky to be a part of it,” says Rowland.

“I see Sam selling records everywhere to be completely honest.

“I just think about how great his songs could be, how awesome his performances could be. He is an exciting one to be connected, to be attached to.”