Gleave setting an Example
Elliot Gleave has just woken up in Newcastle, England. The 32-year-old, better known as British dance star Example, is midway through an extensive tour of 2000-capacity venues in his native UK that stretches to the end of November.
"It's the last big hurrah before I become a dad and I'm not allowed to go on these crazy tours any more," Gleave laughs down the line.
The rapper and singer's wife, Australian model Erin McNaught, is pregnant with the couple's first child, due around New Year's Eve.
With seven more weeks before he heads to Brisbane to join her for the birth, Gleave jokes that he's staying abreast of developments via McNaught's Instagram account (plus regular phone calls).
The chart-topping artist sounds pretty chuffed and the songs on this year's major label debut, Live Life Living, are decidedly uplifting, especially the singles Kids Again and 10 Million People.
"It's definitely the happiest I've been," Gleave says, before adding that his fifth album hasn't lived up to the success of 2011 UK No. 1 Playing in the Shadows and 2012's The Evolution of Man.
"This year arguably hasn't been as good in terms of public perception or excitement about the album but it's my busiest year in terms of gigs," he says. "When I finish the year, I will have done about 110 shows."
While the new material is going down a treat live, fans have not wholly embraced this Example of a happily married, father-to-be.
"People actually turn around and say to you 'I preferred it when you were depressed'," Gleave laughs. "Fans are tweeting you going 'Yeah, I preferred it when you were talking about partying and hangovers and break-ups and drugs'.
"I can't really sing about that any more because it's not really me - maybe once the baby comes I'll find another emotional side of me."
Gleave, who has collaborated with Pet Shop Boys, Calvin Harris and Blur's Graham Coxon, plans to spend three months in Australia around the birth, then "top it all off" with a starring role on next year's Future Music Festival line-up.
"The Australian festival circuit is the best in the world for me," he says, comparing it favourably to the English circuit.
"There's a lot less clothes in Australia, obviously. There's a lot more topless people and people in shorts and bikinis. In the UK, it's people in rain-jackets and Wellington boots."
The warm climate has a huge appeal for the Londoner whose parents have lived on the Gold Coast for the past eight years. The honorary Australian plans to move here permanently in "the next few years or it could be in five years", depending how his and McNaught's careers are going. The bonus, he adds, is free babysitting: "You want your parents to watch their grandchildren grow up."
Example plays Future Music, Arena Joondalup on March 1.
Tickets on sale at General Pants city store from Saturday, 4pm with general tickets on sale noon local time on October 30.
