The shed behind a small farmhouse outside Molong hums with possibility. Empty but for a few rats, it seems an unlikely birthplace for new songs. “Three of the tracks on our album were born in this shed,” says Chilean-born singer Javier Rocha, grinning. “It’s just a block, but I need that space, that solitude. I have to be alone to let the emotion come out.”

That search for honesty and expression defines Rocha’s music and his journey. Exuding wisdom way beyond his 27 years, the former psychology major has already crossed continents, navigated a pandemic, and built a vibrant creative life in the Central West.

Rocha grew up in Santiago, the son of a guitar-playing father whose enthusiasm for music was infectious. "He could feel music. He’d listen to Earth, Wind & Fire or Kool & the Gang and point out the bass lines, the horn riffs. He made me listen differently.”

Sundays brought another education separate from his catholic school: Rocha’s father sang and strummed in the church band, harmonising with parents and teachers. Young Javier absorbed the sound of layered voices and found his own. “It was like a dopamine hit,” he recalls. “Hearing harmony live – it just lit something in my brain.”

By his teens he was teaching himself guitar via YouTube, dabbling in metal before drifting back to the acoustic rhythms that felt most authentic. The music of Bob Marley, and Chilean reggae band Gondwana, touched him deepest.

Adventure called Rocha to Patagonia, where the keen kayaker worked as a tour guide among glaciers and vast landscapes. Love, however, drew him further afield. In March 2020, days before Australia’s borders slammed shut, he arrived in Orange. What was meant to be a short stay turned into a life-changing chapter.

“Two and a half years without seeing my family. It was hard, but it forced me to befriend loneliness. I turned to meditation, journaling, and music. I made myself at home.”

The pandemic also gave him the ability to apply for residency. He found work at Groundstone Café in the heart of Orange – an unexpected stage for new connections.

One day, drummer Rocky Rochelli walked in for a coffee. He remarked on the Brazilian music playing through the speakers and struck up a conversation. “He asked if I played,” Rocha recalls. “I said yes... percussion and guitar. He wrote his number on a scrap of paper and said, ‘Let’s jam.’ That same afternoon, I called him.”

The jam session was electric. Soon bassist Sam B joined, then guitarist Will Ferguson, and later keyboard/saxophonist Chris Ryan. Their first project was a Bob Marley tribute show that sold out multiple nights at The Agrestic Grocer. “The energy was insane,” Rocha says. “It showed us people were hungry for this music.”

Rocha’s creative process is unforced. He journals daily after meditation, often uncovering lyrics buried in his reflections. “Sometimes I open a page and realise – this is a song,” he says. Other times, melodies surface, captured instantly on his phone’s voice memo app.

As Javier and the Wave they built a sound that blends reggae, funk, Latin grooves, and soul, adding keyboardist Liam Gildea.

In the past year he has written around a dozen songs, with plenty more in draft form. Many will appear on the band’s debut album, which promises to be eclectic. “You’ll hear all my influences,” he promises. “It’s diverse but rooted in rhythm and emotion.” A good song to start with is ‘Away’, already up on Spotify.

For Rocha, success is not chart positions or record deals. “It’s knowing that what I’m doing contributes to humanity,” he says. “Through a smile, a lyric, a song that makes someone feel less alone – that’s success.”

He resists external definitions of achievement. “If you take on other people’s ideas of what success should be, you lose your own path. I’m running my own race,” he says. “Not competing with other bands, just sharing what I have, right here, right now.”

That philosophy is reflected in his band’s grassroots approach. Booking gigs means emailing thirty venues to get one reply. But persistence pays. Next week, Rocha and his band will debut their original material at Badlands Brewery. “It’s the first time we share our originals with the world,” he says, buzzing.

Rocha’s music is fuelled by equal parts light and shadow. “The fire comes from dark corners too – from anger at injustice, inequality, suffering,” he admits. “But also from love. We’re one big family – the world, the trees, the air. If I can remind someone of that through a song, then I’ll do it.”

His guiding days in Patagonia sharpened that awareness. Watching glaciers collapse and retreat gave him a firsthand sense of the planet’s fragility. “I only worked there two years and saw massive change,” he says. “Everything is impermanent – it scared me. If I have kids one day, they may never see those landscapes.”

With his partner, trained teacher Thomisa, he runs music classes for school kids.

Back in his shed, Rocha strums a steel-string acoustic, his “everyday baby”. Does he dream of a life on the road? “Of course,” he says. “Performing full-time, sharing the music with more people – that would be beautiful.”

But for now, he’s content to build from Orange, one show at a time. “Wherever it goes, I don’t know,” he says. “What matters is that the songs are here, ready to be shared.”

With that, Javier Rocha smiles again – an artist rooted in rhythm, driven by love, and fuelled by the belief that music can make us more human.

“Celebrate whatever you’re feeling – because you’re alive. That’s the message, that’s what makes us rich, man.” he explains.

Catch Javier and the Wave at Badlands Brewery Tap Room, Thursday, September 18, from 6pm.

Insta: JavierandtheWave