Sydney singer-songwriter Dean Lewis has never shied away from wearing his heart on his sleeve. In the anthemic ballad “Be Alright”, he’s working through the heartbreak of being cheated on; “A Place We Knew” finds him trying to make sense of the seismic way in which his life changed following the success of 2016 hit single “Waves”; and in “Half a Man” he’s questioning his own self-worth (key lyric: “How am I supposed to love you when I don’t love who I am?”). Lewis’ willingness to plunder the depths of human emotion is one of the reasons why audiences globally have connected with his raw balladry. But there’s more to Lewis than downtrodden emotional soul-searching: His more upbeat tunes were spurred by his growing presence on festival stages playing to sun-drenched audiences looking for a good time. Yet it’s those deeper emotions he always returns to: Lewis spent years behind the scenes doing audio work for TV shows and, after getting a publishing deal, writing for other artists before he made it as a performer, but success didn’t bring the happiness he expected—a revelation that inspired “Falling Up”.