CONRAD Sewell is taking command of his music as he prepares to follow up his No.1 debut album Life. The record's success last year proved several things to the 31-year-old from Brisbane, who resides in Los Angeles.
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Firstly that people were willing to respect his music and view him as something other than a teen-focused pop star. And secondly, that he was right to trust his instincts by cutting his previous management.
Despite making his name internationally through electronic pop collaborations with late Swedish DJ Avicii (Taste The Feeling) and Norwegian producer Kygo (Firestone), Life was driven by Sewell's love of white soul.
Sewell's second album, which he will begin recording in May in Seattle, is expected to carry an even stronger soul inspiration.
"That's what I love and what I grew up singing," Sewell tells Weekender. "The dance stuff that I feature on was really random and luck of the draw. The Kygo thing happened, I wrote the song and sung it, but I was never trying to be a DJ singer.
"Then the pop stuff I've done was really me being pulled in a direction by different producers. When I open my mouth the stuff that makes me really happy to sing is blue-eyed soul, people like Simply Red.
"That's a hard lane to jump into because there's so many people who do it so well, but that's what really resonates with me."
One of the major reasons Life struck a chord, was the honesty of Sewell's lyrics, which delve into his battles with addiction and regrets about previous relationships.
Songs such as Come Clean where he sings, "You make me wanna come clean/ Put down the booze and the cocaine/ Show you my ghost and my heartaches" are hardly the work of a teen idol.
Even the album's biggest hit, Healing Hands, showcased Sewell's darker side.
"I'd been writing for this album my whole life and it wasn't until the last two years that I started going through that darker side of things and when I wrote about it, those were the songs that resonated with me and my team," Sewell says.
"It felt honest and there was a realness that I haven't heard in a long time. It was scary to put it all out there, but that's kind of what I am as an artist.
"I want to talk about real things and sing about stuff that means something to me, so I'm really proud of it and I think it showed vulnerability and people wanna see that these days instead of bullshit."
In 2015 Sewell and his younger sister Grace, best known as Saygrace, became the first siblings to record No.1 ARIA singles as separate acts. Life gave Sewell his maiden No.1 album, something his 22-year-old sister is yet to achieve.
So did he enjoy the bragging rights over Christmas lunch?
"She's really come into herself and putting her own stuff out and she doesn't really care about that kind of stuff anymore," he says. "I can brag to her as much as I want, which I do, but it just goes over her head. She's way too cool for that."
Conrad Sewell's regional tour comes to the Cambridge Hotel on February 22.