By all accounts, it seems the studio time with Dub FX — real name Ben Stanford — has been cathartic. “You literally wake up in the trees, and he’s got three acres up there, it’s just an amazing place to create music,” Perry says. With no nearby neighbours to annoy with the volume turned up, it makes for a “super-productive session” in an arena of the music industry still unfamiliar to the young singer. “It’s a new process for me and I’m learning each time I go into the studio,” he says.

“I’m back in the studio on Monday and Tuesday out here in Perth doing some more stuff, I’m super excited.” While he has extensive experience as a live performer — turned onto vocal looping after discovering Dub FX and diving down a “rabbit hole” of European musos utilising the same technique — Perry is enjoying the rigors of music production. And having a mentor like Stanford is a boon. Perry supported Dub FX on his tour through Perth about four years ago, but never thought he’d soon be friends with his looping idol. “It’s crazy to be honest,” Perry said.

“To actually sit down and create music together, it’s obviously a dream come true. “The fact is it just works, and you forget about all status and who he is and how important it is and you just become friends and just create music. That’s been a real changing moment for me.” The studio time is all contributing to a cache of new material built on in between trips to perform at festivals, private functions and corporate gigs across the country. Everyone still does refer to me as a DJ, and it’s not an offensive thing in any way ... it’s a world they just don’t know. This new music will be unveiled when Perry embarks on his national Not A DJ tour in November and December, stopping at Jack Rabbit Slim’s in Perth and Settlers Tavern in Margaret River.

Not a bad outcome, considering Perry’s doubts when taking to the stage for The Voice auditions. “Before I went on I looked across at Luke, one of the producers, and I asked him if none of the chairs turned for me in my first audition, would he mind not airing my episode,” Perry says. “I was really sure people weren’t going to get it. “I remember the moment ... I had my headphones on, when they’re on they’re so loud because I have to hear every loop I’m doing — I cannot make a mistake while I’m looping live because it loops as a mistake. “Everyone started cheering and I heard it really faintly and I looked up and everyone had turned around.” The rest played out on TV screens across the nation, as Perry’s style and technique wowed judges and sparked controversy over his use of looping equipment and effects while others had only their voices to work with.

But then again, so did Perry in a way. When he spits out an impromptu breakbeat during our chat, it’s strikingly apparent just how diverse Perry’s vocal offering can be. And while debate raged whether or not Perry was DJing on stage, the title of his debut Australian tour should put the debate to rest once and for all. “Everyone still does refer to me as a DJ, and it’s not an offensive thing in any way,” Perry says. “I think they see the machines in front of me and just presume, because it’s a world they just don’t know, I’ve taken something that’s really quite underground to a mainstream television program.”

It’s even seen people come up to him at gigs to request a song, something he’s not able to do as — unlike many record-spinners nowadays — he doesn’t perform with a laptop. “There’s no software up there; it’s all hardware, it’s all feel,” Perry says. Loading Perth holds many good memories for Perry — The Bird and The Bakery in particular — from when he kicked off his fledgling music career here before he toured internationally and plied his trade in Germany and at festivals like the Edinburgh Fringe ahead of his Voice appearance. A lot of venues might have closed, yet Perry still brims with enthusiasm at the prospect of playing at home again, scouting Jack Rabbit Slims to see what the venue is like ahead of his appearance on December 14.