“He lived for music,” mother Linda Caukwell said. “He didn’t just hear the music, he heard what was behind it. He would say to me, ‘Mum, can’t you hear that, can’t you hear the beats’.”

Joel, 17, an aspiring DJ who left school at an early age to pursue his music dreams, died tragically on Sunday when he lost control of his motorbike and hit a guardrail on the M1 at Cameron Park, triggering an outpouring of grief in Singleton.

While Joel died at a young age, those close to him say he lived a full life. And as friends and family wade through the grief in the days after his death, they have vowed to keep the music playing, using the hashtag on social media “#party4joel”.

Mrs Caukwell said she had been overwhelmed by the response from Joel’s friends, adding that “not even Joel knew how loved he was”.

“He was a loved child,” she said. “Wherever he went, he met people. I never knew he’d made such an impact on them.”

For the Caukwell family, Sunday’s road tragedy wasn't the first.

A year ago, Joel’s cousin, Dylan Caukwell, 28, died in a car crash at Tomago. Three months after that accident, 20-year-old champion archer Jake Collins – a close friend of Joel’s – died after falling from the roof of a ute at Mango Brush.

Mrs Caukwell said the string of tragedies were hard to reconcile.

“But I know they’re all up there, partying together,” she said.

“All of them were so young – Joel, he was only 17, but he lived a full life; he must have known he was going to go early. In the last five years, he’d done so much, he had so many dreams and was going places.

“He wanted to be an international DJ and I have no doubt he would have gotten there. He would have achieved those dreams.”

Social media has been flooded with tributes in the wake of the 17-year-old’s death.

Many of Joel’s friends agreed that he was the “life of the party”.

“His future was so bright,” one wrote. “Another young life taken too soon,” said another.

Funeral details will be finalised in coming days.