ABC/Randy HolmesYou probably first heard of Vance Joy thanks to his debut album Dream Your Life Away and the single “Riptide,” a surreal journey starring a magician’s assistant, a conflicted cowboy and Michelle Pfeiffer. On his sophomore effort, Nation of Two, the Australian singer-songwriter, born James Keogh, tried to take a more direct approach to his lyrics.
“I rarely write from my own experience, but…I looked back at a few memories and I was able to turn them into a song that made sense,” Keogh tells ABC Radio. “I never had done that before.”
That new approach can be heard in songs like the lead single “Lay It On Me,” or the yearning “Saturday Sun.”
“You think that you can’t write in a certain way, and then…you write something that’s directly biographical, and you’re like, ‘Oh, you can write a song [like that].’ It doesn’t have to be from a book or it doesn’t have to be surreal,” Keogh says. “It’s interesting to discover those sides of your songwriting.”
Musically, Nation of Two aims to maintain the intimate, acoustic vibe of Dream Your Life Away while also expanding the Vance Joy sound.
“I think there’s more big band, more horns,” Keogh says of Nation of Two. “But there is still some ones just me and the guitar. And the odd synth line, which is very stripped back, which I like.”
Nation of Two is out today.
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