NAPA — The Catalonia region of Spain, encompassing Barcelona and a whole lot more on the Balearic Sea, is both a figurative and literal place on In Our Own Sweet Time, the third album from Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy.

Literally, it’s where James Gabriel Keogh and his girlfriend spent several months during the pandemic. On the song of the same name, he sings not in metaphor but uses autobiographical storytelling of sipping vermouth in the gothic quarter, living it up on amidst beautiful scenery and falling in love. But beyond that, “Catalonia” is a sort of safe haven far away from all the bad stuff of the world—one where the same man who toured relentlessly to that point grew to enjoy private time and space.

Notably, it’s also a ukulele song for the writer of 2013 hit “Riptide,” which launched the former Australian rules footballer into superstardom with chart toppers here and overseas, and tours with Taylor Swift and, most recently, P!nk.

The follow-up to 2018’s Nation of Two contains the folky pop sound Vance Joy fans have come to expect, but with lusher, sometimes brassy, arrangements courtesy of collaborators like Joel Little (Lorde, Taylor Swift), Dan Wilson (Adele, Leon Bridges), Take a Day Trip (Miley Cyrus, Lil Nas X), Dave Bassett (Weezer, Rachel Platten), James Earp (Lewis Capaldi) and Dave Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors.

Some of the songs also have more personal inspirations, such as “Way That I’m Going,” a ballad about Keogh’s girlfriend. Besides “Catalonia,” “Every Side of You” includes lyrics pulled from an episode of “The Sopranos,” which Keogh binged with his sister earlier in the pandemic while living with family in Melbourne; “Boardwalk,” inspired both by Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography and—like “Catalonia”—about finding a space away from the madness to call your own; and “Daylight,” which Keogh started on piano early in 2020 after a pub quiz night and also includes lines about Barcelona. The rest of In Our Own Sweet Time also includes various nods to recent lived experiences.

“I don’t have to be 10 years away from them to reflect on them,” he said prior to his set at BottleRock Napa Valley last week. “I feel I can probably write about them even if it’s a few months later.”

RIFF: You have described In Our Own Sweet Time as being about escaping the anarchy of the world. What did you mean by that?

Vance Joy: Starting in 2020 when things went into lockdown, I have to admit I enjoyed that feeling. I felt like I was told I didn’t have to go to school. The whole plans went out the window, and after being on the road … and just doing the same routine for a while—going on travels for songwriting and moving around all the time—it was cool to be stuck in one spot for a while and just have that kind of stillness and quiet most days. I was in Australia for about six months, and then I went and spent time with my girlfriend in Spain. I spent six months there. I felt like I was in a little bubble, just a private bubble when I was in Melbourne between my family and my sister, mostly. And when I was in Barcelona, with just my girlfriend, just cruising around. It was a nice isolation.

Key on “nice.” You didn’t get sick of suddenly having more time with your family.

Vance Joy: It was a good thing, luckily. I know a lot of people weren’t in that same situation. For me, I enjoyed finding some new routines. There was no pressure to write songs. Writing songs was a fun thing to do to pass the time. That was how that came about.

How does Spain play into this album? How is “Catalonia,” the song and the place, your escape?

Vance Joy: Writing that song was a way of sharing my impressions of living there. It hasn’t influenced the way I approach songwriting too much; I think. I feel like more and more like writing songs [that] reflect my experience. … That for me has been like a chance to say something specific about the place. … A lot of songs are about having a good time with someone, being connected and that sort of stuff. That was name-checking some places, and it was cool to do that. Sometimes it’s scary to do that because you’re like, “Is it going to be cheesy if I say, whatever?”

It reminded me of George Ezra’s “Budapest,” which is another love letter to a place.

Vance Joy: That’s a great one. When it’s done good, it’s good. There’s a song by James Taylor, “Mexico.” I love that one. [Sings:] “Ooh, Mexico.”

You’ve got a lot of collaborators on this album. It’s a different place than when you started as a singer and songwriter. In what ways does that feel like the right direction to take, and how did you go about selecting who you worked with on this one?

Vance Joy: It’s a bit of a trade-off. The thing is, when it’s good, it feels like you almost 100 percent; like the DNA of the song is me. That’s the kind of people I enjoyed working with—who allowed me to have my voice and put content in there. Collaborating is a great thing because you do something you wouldn’t have done. You’re getting this completely different perspective, or maybe you’re on the same page. It’s still fresh and edgy.

There’s something really nice about writing it all by yourself. … I’ve opened up to collaborating, and I love it, but there’s always a little part of me that wants to be writing songs on my own. On this album, there’s only one song I completely did alone, which is “Daylight,” the last song. Some of the best stuff sometimes comes from writing by myself. On this album, some of my favorite songs, I have to admit, are collaborations. It’s like this dilemma you’re faced with: Do I work with people or do I try to the whole thing myself? It’s easy to include people sometimes.

It sounds like you’ve written some songs on your own that you’re sitting on right now.

Vance Joy: The truth is, there’s always song ideas, but once you start working with people, you become reliant on them to finish it. When you work with someone, you’re usually like, “Let’s finish this today.” When you work by yourself, it’s like, “I’ll finish it whenever.” The songs that I’ve written myself usually get written over years. Maybe I’ll finish these ideas that I’ve got—at some point.

How did you figure out who to work with?

Vance Joy: Joel Little, who I wrote a song called “Missing Piece” and a song called “Clarity” with—I was a fan of his. I always liked the songs he’d write with people. I was like, “Let’s find out if he’s available.” It turned out he was available, so we wrote together. It was great.

Other times it’s been people I didn’t know, like Dave Bassett. I didn’t really know who he was, but I’d heard his songs, obviously. He did some popular songs. I got a chance to work with him at the end of 2016 to 2017. We wrote a couple of songs together. Ever since then, I’ve loved working with him. We’ve got a good rapport. It’s a bit of both.

You were one of many who binged “The Sopranos” during the pandemic. But how did a mob TV show play into your album?

Vance Joy: I watched it a couple of times [before]—all the seasons. During lockdown, my sister said, “Here we go. Let’s get stuck in it.” We watched almost every episode. It was like a great thing to share together; such a nice, long all-encompassing show. I was writing songs around the time, and there was a song called “Every Side of You” that I wrote. There’s a line in that song which is like, “I thought I was a certain kind of guy, strong and silent type.” Tony Soprano, in the first episode or something, he’s seeing his mouthy psychiatrist, and he says, “What happened to guys in the olden days, like Gary Cooper, the strong and silent type?” And I was like, “I don’t know.” There’s words and lines from that show that were revolving around my head. Whatever you’re watching or listening to, if you’re really stuck into it, it will come out in song. I was just chilling out watching TV, but it still made its way in. … The band, as well, are fans. “The Sopranos” are with us.

Going off that Jersey vibe, “Boardwalk” is inspired by Bruce Springsteen’s life. Why did your thinking about him inspire you while making your album?

Vance Joy: I’ve always been listening to his songs over the past 10 years or so. … I love his music. I read his memoir at the start of 2021. It has some really nice lines in there—even just the atmosphere of his songs, and the location in the memoir of his songs. He refers to [a boardwalk] in “Atlantic City,” and he probably refers to it in other songs as well. “Well, they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night/ And they blew up his house, too. Down on the boardwalk, they’re getting ready for a fight.” This type of imagery that he uses—if you’re going to talk about a boardwalk, he’s kind of already got the copyright on that. Clearly I’ve been a fan of his, and that’s where the word came from.

So, “Sopranos,” Springsteen. Little Steven connects the two…

Vance Joy: Yeah, yeah. There’s all that. I definitely dipped into that world a lot. It’s funny how that comes out in songs.

I’m really looking forward to your Bon Jovi covers album coming next.

Vance Joy: It’s coming; maybe one day.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter. Follow photographer Nathan McKinley at Instagram.com/memories.by.mckinley.