Meet Vance Joy, the Former Law Student-Turned-Opening Act for Taylor Swift
Get to know the Aussie singer behind the hit song "Riptide."
— -- Talk about a life change.
James Keogh, once an aspiring lawyer, is now a singer/songwriter whose full-time job includes traveling the world with his band and appearing as an opening act for Taylor Swift.
You may know him by his literature-inspired pseudonym “Vance Joy,” a character from a Peter Carey novel who likes to tell stories. And even if his name is unfamiliar, you've definitely heard his hit, "Riptide" which took home the 2014 International Songwriting Competition prize and was famously covered by Swift.
Now the Melbourne native, who wrote his first hit on a “dirt-cheap ukulele”, has traded in open mic nights for sold out arenas.
“It's almost overwhelming the sound of the crowd when Taylor Swift walks out,” he told ABC News. “That was one of the things that I have never experienced… I was like wow, that's what it’s like.”
But Joy tells us there is more to life on the road than the sold-out venues and die-hard fans. In between the excitement and chaos he’s able to find some (active) downtime. Joy recently rekindled his love of rollerblading and occasionally will play some hoops with his band.
“I've got a drummer, a keyboard player and a bass player who are on tour with me and we play two on two," he explained. "It's really competitive!"
And of course, by nature, he is constantly writing. His process is reminiscent to that of a sculptor, but instead of clipping away at a block of marble, he is sifting through language and molding ideas.
“For me I keep scratching away, I keep chipping and chipping away trying to write," he explained. "You kind of build up this bank of ideas and hopefully some of those connections ... are made.”
While it may seem daunting to be writing on the road, for Joy, who's performing "Great Summer" at a "Paper Towns" live stream event tonight at 9 p.m. EST, it’s natural. He revealed to ABC News that some new songs might be coming out in the very near future.
“I'm always chipping away, I think I might have some new music in a couple of months actually… it'll be cool to play some new material and to offer the crowd and the band the new stuff.”
The tour will wrap up in December, conveniently in Joy’s home of Melbourne, at which point he will have played over 50 shows with one of the world’s biggest stars.
"Everyone on this tour are the most lovely people, it's so professional, everyone makes you feel really happy and it's like one big happy family," he noted.
And of course, if the music thing thing doesn’t work out, he still has his law degree.
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