Vance Joy: 'I'd like to spend more time in Barcelona and learn more Catalan'

"Hey Catalonia, I was just gettin' to know ya // When you stumble down those streets tonight," Vance Joy sings to the territory in one of his latest hits. In ‘Catalonia’, as the song is named, the musician paints a picture of the Catalan summer, with long, late nights by the sea in Barcelona's Old Town.

The song is part of James Keogh, Joy’s real name, third album ‘In Our Own Sweet Time’ released on June 10, 2022. An unexpected album as the Australian singer-songwriter "was just writing songs for fun. And after about two years, I had enough music for an album," he said to Catalan News.

This is Keogh’s third album after releasing ‘Dream Your Life Away’ in 2014, and ‘Nation of Two’ in 2018. The recently published album features mostly romantic, heartfelt, but also upbeat songs. 

One of the most talked-about songs in Catalona has been the one named ‘Catalonia’. 

"I did not want the video of the song to be cheesy or I did not want people from here to think: are you trying to tell our story?" Vance Joy mentioned. "I was lucky to work with some really talented filmmakers," he added.

The vast majority of the video was recorded on the northern Costa Brava coastline, on a beach called Sa Riera, in the town of Begur. A municipality which is well known for its ‘Indians’ tradition.

The summer vibes are strong in the music video too, directed by Macari Golferichs. It's reminiscent of the well-known summer ad campaigns published each year by Catalan Estrella Damm beer, minus the drink of course.

It stars Inés Coca on a road trip through the Catalan countryside, climbing trees, picking fruit and flowers, cooling off in rivers, and lighting campfires by the sea.

The film crew "knew the places to go, they knew the most beautiful locations to kind of tell the story of the song. And it's a simple film clip. It's kind of a simple storyline. Mostly it focuses on this one woman. This beautiful woman enjoying the coast, but it also feels intimate," the musician told Catalan News.

New Barcelona resident

The Covid-19 pandemic has not only pushed Vance Joy to write a new album, but also to change homes.

"I've been living over here in Barcelona. For the last couple of years, I've been coming back and forth from Australia," he explained. 

At the beginning of 2020, Joy was in Australia, but in August of that year, he came to Barcelona after applying to "the government to get permission to leave."  He decided to travel to the Catalan capital because he had met his Turkish girlfriend here. 

"We found out that it was possible to come here," he confessed after explaining he has lived "great experiences" for the last two years in Barcelona. 

Now, his goal is "to spend more time here, learn more Catalan, learn some more Spanish, so I can feel a bit more like a local or at least communicate with people more easily," he acknowledged. 

"But, I'd also like to spend some more time in Australia now that the world's open again. So that's the dream," he said. 

Zoom, a new tool for songwriters

Publishing a new album when the world is starting to open up from the Covid-19 pandemic, has not been easy. However, Vance Joy found a way to work on the new release with his songwriter, Joel Little, well known for working hand-in-hand with Taylor Swift and Lorde.

"My friend, who I write songs with, lives in Malibu, in Los Angeles, and so the best way we could connect was over Zoom," Joy explained. 

They would write the music via videoconference working on none other than "eight songs," in a 12-track album. 

"It was a way of feeling productive," the Australian singer shared. 

In fact, Joy and Little had a "great chemistry" and saw the main songs they wrote going "well, and ended up being the first two singles," ‘Clarity’ and ‘Missing Piece’.

Playing since being 14 years old

The first time Vance Joy picked up a guitar was when he was 14 years old, as his father said he would "learn how to play music." His father, Joy recalled, "always wanted to play the guitar, but he never learned, so he always had this regret." 

He then wrote his first song when he was about 21 years old, and "just got addicted to songwriting." Years later, "I still feel the same kind of attraction to songwriting."

He wrote his most famous song between 2011 and 2012, Riptide, after writing "a lot of bad tracks." It all felt like "being struck by lightning," he added.

But, he had never had a "clear idea of how my music career would go or a clear thing. Like, I want to be this, I want to sell this amount of records, I want to be playing at this venue. I just enjoyed songwriting, and it's a gift that keeps giving," he told this media outlet.

New album, new world tour

The release of the ‘In Our Own Sweet Time’ album will take Vance Joy to perform across the globe once again. 

One of the stops, as in his 2019 tour, will be his new home, Barcelona’s Sala Razzmatazz music venue. 

Years later, Joy still remembers that night because of the "amazing show," and the "excited and really loud and happy crowd." 

On April 22, 2023, Joy expects to see a similar level of enthusiasm but it will be a bigger crowd because he has made some friends here, so it "will be exciting to play" for his colleagues. 

And for those wondering, tickets are already on sale, and Vance Joy will "100%" perform ‘Catalonia’ but also some of his biggest-most popular songs, and new tracks of his latest album. 

"It will be upbeat, and hopefully people are dancing to the songs," he wishes.