ABC/Heidi Gutman
Dean Lewis’ U.S. headlining tour stars tonight with a slot at Montreal’s Osheaga Festival, followed by Lollapalooza on Sunday, with the first solo show Tuesday in Minneapolis. The “Be Alright” singer’s looking forward to it, because it’s the first time he’ll be on the road since his debut album, A Place We Knew, came out in March.
“This is the first tour in America with the album out,” Dean tells ABC Radio. “We did a sold-out tour before…and the major difference was, before, we had five songs that they knew. Now it’s cool, because you can just be like, ‘All my fans are gonna know all these 15 songs.'”
And when you have songs that people know, fans will sing them back to you, Dean notes.
“Artists always talk about it being the best feeling in the world, and it really is,” the Aussie singer says. “You get the hairs standing up on the back of your neck, and it’s like everyone’s in a moment together…they’re singing back everything, which is ridiculous!”
But before Tuesday’s solo show, Dean’s playing those two festivals, where he’ll try to attract a crowd amidst dozens of other acts.
“We play a few big tunes straight off to try to keep people in,” he explains. “I play with a lot of energy, and I think that’s all you can really do. But we’ve been lucky so far. We’ve had pretty amazing crowds.”
Unlike other performers, though, Dean can’t enjoy any of the other artists’ sets.
“I’m quite an anxious performer,” he admits. “Before I’m gonna play, I’m just worrying about a million things…I’m not going to watch anyone till after I’ve played. And then after I play, we usually have to go. So, festivals kinda suck for me!”
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