From parodies about teachers to chart topping hits - the rise of Vance Joy

James Keogh – that's Vance Joy to his fans – is a busy man. He has just an hour free between recording a radio promo of his latest single, We're Going Home, and a Wil Anderson podcast, so we meet at one of his favourite restaurants, Kaprica. The unassuming pizza joint in Carlton's university belt is a stylish, cash-only trattoria where menus are printed on loose-leaf sheets of A4 and wine comes splashed in tumblers.

"My friend Rose lives around the corner, and we've come here a bunch of times, it's just very reliable and good," says Keogh. "But I was actually thinking I've had pizza the last two nights for dinner."

James Keogh, otherwise known as singer Vance Joy, chats over lunch at Kaprica Pizza in Carlton.Credit: Scott McNaughton

We order two bottles of Peroni Red, and Keogh pours his beer carefully into a latte glass. "I hate those Instagram posts that say #cheatday," he says, laughing and rolling his eyes. It's a warm autumn day and the surprisingly tall Keogh rips off his plain wool jumper, flashing a washboard stomach. He's not that into fashion, despite having to dress up for photo shoots. "I wear the same clothes all the time, and I also wear them like a uniform until they're dead."

The food hits the table quickly and we split a bowl of oily olives, a charred pizza with hot salami, and a house spaghetti with green beans, peas, and heaps of butter and parmesan.

House spaghetti with green beans, peas, and heaps of butter and parmesan.Credit: Scott McNaughton

Keogh is days away from embarking on a 50-odd date tour across the US and will be back in Australia in September headlining a few small venues such as Rod Laver Arena and Hordern Pavilion. A daunting prospect for anyone, and Keogh is already thinking about a holiday he has pencilled in for August.

"I'd love to do a week skiing somewhere, like New Zealand," he says hopefully. "But there's so much time before then so I can't look forward to it too much yet. I feel like you need to have a bit of a cherry at the end of a tour – it's a lot of shows, so I have to have some little cherries."

It will be the biggest Vance Joy tour yet, featuring a new stage set-up with increased production design, elements of video, and of course new material from his recently released second album, Nation of Two. "Playing a stadium is a massive shift," he says, recalling how far he has come since one of his first shows at the now-defunct, tiny tapas bar Bebida on Smith Street in 2011. "My manager [Michael Gudinski] was there and brought his family to watch me and the PA system was on this rickety chair, and it fell off, and there was this blinding feedback noise and everyone's just sitting there eating their tapas."

A few years later, he's already sold out one show at the 15,000-capacity Rod Laver, with a second date just announced. "I think we're being ambitious with the second one, but it gives everyone the chance who wanted to buy tickets to come. It is such a big room so it's weird to think of trying to connect with people who are that far away, especially if your set list isn't like: 'Everyone get up out of your seats and daaaaance'," he says, dropping into a cheesy imitation of a low-rent MC. "So it'll just be about trying to create a space that feels intimate even in a big room."

Keogh feels relieved to have his 'difficult second album' released after Dream Your Life Away sold about 2 million copies.Credit: Scott McNaughton

He's had a little practice, having performed at the MCG for the 2016 Grand Final and, most famously, as the support act for Taylor Swift on her 1989 tour (FYI: they haven't kept in touch). And if he gets tired of playing the same songs (Riptide broke the record for the longest consecutively-charting ARIA single of all time at 107 weeks), he doesn't show it.

"If you're playing a show and nothing unique happens in the crowd, you could easily get into autopilot mode," he admits. "So it's nice if you're playing a gig and [with] a song you've played a thousand times something happens that's slightly out of the ordinary … it keeps it fresh and unscripted in some ways, like I bung a note or I look at my keyboard player, Chris, and he does a funny face. It just shakes you out of your comfort zone and it feels new for a moment. But doesn't happen every show."

The bill, please: Receipt for lunch with Vance Joy at Kaprica.

The Vance Joy fairytale is now folklore: the ex-VFL player rocketed to fame after a song he posted on his Facebook page blew up around the world and landed him a five-album deal with Atlantic Records. But ask anyone who knows Keogh and they'll say he's one of the most hard-working artists in the business, and yes, it couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke. It's no accident that his infectious, upbeat tunes are heard everywhere from supermarkets to summer road trips.

He turned 30 last year, which naturally encouraged a little self-reflection. "I don't know if I feel more 'grown up' now or whatever but I think I probably had ideas when I was 26 that I was pretty sure about, but now I'm like, 'oh man, I was a f---ing baby'. So I'm sure I'll have the same perspective when I'm 35 or older."

Pizza with hot salami at Kaprica in Carlton. Credit: Scott McNaughton

The relentless cycle of touring-recording-promoting means he isn't home as much as he'd like. "When I come back to Melbourne I always feel I need to rest, but then it's almost more hectic. I think I have to catch up with friends and stuff. I just want to see everyone and drive around in my car, and be able to do a lot of things in one day. When I'm here I usually just stay at my folks' house."

He's close to his mother, father and younger sister, and the family lived in leafy Glen Iris as Keogh grew up and became school captain of exclusive Catholic boys high school St Kevin's. He first picked up the guitar at 14, relatively late in the piece. "I would love to make my own lyrics for stuff, like parody songs about teachers, taking the piss, you know," he says. "At our year 12 formal I sang a cover of Green Day's Time Of Your Life, and I changed the words to be about the formal. It was so basic but enough to be memorable. Not long after that I started trying to write [my own] songs."

After school he formed a band, Hypersonic, as he studied arts/law at Monash University. "It was four dudes: me, Will, Andre and Liam. We were probably a bit of a mess live and didn't always strike the right balance but we were all just learning and figuring stuff out. But [there's one] song, Disco, that we wrote which I still think is good … maybe there's a bit of bias and nostalgia involved in my feelings about it but it's actually less predictable than a lot of the songs I write now."

Keogh feels relieved to have his "difficult second album" released after Dream Your Life Away sold about 2 million copies. "It's been a long time coming and even the weeks leading up to it, the hustle and bustle of promotion, there are all the feelings of nervousness or anxiousness [I] might have – will people like this song, or that song? – but since I've played it for everyone I feel good, and the crowd responses have been positive. Now all there is to do is just play it."

If you're wondering who he is singing about on all those heartfelt love songs, the lyrics are often more metaphoric rather than autobiographical (Keogh is single right now). "Sometimes people will say something and it will end up in a song, like I was down at the beach and my auntie was talking about her partner Barry, and she said 'Barry's my left-hand man' and it must have just stayed in my head and was ready to roll when I was writing [Riptide]," he says of the song's ubiquitous chorus.

He also has a politician's knack of answering a question without answering a question. Keogh would obviously much rather talk about his favourite topic: frisbee. "I went to India in 2009 on a backpacking trip and went to the beach in Goa, and I was watching serious frisbee being thrown, people bouncing them off the ground," he says, eyes lighting up with enthusiasm. "I asked a local kid to show me how to do it, and after a lot of practice, about six months, I finally figured out how. It's a very inclusive sport, I reckon."

He thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "We are selling frisbees as merchandise on the tour … but that's not why I told you that story, I swear."

Vance Joy Nation of Two Australian Tour, September 8-24, is on sale now.

KAPRICA
19 LINCOLN SQUARE SQUARE, CARLTON.
9347 1138.
OPEN 10AM-10PM DAILY.