Reflecting on 10 years with Vance Joy

This week I returned from a month away in North America and the UK. The trip was a chance to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Vance Joy’s debut album ‘dream your life way’. To mark the occasion, Vance Joy played to over 50,000 people across 12 shows at epic venues such as New York City’s Radio City Music Hall and London's iconic OVO Arena Wembley . Being present at the majority of these shows and feeling the energy amongst the fans was a career highlight, and it really got me reflecting on where it all started.

In May 2012, my little brother Aaron sent me a song made by his friend James. I'd met James multiple times and even went to school with his brother, but I wasn’t totally across the fact that he was making music, or at least music of this quality. That song ended up being 'Riptide', and it was only a matter of days before James and I were working together to plot out his career and see how far we could take it. It wasn’t just us though. None of this would have happened without the countless hours of hard work by my amazing wife and business partner Rachael Tulloch . At the time, Rach and I were living together but not married and had vowed not to work together, even though we were working in the same industry. But when Vance Joy came along, it was clear that it was a project that was going to take up a lot of time, so we thought it would be best to do it together.

We quickly set about working with James to define his goals, build out his wider team and support him creatively to build his band and his body of work so he could start recording more music and start playing live.

In March 2013, his debut EP, "God Loves You When You’re Dancing", was released and the world began to hear the amazing music James had created. It wasn’t long before Vance Joy was selling out shows around the world and being booked on major festivals. When ‘dream your life away' was released in September 2014, things did not slow down from there – more global touring lead to supporting Taylor Swift across North America, the UK and Australia in 2015.

I could go on and list all the amazing work James has done and the amazing people who have been apart of the team, but I would be here all day.

The reason for writing this in the first place is simply to acknowledge this incredible and special moment. Success does not happen overnight and unfortunately it doesn’t happen to everyone. But I’ve been lucky enough to work alongside one of the kindest, most down to earth and most successful people I've ever met over the past 12 years. And the best part about it, is I get to do it with my wife.

We’ve watched James go from a young person trying to figure out what to do with his career, to now being a multi-Platinum artist around the world who is also an amazing husband and father.

I'm grateful to be in the Vance Joy business and I hope to be in it for a long time to come.

All photos by Brad Cauchy