The loop artist has come full circle.
Folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Graeme James credits his time in Queenstown as a busker 10 years ago as formative to a career that has kicked on to global touring and millions of Spotify streams.
Wellington-based James has ‘‘very heavy nostalgia’’ for the first summer he spent in the resort in 2012-’13 — despite living out of his car in the Church St underground carpark at the time.
He would head off to the lakefront about 9pm each night, armed with loop pedal for some late-night busking.
‘‘I pulled these huge crowds of up to 200, 300 people that I wasn’t expecting at all.
‘‘They were magical, magical times and became instrumental for me deciding to make it a full-time thing.’’
On one of his many returns to Queenstown in following years, it was suggested he record an album of the tunes he was playing on those evenings a decade ago.
The result is Play One We All Know, a 10-year anniversary project album that James will perform in a one- off show at Yonder tonight as part of a national tour.
While here, he may pick up an extension lead he used to recharge his ‘‘busking battery’’ he left in the carpark all those years ago.
‘‘I thought I’d come back to it, but I eventually got married and [wife and manager/collaborator Zoe Crehan] wasn’t too keen to live in an underground carpark.’’
James plays electric violin, guitar, bass, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, keyboards and drums and uses the loop pedal to build a song up with each instrument a new layer of sound.
‘‘Queenstown was instrumental in teaching me how to be a frontman player and a one-man-band,’’ he says.
‘‘I’d been pretty awful up to that point in time, just started randomly talking about all sorts of nonsense, people would be like, ‘just get on with it’.
‘‘It was kind of like serving an apprenticeship in a way.
‘‘I got to cut my teeth as a performer playing four or five nights a week.’’
He says the tourist hotspot is unique in New Zealand because you can play to 200 people on a Monday night.
It set him up for a career as an international touring artist.
‘‘It’s a place the world comes to and then goes home, so it’s almost a pre-built audience for places I’ve never visited before.’’
At the urging of another street performer, James began recording the songs he was playing live.
Four albums and 50 million Spotify streams later, James is grateful for that ‘‘grand idea’’.
However, he says the thing that made him a successful busker is not what makes him a successful recording artist.
‘‘People who buy my streams and albums appreciate the fact that I don’t loop [in the recording].
‘‘Most people don’t want a two-minute intro to every song in a recorded medium.’’
James has recently returned from a stint living and touring in Europe and the United States to settle back in Wellington and is looking
forward to his ‘‘retrospective-ish tour’’, especially the Queenstown leg.
‘‘It’s a sense of returning.
‘‘It’s special to connect with the place, time and time and time again.’’
Graeme James ‘Play One We All Know’ national tour, tonight, 9.30pm, Yonder. Tickets $25, via eventfinda
