Up close and personal
Award-winning singersongwriter Anthony Callea will get ‘intimate’ with fans during his ‘Unplugged and Unfiltered’ tour.
Performing stripped-back, acoustic live music, the singer is venturing on a tour that is as new to him as it is to his audience.
He is visiting several regional locations for the first time, including Horsham Town Hall on May 25.
During a brief visit to the Wimmera last month, when he visited The Weekly Advertiser, he sang praises for the level of appreciation regional people had for the arts.
“I have never been to Horsham, and to be honest I didn’t know what to expect,” he said.
“But the thing that I love – that I have noticed in both Bendigo and Horsham – is that these regional towns really embrace the arts.”
Callea was also full of praise for Horsham Town Hall.
“I think it is amazing. To have an arts precinct like that, for your population size, is brilliant. Horsham is really lucky,” he said.
“And as a performer, to be able to walk into an environment and into a community where they embrace the arts is a beautiful thing.”
Callea said his ‘imperfect’ show would involve raw and real conversations, and hoped his audience would walk away feeling they had connected with him on a personal level.
“I love having a stage where I can just completely be myself,” he said.
“There are no rules and no restrictions, and what I thrive on is walking out on a stage and thinking, ‘anything could happen tonight’, and just enjoying that moment.
“I want those imperfections, because those imperfections in music and in a performance make it real – it connects with people, and that is what I want to do with this tour, I want to have a conversation.
“I want to do a bit of an ‘improv’ section in the show as well, but I am still trying to work out exactly how I am going to do it.”
Callea has an impressive career. His debut single became Australia’s highest and fastest selling single, and he has performed with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, for Pavarotti and for the Queen.
He has also won Australian Recording Industry Association recognition.
Callea said his time in the industry since breaking onto the music scene through television program Australian Idol in 2004 had taught him not to overthink.
He encouraged young people with a passion for the arts to embrace themselves and have fun.
“Being a singer, being a musician, it is such a unique expression because it is coming from within,” he said.
“You are so vulnerable because the sound that you are producing is coming from you. So just own it. If it feels right and you are prepared to put your name to something or to a performance, then go with it and have fun.”
People can buy tickets for Anthony Callea’s Horsham performance online at www.horshamtownhall. com.au.