“My style didn’t really fit ‘in a lane’ and nobody would take ownership of my music,” remembers Wockner, who was named “Musician of the Year” at the Livewire Prestige Awards back in 2021. “I didn’t really have anywhere to go.”

So, he started coming over to the States to write and record in 2011, resulting in the release of his debut album<span> </span><i>Crayon Days</i><span> </span>in 2013. Two years later, Wockner scored a global win at the International Acoustic Music Awards (IAMA,) becoming the first and only Australian to ever win top honors.

The following year, Wockner purchased a one-way ticket to Nashville for himself, his wife, their two young children and a total of 10 suitcases.

“I was able to exhale a little more over here,” says Wockner, who shortly after snagged a spot performing on CNN. “I could find my people.”

Find his people he did. Wockner soon found himself displaying his live looping skills to a whole new audience craving something different from the status quo and finding it within Wockner’s off the cuff performances, many of which have been featured on his ever-popular YouTube channel.

“Looping gives me the ability to lean into the act of stumbling, music wise,” explains Wockner, whose biggest dreams take him to the day he will finally play Madison Square Garden. “It’s like a fork in the road. The listener never knows which direction I’m going to go, and sometimes – neither do I!”

The creative chameleon who recently signed deals with both Dream Big Dreams Management and Universal Attractions Agency (UAA) draws in a deep breath.

“When you go to a music festival or a big show these days, everything is choreographed to an inch of its life. Bands play to tracks and there’s months and months of rehearsals and it’s the same guitar solo every time. (Pauses.) I will never sound as ‘polished’ as that, but I don’t think I want to. People want to hear what life is like, and life is sometimes a challenge.”

And while Wockner loves himself a good challenge, he also has come to love the pristineness of the game of golf, a sport he learned to play under the watchful eye of his grandmother and a sport that he could easily have made his career.<span class=”Apple-converted-space”> </span>

“I love shutting my brain off from everything else but what I’m doing in that moment,” explains Wockner, who happened to headline the Opening Ceremony of PGA Honda Classic earlier this year. “Anybody who legit meditates will roll their eyes at this, but for me, it’s a form of meditation. All I think is that I’m going to take this seven iron and draw this ball over the edge of that trap.

And crazy enough, it usually does.

Because he is Carl fri**in Wockner.

“I want to send a message to people that you can follow through with your ambitions, even if you’re over 30 with a wife and kids. I want to give people strength for their aspirations so that it flows back to me when I need a little strength myself.”