Vance Joy steps out of the riptide and into electronic music for a new collaboration with Shouse.
The Australian singer and songwriter lends his unmistakable vocals to Shouse’s “Wherever You Are”, housed on the electronic duo’s forthcoming debut album Collective Ecstasy.
“Wherever You Are” is the last, big reveal before Collective Ecstasy arrives (with fireworks) on July 4th via Hell Beach / One Love.
“Sometimes these things just fall apart / You lose the head, you lose the heart,” Joy sings on the tender tune. It’s more tear-jerker than floor-filler, a subtle blend of folk and electronica.
“When I heard the song I immediately connected with it,” comments Joy, who dropped by the studio during Shouse’s Collingwood recording sessions. “When I sang it in the studio, it flowed out so purely. There’s a unique DNA and mood to the songs Shouse write. I’m a fan.”
Comprising Jack Madin and Ed Service, Shouse recently completed their “Love Tonight” trilogy with the anthemic “Call My Name”, which scored radio support from Double J, NOVA 96.9, triple j, 2DayFM and more. Previously, the lads teamed up with Felix Jaehn for “Walk With Me”, a track that’s soaked-up over 500,000 Shazams in Europe, say reps.
Speaking exclusively with Rolling Stone AU/NZ, Madin lifted the lid on a typical Shouse session. “It can kick off from anywhere — maybe one of us patching synths, and a few hours later there’s 12 people singing around some mics,” he explains.
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The best sessions “are full of instruments and open mics, everything rolling, the beat never stopping. Big ideas come and go. Someone picks up a guitar or jumps on the mic and suddenly the room lifts.”
With “Love Tonight”, Shouse bagged a slow-burner for the ages, a lockdown anthem that has accumulated more than 1 billion streams across multiple versions, including an epic eight-minute original and a David Guetta remix.
Along its long and winding route, the song cracked the top 20 on the Official UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 18 in 2021. It’s platinum certified on both sides of the Atlantic, and has diamond status in France.
Their new guest vocalist Vance Joy is the musical project of James Keogh, creator of one of Australia’s biggest hits in the streaming age, “Riptide”. Released in 2013, the tune set charts alight and hearts aflutter. It holds the record for the most consecutive weeks (120) on the ARIA Singles Chart, it finished atop the triple j Hottest 100 poll, gave the artist a break on both sides of the Atlantic (“Riptide” peaked at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 10 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart), and was covered by Taylor Swift, who asked the Aussie to open for her on tour. Now, he’s a multiple ARIA Award-winner, chart leader and a member of the extended Shouse family.
Shouse cracked Rolling Stone AU/NZ’s “50 Greatest Australian Electronic Acts of All Time”, presented in the June edition.
