Vance Joy talks Australian tour, new music: ‘There’ll be an album out’

When Vance Joy returns home next year to mount a full-scale tour, expect to hear a swag of new material.

The multi-platinum singer and songwriter hasn’t wasted the slow months of lockdown and that rare opportunity to create.

“I’ve been chipping away at completing an album,” Joy (real name James Keogh) tells TIO in a Zoom call from his current base in Barcelona.

“I’ve got a handful of songs that I really love, a couple of songs that I’ve listened to a bunch of times trying to get the mixes right. And other songs that I’ve just finished writing recently that I still need to do a bit of production on.”

But the answer is, “yes, there’ll be an album out.”

The as-yet-untitled LP will serve as the follow-up to 2018’s Nation Of Two, which, like its predecessor, 2014’s Dream Your Life Away, went to No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

Fans have had an early taste of what’s the come, with the 2021 single ‘Missing Piece,’ which has collected five ARIA Award nominations, including Song of the Year.

Stream Vance Joy’s ‘Missing Piece’:

While the pandemic has ruined everyone’s plans for getting out, Joy, like so many other performers, has keep the wheels in motion with a string of livestream performances, from Music From the Home Front, to a performance at Gaudi’s magnificent Park Güell for Splendour XR, and an appearance last weekend on the Season 3 opener of The Sound.

Tipped as his biggest-ever headline tour of Australia, Joy’s The Long Way Home Tour will kick off in September 2022 and run across 13 dates, including visits to Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Canberra, Newcastle, Gippsland, Hobart, Adelaide, and Busselton.

He’ll then wrap things up with two outdoor performances, one at the Sydney Opera House forecourt and a hometown gig at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

Watch Vance Joy’s performance at Splendour XR:

“By that stage,” says Joy, “I’ll have definitely blown the cobwebs off. Even playing that show for Splendour XR, I played three songs and I thought, ‘wow, how am I going to play ten songs, I’m so rusty.’ But I also think, I’ll have a whole well of energy of enthusiasm after not doing it for so long. Maybe it’s like taking a year off footy, and your body is freshened up.”

The support for The Long Way Home Tour runs deep, with a line-up that includes The Rubens, Middle Kids, Thelma Plum, Budjerah, and Mia Wray.

“That’s the thing about the Australian music industry,” he explains. “You make a lot of friends. It feels like you’re touring with mates, which is going to be nice.”

The trek is presented by Frontier Touring, triple j, Village Sounds and UNIFIED.

Visit Frontier Touring for more.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.