A decade ago, Ziggy Alberts was travelling up the East coast of Australia in his van, busking in small towns and ‘living the dream’.
At the time, he couldn’t have imagined that one day he’d have thousands of fans rushing to snap up tickets to his shows and would be preparing to play a sold-out concert at one of the most iconic music venues in the world.
Speaking to Metro ahead of playing his sold-out gig at the Royal Albert Hall this week, he explains: ‘It was a bit of a surprise, but we were confident we could do it. To sell out six months in advance was a dream come true. People in the UK and Europe have really believed in me over the past 10 years.’
When we first spoke around eight years ago, Ziggy was touring his home country and promoting his music and shows.
Since then, he’s released six more albums, with his music being billed as offering ‘a rich tapestry of sun-soaked folk that explores themes of love, self-discovery, and the pursuit of freedom and joy’.
His music has also been celebrated for its environmental themes, with the folk musician and avid surfer also implementing sustainable practices into his world tours.
Born and raised on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Ziggy was home-schooled until the age of 13, which he said allowed him to form a ‘creative identity’.
‘I was a pretty sensitive kid, so I got more time to be me without other influences. I wouldn’t say it impacted my music as I didn’t do that while home-schooled, but it impacted my ability to be myself and I am very grateful for that,’ he explained.
However, the idea of ever pursuing a career as a musician was not even a consideration. Instead, Ziggy had plans to study dentistry or engineering, despite his parents’ gentle encouragement for a creative pursuit after they gifted him a guitar.
‘I got my final high school score, and it was such a sliding doors moment. I was just out of school and working all sorts of odd jobs like radio promotion, stonemason, painting. I was doing the whole kit and kaboodle and was also looking at going to university whilst also interning as a journalist at a surfing magazine and working in a coffee shop,’ he said.
‘There are so many choices you can make in life, and it makes me emotional thinking how many choices I could have made at that time. Not to say any of those would have been wrong, but it would have been easy to make different ones.’
He added: ‘If someone would have told me what I was going to go through between then and 31, I would have told them “Are you f***ing serious. Absolutely not!”.
After cutting his teeth busking, mainly in the coastal town of Byron Bay, Ziggy was offered record deals with major labels. But wanting to secure complete creative control, the singer-songwriter decided to establish his own.
‘I think I was pretty naive in a positive way and gun-ho,’ he laughs. ‘I took it very seriously. My logic was painfully simple – I didn’t want to be twice as famous and half as broke.
‘I come from a very blue-collar background. Since I was 12, I was mowing lawns and washing dishes. I had the love and support of my folks, but we weren’t a particularly wealthy family. So, everything was quite pragmatic – like “will this pay bills or not?”.
‘That gave me a blessed perspective, because when it came time to making these deals, I questioned if it would help pay the bills or help my family. I think the problem with record labels is that sometimes you get all this fame and streams, but it doesn’t necessarily help you put food on the table, and that’s concerning to me, and it should be concerning for everyone, because that’s how we make a living.’
Even after starting to sell-out shows around the world, Ziggy continued to busk, a practice he said put him in good stead for large live performances.
‘People are psyched about you, but homeless people also want to fight you. It’s really raw, but it’s direct to people. It made me tough instead of fragile and now makes me think of all the times I drove 8-10 hours to my first shows and would sell the merch, and it was hell for leather times. It makes you appreciate that all.’
Ziggy now boasts 1.6million monthly streams on Spotify. In recent months he’s been travelling Europe on his New Love tour, playing shows across Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal, among others.
Along the way he’s been able to connect with countless fans both on and off the stage, culminating in many emotional exchanges, including being told that his music has ‘saved their lives’ during the hardest times in their lives. I feel they have saved their lives’.
‘It makes me think about a family from Holland I made friends with after they told me their son was one of my top listeners and they played my songs when having to turn his life support off,’ he shared.
‘It is so touching, and I get to meet a lot of these people, which is even crazier. I smile and cry with them and you make some meaning of that suffering.’
While Ziggy shares touching moment with fans, he’s also amused many over the years when stepping on stage sans shoes.
‘Look at my toes!’ he laughs, turning the camera to show his bare feet when I ask about this practice.
‘It’s a pretty Aussie thing, like the moustache and mullet. I on occasion start playing songs in the crowd and on occasion I’ve torched my feet. I need to run around backstage and get to the crowd and sometimes there’s glass and I’ve hurt myself a few times,’ he explained about the risks involved at times. He jokes that he’s now ‘terrified’ of wearing shoes, while fans are ‘shocked’ if they see him wear them.
At the time I speak to Ziggy, he’s a few weeks out from returning to the UK, with the Royal Albert Hall show set to wrap up his tour.
The lyrics of a song off Ziggy’s most recent album – Responsibility of the Dreamer – declares that ‘people are rarely encouraged a life worth dreaming for’.
Now, 14 years since he first picked up a guitar, he takes a moment to consider if he’s managed to achieve his dreams.
‘I was so young when I started, and my bar was in a good way so low. What seemed like achievement to me – I felt like I’d achieved it just living in my van and busking and making people happy and I got to do something I loved. So, I thought I had “succeeded”,’ he shared.
‘That dream hasn’t really changed, but I’ve evolved and grown. It’s easy to lose your way in music as there’s so much noise and so many things you “should be doing”. I already achieved the big dream. I hopped on this tour bus and couldn’t believe it. I’ve been doing this for six years, and it’s an insane thing to be able to do. I have so many ambitions and there’s definitely times where through fatigue and my own negative dialogue that there’s plenty of days where nothing feels good enough.
‘But in those moments you pause and have clarity. As long as I am evolving, I would like to be the best version of myself I could possibly be – not just for stage. That’s the big dream. Day in and day out wake up and not fall for mediocrity.’
He added: ‘I’m not done yet though! I still have dreams to achieve and goals to tick off. The Royal Albert Hall was on my bucket list – it was one of the only venues in the world that was on my bucket list.’
Ziggy Alberts is playing The Royal Albert Hall on Thursday, October 23.
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