Armidale boy Fergus James to support Ed Sheeran on Australian tour

The last line was: “Fergus will finish school at the end of 2017 and plans to pursue a career as a singer.”

This week, he will not only release his first single but will also start a run of five dates supporting the Australian tour of one of the world’s biggest contemporary musicians: Ed Sheeran.

It’s safe to say his plans are going well.

The Leader caught up with the artist formerly known as Fergus Lupton as he prepared to fly out to Perth for his first show on Friday.

Managed by Role Model Artists, part of the Mushroom Group, he was “doing a bit of gardening in the front yard when I got the phone call from my manager”.

“Luckily enough, Ed had listened to some of my unreleased demos the company sent through, really liked what he was hearing and decided it would be a good fit,” he said.

“And everything kind of changed from that point onwards.”

Fergus, 18, has just completed Year 11 and 12 at Newtown High School of the Performing Arts.

And it’s not the first time his music has made a superstar sit up and take notice.

His school had a surprise visit about 18 months ago from US artist Justin Timberlake, who heard Fergus perform an original song and called it “truly awesome … put that on the radio now”.

Fergus will join Missy Higgins in supporting Sheeran at his Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane shows in March.

“It’s a combination of nerves and excitement; I just hope to strike the right balance when I get to Perth,” he said.

“I’m honoured and really looking forward to playing on Friday.”

It’s the same day Fergus will release his first single Golden Age, to Spotify, Apple Music and possibly Triple J Unearthed.

He describes his music as “a melting pot of finger-picked guitar, coated with soft folk lyrics … drawing influence from the likes of Passenger, Ben Howard and Bon Iver”.

Fergus said his other great influences were his musical mum and his music-loving dad, who’d exposed him to lots of styles as a child, giving him a “great array of musical influences to draw from”.

“He loved lots of old music; Dire Straits and Bruce Springsteen were always on the iPod when I was growing up, so I guess I had that kind of influence,” he said.

Fergus said he first started contemplating music as a viable career about halfway through high school.

“Around Year 9, I started winning eisteddfods for songwriting; later I thought maybe a move to Sydney would benefit me as a developing artist,” he said.

“I realised writing songs for a living is a career, but not many people are brought up to believe that you can do something career-wise in music.

“Luckily, I had two parents who made me believe I could do anything.”