Graham Candy is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and actor from Auckland. He moves to Berlin in 2013 to develop his music career and becomes associated with indie pop and pop-oriented electronic collaborations.

Early life and performance background

Born in Auckland on 1 April 1991, Candy is the youngest of four children. He begins training in ballroom and Latin dancing at the age of six, and later wins juvenile, junior and youth titles in both New Zealand and Australia with a dance partner. At 12, he works in film as a photo double for the character Edmund in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

He attends Rangitoto College, where he continues to develop his interests in performance. At school he is part of a winning team at the National Stage Challenge competition, sings in a national champions barbershop choir, and wins AMI Showdowns’ best supporting actor award for his role in Seussical. At 17, he spends a school exchange at Saint Ann’s School in New York.

Music and acting career

Candy begins writing songs in 2008 and enters the Play It Strange songwriting competition for secondary school students, where his song “Lasts Forever” places seventh. Mike Chunn, founder of Play It Strange, continues to help guide his music career.

After stopping dance to study acting in 2009, he leaves at the end of that year to pursue music with the band The Lost Boys. The group reaches the top ten in the 2009 New Zealand Battle of the Bands with “Hot Air Balloon”. Candy later returns to film and stage work, winning two NAPTA best supporting actor awards for Footloose and Spring Awakening.

He makes his feature film debut in Queen of Carthage, playing a lead role alongside Keisha Castle-Hughes and Shiloh Fernandez.

Solo work and collaborations

Candy starts his solo music career in 2012, performing in bars and pubs in Auckland. He helps establish The Portland Public House as an in-house musician and event manager, and plays for audiences that include Everclear and the Black Keys, as well as with musicians such as Mumford and Sons and Daniel Bedingfield.

In 2013 he is introduced to Matthias Müller of Crazy Planet Records by Rachael Watson of Spin 33 Records, leading to a commercial solo career in Germany. After moving to Berlin, he works with the German indie-pop band Abby, DJ Alle Farben and electro-swing artist Parov Stelar. His first single is “13 Lords”, and he also features on Parov Stelar’s “The Sun”.

His collaboration with Alle Farben on “She Moves” becomes his first major success. The track appears on Alle Farben’s album Synthesia, alongside Candy’s contribution to “Sometimes”, and gives him his first gold-record single. “She Moves” charts in Germany and also appears in the singles charts in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. The song is remixed by Bakermat and Goldfish.

Labels

He is signed to BMG Rights Management and the Berlin-based label Crazy Planet Records.