Stu Larsen

Stu Larsen, an Australian singer and songwriter driven by a persistent urge to roam, possesses a gift for blending storytelling with melody in understated ways. He stepped onto the scene in 2014 via the release of his debut album Vagabond, whose warm folk-pop sound feels both inquisitive and welcoming, functioning as an ode to the combined forces of songcraft and movement.

Raised in a modest countryside setting in Queensland, Larsen resolved around 2010 to encounter the wider world on its own terms rather than as a spectator. He therefore set off alongside his acquaintance Mike Rosenberg, the artist known professionally as Passenger, embracing the itinerant existence that shaped the material on his first record, the Nettwerk-issued Vagabond. Rosenberg produced the album, which featured the successful single “Thirteen Sad Farewells,” and the project immediately propelled Larsen into continuous live work spanning North America, Asia, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Once that cycle concluded, Larsen kept traveling and began assembling songs for his next collection in scattered settings that encompassed a Scottish cottage, a Spanish apartment, and an Australian army bunker. He later relocated to Rosenberg’s Brighton studio in England, accompanied by longtime collaborator and fellow songwriter Luke Thompson, to capture preliminary versions of several pieces. One of those recordings, “By the River,” surfaced in 2016, followed the next year by the complete ten-song album Resolute. That collection, assembled from spontaneous voice memos across Scotland, Spain, and Australia, again reflected an existence spent in transit. A stretch of personal turmoil accompanied by further journeys supplied the backdrop for Larsen’s third album, Marigold, issued in 2019 and centered on the dissolution of a relationship.