I had the pleasure of interviewing the hugely successful Guy Sebastian before his first tour to our region in 2015. It was just before Valentine’s Day and he was in Los Angeles busily writing new songs while his wife was back home awaiting the birth of his second child.
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Archer Sebastian is about to turn four, and his dad was this time preparing for his appearance at the 2018 Commonwealth Games closing ceremony when I spoke with him.
In the past 12 months, the first Australian Idol winner (2003), says he has spent a lot of time with his children.
“I’m lucky I have been able to shift my schedule and still spend time in the studio recording. But I’ve set a dangerous precedence. Now I’m only gone a couple of days and I miss them already.”
The 36-year-old is one of Australia’s most successful male artists and prolific songwriters. During his eight day trip to the Gold Coast, he tells me he has already written four songs in just two days.
These days he tries to arrange his tours to spend as much time with his family as possible.
“My trips are shorter because I want to get home. I have been writing songs since I was 19 years old and now I can do it anywhere, even in bed.”
It’s obvious he has the right formula with more than 40 platinum releases and three million sales and rising. He is the only Australian male artist to have six number one singles and two number one albums in chart history.
In 2013, Battle Scars went platinum in the United States, making him one of few artists in Australian music history to achieve this.
His ninth album Conscious has spawned massive hit singles Bloodstone and Set in Stone.
Sebastian tells me this tour is different because his past tours have always been in support of album releases.
“This time I wanted to perform favourites from the past 15 years. I love to share my songs live and especially to fans in more remote areas who have always supported me. I feed off the energy of the crowd when I’m on stage.”
He says the power of being able to affect people through his music is humbling. With his wife Jules he established the Sebastian Foundation five years ago, which has funded eight major family charitable projects.
Funds are raised in collaboration with Foundation corporate partners and at their annual Carols in the City event at Luna Park, where some of the finest voices in Australia donate their time to celebrate the season for a good cause.
Supporting Sebastian on the Then and Now tour is Fatai. According to our 2015 Eurovision competitor “her vocals are insane”. Sounds like an insane night of song as Sebastian and his band bring it for more than two hours for lucky ticket holders.