The consequence was two weeks of writing with Perry for as much as 15 “gruelling” hours a day, with one of many tracks from these classes, Deja Vu, making it onto Perry’s 2017 album Witness.
The Australian DJ’s music has been streamed nearly a billion occasions. Credit score:Cybele Malinwoski
“She’s an unbelievable songwriter, and it was actually cool to see one other facet of an enormous pop star like that, simply within the studio writing,” says James. “It was an awesome expertise.”
Now James is again in Australia, touring after taking part in a string of worldwide reveals in locations like Ibiza, and seeking to give native followers a stay style of Lifted.
Because the album’s title suggests, it’s a group of uplifting occasion tunes designed to be greatest skilled on a packed dance flooring, regardless of the very fact the music was written in solitude in the course of the 2020 lockdowns.
“It was positively onerous not to have the ability to go to a membership and check out one thing out and be like, ‘Oh, that was an enormous flop’ or ‘That’s the appropriate route’,” he says. “I needed to remind myself I’d already written all these data, I knew easy methods to do it and that it was okay to belief myself.”
Whereas he might not have a lot time to pause and mirror on his appreciable achievements – there’s a transfer to Los Angeles along with his spouse and two younger youngsters subsequent month, plus one other batch of US reveals on the horizon – the query have to be requested: what’s it really feel wish to know your music has been streamed near a billion occasions?
Loading
“That’s insane, isn’t it? I truthfully can’t compute it, it’s such an unlimited quantity,” he says with no small quantity of awe.
“The factor I really like that makes probably the most influence is getting messages from individuals on social media platforms about how I’ve helped them in a roundabout way with my music, by way of having a constructive influence on their temper or frame of mind.
“I’m simply fortunate that the music that I’ve written connects. Actually, I nonetheless really feel like, ‘I’m wondering what I’m going to do once I develop up … is that this it? Possibly that is it. I feel I can maintain going right here’.”
Hayden James performs Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on Saturday, September 3
A cultural information to going out and loving your metropolis. Signal as much as our Tradition Repair e-newsletter right here.
