If you haven’t heard of him yet, Dean Lewis is an Australian singer songwriter whose music has been rapidly gathering listeners in both Australia and internationally – from his hit single Waves. Forté had the chance to chat with the musician before his upcoming show at Geelong’s Workers Club.
For Dean Lewis it has been a crazy, amazing year, full of new experiences. So far Lewis feels his biggest achievement has been the first single, Waves, going double platinum and being featured in US television shows – Suits, Shadowhunters, and Riverdale.
However, this achievement has its downsides, however small, and Lewis is a little ‘weird-ed out’ about the first songs success, and the fact that each song now has the same expectations. It feels odd that he has yet to experience the flip side of releasing his music into the world.
Dean Lewis’s Australian shows come after several weeks touring internationally – he just spent six weeks in the states, including a sold-out show in New York! While that show and experience was amazing, it was also clouded by the nerves of playing in front of New York label heads. He also played in Canada, where playing in Toronto was a surreal experience – with a crowd of 130 people it was amazing to see how far his music has spread. In terms of future shows Lewis is most looking forward to returning to Melbourne’s Corner Hotel, where recently played as an opening act. At the time, he was amazed at how the band had manage to sell out two shows, but now he has two of his own shows there – both almost sold out.
Of his own songs Lewis is most proud of Seven Minutes – an honest song that he had been trying to write for ages, a song that is acoustic and still has a radio friendly sound. Every artist needs a break from their own creations and for Lewis his latest music obsession is Gang Of Youths “Our Time Is Short”.
Dean Lewis is a talented artist with a great future ahead of him, with the album going well, and international attention starting, to gather Lewis feels there is still so much more to do.
This obviously includes releasing new music – there are several ‘bigger’ songs that were held back from the first album, partly due to Lewis’ fear of outing everything he had, and having nothing left to come back to.
There is a lot more to look forward to from Dean Lewis, who may very well grow to be one of Australia’s brightest stars.
When & Where: Workers Club, Geelong – November 22.
Written by Perri Digby