Jaddan Comerford: “Vance Joy is so much bigger than you realise”

Vance Joy is making headway with his second album. Just don’t expect it to drop this year.

Following a stretch writing and recording abroad, the Aussie singer-songwriter dropped a surprise release last week, ‘Lay It On Me, the first taste of new music since Joy’s 2014 debut album Dream Your Life Away.

The new song has fired-up as the No. 1 most-added at alternative radio in North America and there’s more to come, explains UNIFIED Music Group CEO & founder Jaddan Comerford, who guides the artist’s career.

Comerford confirms his ward is working on a second album, though there’s no tentative release date. Judging by the mellow tone of ‘Lay It On Me,’ Joy hasn’t reconstructed the sound that saw Dream Your Life Away sell more than 1.7 million copies worldwide and approach platinum status in the U.S. (for one million sales).

“He’s Vance Joy, he writes songs and records them and brings his own unique flavour to what he does,” Comerford tells TIO. “It’s Vance Joy making an awesome Vance Joy album.”

Joy (real name James Keogh) is riding the dreamiest of career starts. His breakthrough song Riptide (Liberation Music) won the triple j Hottest 100 poll, busted the record for most weeks on the ARIA Singles Chart Top 100, and scooped a slew of international awards. His profile hit the next level when “Riptide” caught the attention of Taylor Swift, who covered the song and invited him on board as the support for her 1989 World Tour.

“Vance Joy is so much bigger than you realise,” quips Comerford, whose company on Wednesday was nominated for best independent label at the 2017 AIR Independent Music Awards.

Joy will be touring through the rest of the year, with a performance at Splendour in the Grass this week followed by a festival run in North America before surfacing here again nearer the end of the year.

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