I always, always go to my brother Rhys's house whenever something goes wrong and he'll always say 'you'll be alright, forget about it.'
Dean Lewis
I'm very lucky to have signed to Island records U.S.A. It's one of those pinch yourself moments.
I wasn't the kind of guy who was like 'here's my demo,' or 'listen to my demo.' I just never thought it was that good.
I have this unyielding desire to do high-quality work.
I spent five years watching every Noel Gallagher video that was on YouTube.
I guess I'm a pretty honest person, but I think my friends were surprised when they heard my stuff for the first time. I'm not super expressive when I'm just going about my life.
Having all this success in Australia is life-changing and incredible and has given me the opportunity to come to the U.S. and get started over here.
I started realizing that when I played festivals I didn't want to be writing all these down, sad songs.
People know my song but they don't know the guy who sings the song.
I just want to prove myself.
There's only been a very few times when I'm recording something and I get shivers.
When something is great, then you can sit back after the work is done and relax, but during the process I definitely am making sure everything is really, really good.
When I recorded 'Waves' I was in England, and I was there for months.
I've been writing a lot of sad songs, and I got to the point where I was like, 'You can't write another one or you're lying.'
I was writing songs in my room for like six year, not showing anyone.
The songs always have to come from a real experience.
I can write a happy song, but there has to be some sort of twist. Otherwise it feels a bit cheesy.
There's a cafe in Mosman near where I lived and if I have any days off I go there at 10 in the morning with my notebook, sit in the same chair, order the same breakfast and coffee, write my thoughts down, and chat, have the same conversation with the owner.
You can write a song for someone, and then their mom doesn't like it, and then it doesn't get released. It could be the best song that you've ever written. I hated that, because I didn't have any control.
Especially with 'Be Alright,' that's about a bunch of relationships and some people that I'd never even met, there was some stories friend and family had told me over the years, that I put into the song.
You write for other people and it feels you're giving a little bit of yourself away.
I didn't really gig my way in. I was just in my bedroom writing songs for so long.
I grew up listening to Oasis and The Verve; English music was huge in my house.
When you first start out, it's a big thing you're always like 'does my voice sound good?'
So, I would write songs... I sort of loved it and hated it in the sense that I would be like, it's never good enough, and I didn't think it was that good, but I always kept striving to write better and better stuff.
There's Sia and 5 Seconds of Summer but that's sort of it, nobody from Australia really has success in America, and to have a song go so well on radio, you start to have success and you think, 'Oh God, I don't want to lose that!'
I mean, sometimes it's really good to listen to something like Tom Petty, that's purely blissed out. But that's not me.
The day I write a totally happy song... I'll retire.
I'm not trying to get across some sort of message or statement. I'm just literally trying to write the best songs I can write. It's all that matters.
I visualize songs like a little movie scene and I try to almost talk through the scene. What emotions am I trying to get across?
If you're big in America, you can go to Australia and automatically, the first time you'll be there, you can sell out huge venues.
You can't come back to Australia and be like, 'I've been doing this and I've been doing this.' 'Cause they'll be like, 'Who do you think you are, mate?' Which is good! It keeps you really, y'know, grounded, I guess.
There's nowhere else in the world that's quite like that, where they encourage going after your dreams, especially in Los Angeles. I think it's really cool.
When I'm working on an idea I have a very high level of expectations. If we do a video it has to be high level. Artwork has to be really good.
Everyone wants to be chosen for Up Next. You get on a billboard in Times Square and in Los Angeles! This helps get your name out there on a huge scale.
