Joel Little received a powerful welcome on Friday as he returned to his old stomping ground - Western Springs College.
He delighted Year 12 and 13 music students, speaking to them about the ups and downs of becoming a world-renowned music producer.
"Anytime I've tried to write a song thinking, it's gonna be a hit... it's invariably sucked!" Little joked.
It really was a trip down memory lane for Little, reuniting with his first music teacher Margaret Robertson.
She vividly remembers the first time she met him.
"The deputy principal brought him over, I think he'd not chosen music and decided he wanted to choose music. So she brought him over and said I've got another one! But I think you'll like this one," she told Newshub.
"And I did. How could you not?"
Joel's big break came after writing with Lorde. The pair won a Grammy for their 2014 hit Royals.
Since then he's collaborated with the likes of Khalid, Sam Smith and Taylor Swift.
But Little's focus now is to shine a light on music here in Aotearoa, with his not-for-profit recording studio and live music venue, Big Fan.
On Friday, the students at Western Springs College were the first to be told about Fan Camp - a five-day writing workshop for under-18s.
"Even though there's been all the success and working with famous people, it still just comes down to just loving making music and writing songs," said Little.
"And I'm trying to get as many people to experience that as possible".
