![]() ![]() James fell in love with the film after watching the long-recommended movie on a plane ride back from his first backpacking trip overseas.Īnother film reference: ' Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen' was inspired by the actress' role as a star singer in '80s romantic comedy The Fabulous Baker Boys. The movie? 1969’s Oscar-winning Midnight Cowboy. Verse two opens with a reference to ‘This movie that I think you’ll like/This guy decides to quit his job and heads to New York City’. With his stream-of-consciousness already throwing up the beginning lines and chorus, James kept daydreaming and writing lyrics in the margins of his uni notes. I got home, picked up a guitar and it fit and it felt really good." Plucking from pop culture and family memories ![]() “I zoomed home and I remember I was singing it in the car. ‘Lady, running down the the Riptide, taking away the dark side…'. “I remember being in class a couple of days later and I was jotting notes into the borders of my notes. Loading “At the time, I wasn’t really conscious of it forming in that kinda step-by-step way, but thinking about it now was the stepping stone," James said. "While I was walking, I was playing this little riff." It would form the signature chorus that make the world swoon for Vance Joy. That ukelele would go with James and Will on a trip one evening to the shops to get dinner supplies. I'd potter around the house, playing this little crappy uke I’d brought along with me.” Most days, I’d go to uni and he’d go to work and the house would be empty. I was doing to easiest classes I could find," at the same time, inspiration struck one day while bumming around his Brunswick sharehouse. "I finished my degree but I had failed a couple of subjects, so I had to go back to Summer Uni class. Those three chords and opening lyrics would lie dormant for a few years - progress stalled as James went backpacking overseas and polished off University. Like, those two lines came out completely formed.” A trip to the shops changes everything Then came, 'I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations'. “I don’t know where that came from, that’s totally random. ' I was scared of dentists and the dark'. "I came home to mum and dad's house and those two lines were there, off the bat, without even thinking," he recalled. ![]() “I felt like I was playing with an old radio and I'd just tune in and the song was kind of being sent to me." With the chords kicking around in his head, the opening lines of the song came to him in a flash. I remember I'd play three chords - A minor, G, C - in the rhythm of the song, which is basically one of the three guitar rhythms I can play. ![]() "When I started writing ‘Riptide’, I'd pick up the guitar purely without any intention of writing a song. “Tuning into something special”Īfter getting limited experience performing live, James randomly picked up the guitar one day and started playing the few chords he knew. While James was having fun playing Foo Fighters ‘ My Hero’ or Fuel’s ‘ Shimmer’ at open mic nights, the world of song writing was slowly starting to draw him in. Anytime I picked up the guitar, it was to play covers for friends." "I didn’t have much experience writing songs or playing in front of people. They would gig at small bars around Melbourne on weekends "for 30 friends who were all our close mates." Their rock set consisted of 'rip-offs' of Bloc Party, Joy Division, and Interpol. “Music wasn’t really on my radar, I played in a little band after school for three year with my best mates," James explained. In 2009, James was a regular 22-year-old. Hear him unpack the writing of 'Riptide' below and in the Inspired podcast. Read on for insights on a career-making song five years in the making. "Those three things, plus my friends and my girlfriend at the time, was my little world," James told Linda Marigliano for this week's episode of Inspired. Even Taylor Swift had a crack at back in 2014.īut Vance Joy didn’t even exist when he started writing ‘Riptide’, he was still just James Keogh: footballer, part-time gardener, and uni student living with mum and dad. In the US, it became the second longest charting single in the US Billboard Hot 100. Overseas, it hit Top 10 charts all over the world, from Belgium to Israel, Slovakia to the UK. In Australia, 'Riptide' not topped the Hottest 100 of 2013, but also went on to become the record holder for the most weeks in the top 100 of the ARIA Singles Chart (with 120 consecutive weeks). It’s the song that made people learn the ukulele and launched the Melbourne singer-songwriter into international stardom. ![]()
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