About this artist
An Australian singer/songwriter with a lyrical, laid-back sound, Ziggy Alberts blends acoustic guitars and heartfelt lyrics (often filled with images of nature) with engaging pop melodies and an up-to-date rhythmic pulse. Alberts began his musical career as a busker, and the low-key immediacy of street performing can still be heard in his work, particularly on early efforts like 2013′s Made of Water. As he honed his craft, his audience grew, and 2018′s Laps Around the Sun was a breakout success that went double platinum in Australia. Alberts is also an environmental activist, a commitment reflected in several songs on 2021′s Searching for Freedom.
Born in July 1994, Ziggy Alberts was raised on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, where he was homeschooled by his parents until he was 13. Growing up, his initial ambition was to be a dentist or an engineer, but when he completed high school at age 16, he was given a guitar, and his folks encouraged him to write songs to express himself. By 2011, he was comfortable enough with his music that he quit his job, hopped in his car, and began traveling along Australia’s Eastern Coast, playing as many as nine impromptu shows a week depending on where he stopped. Audiences liked what they heard, and in 2012 Alberts founded his own label, Commonfolk Records, to issue his first digital EP, Feels Like Home. His first full-length album, Made of Water, followed in October 2013, and he spent much of the next year touring in Australia and Europe. 2014′s Land & Sea was a more professional 16-song album that included several new songs along with new recordings of material from Feels Like Home and Made of Water.
After more touring and a 2016 EP, the five-song Four Feet in the Forest, Alberts hit the Australian charts for the first time with the September 2017 single “Heaven,” which went to number 85 on the singles survey. The song was a preview of 2018′s LP Laps Around the Sun, a major commercial breakthrough that hit the Top Ten of the local Albums Chart and went on to double-platinum status in Australia. By 2021, Alberts saw seven of his singles go platinum, and between his recordings and frequent touring he was developing a significant international audience in addition to being one of Australia’s most popular acts. 2020 saw the release of I Won't Give You Up, an EP recorded in collaboration with the Australian hip-hop group Horrorshow. In 2021, Commonfolk issued Alberts’ fourth album, Searching for Freedom, which included the song “Together,” which was written as a response to the Australian Bushfire Crisis, with a portion of the song’s streaming proceeds donated to brushfire relief groups. In November 2021, Alberts signed an international distribution deal with Ingrooves Music for his Commonfolk label, with an eye toward wider distribution outside his homeland. His fifth studio album, Dancing in the Dark, was released in November 2022. ~ Mark Deming & Matt Collar