Pete Murray (singer-songwriter)
Encyclopedia
Peter "Pete" Kenneth Murray is an Australian singer-songwriter
whose first three full-length albums have all reached #1 on the Australian music charts. He has been nominated several times at the ARIAs and has had several songs reach the top forty in Australia
.
His first LP
, Feeler, reached number 1 a few months after its mid-2003 release, and his follow-up record, See The Sun reached a similar level of success, with all of the singles receiving widespread airplay. His third studio album, Summer At Eureka
, was released in May 2008. To date Pete Murray has sold over 1 million records. Some of the greatest influences on his career are Nick Drake
, Neil Young
and Bob Dylan
.
. At Nudgee College, he showed a great deal of talent in sport especially rugby union
, athletics
and swimming
. He briefly played Brisbane club rugby for GPS and Brothers. When he was 18, his father died while he was contesting the Australian championships of the 400 meters.
While on the sidelines, Murray started to learn the guitar at age 22 and his ability soon improved with plenty of practice. Eventually, he worked up the courage to take his guitar to a barbecue singing songs by Neil Young
and Crowded House
. However, his main interest was in pursuing a career in sports medicine and traveling.
Eventually, enough people told him that he had the talent to be successful in music and he started a musical career, playing small gigs around the country with flautist Col McIntyre, eventually putting a band together (including keyboard player Ben McCarthy, who works with him to this day). In 2002, he released an independent album The Game in Brisbane
and moved to Melbourne
to pursue a musical career. Murray signed a contract with Sony BMG Australia in early 2003.
, Neil Young
, Bob Dylan
, they are built to last. I wanted this to be an album like that, something you can pull out in 30 years and still hear the feeling in it, rather than something that’s dated by the musical fashions of the
day."
Feeler was released on 21 July 2003 with the title track as the first single. Triple J
radio started playing the track with the Nova FM and Triple M
networks picking up the track. With this support, Feeler entered the Aria top 50 album charts in 2003. His reputation was building fast and he started selling out shows in smaller venues.
The momentum of the album continued to build with the release of the second single "Lines" and two ARIA
award nominations reaching platinum record status. Radio programmers had been asking for the track "So Beautiful" to be released as a single and the track was widely played on Australian radio, reaching the top ten in 2004. This spurred sales of the album driving it to number one on the Australian album charts in late March 2004 and six times platinum status. , the album has sold half-a-million copies.
Pete Murray commenced an Australian tour of larger venues. Due to the level of demand, he had to announce nine extra dates. As well, he made one of his sellout performances at the Sydney Metro theatre on 27 March 2004 available for download at BigPond Music. Following the Boxing Day Tsunami, Murray appeared at the Wave Aid fundraising concert in Sydney
, to raise funds for aid organisations working in disaster affected areas.
. See the Sun sold 350,000 copies.
, was released on 17 May 2008. On 26 May 2008 it achieved #1 status in Australia, becoming his third consecutive #1 album. The first single of the album was "You Pick Me Up", which reached #36 on the Australian Charts. The second single from the album will be "Saving Grace", which was scheduled for release on 2 August.
on bass and Brent Wood
on guitar. Pete Williamson was the former lead guitarist with The Stonemasons, however, he now seems to be involved with the Australian band Mammal
. Ben McCarthy was the keyboardist but he is now working with Kate Miller-Heidke
.
. In July 2009, it was reported that Murray and his wife had separated and have been living separate lives while sharing custody of their two young sons.
are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association
(APRA).
|-
| 2005
|| "So Beautiful" (Peter Murray) || Most Performed Australian Work ||
|-
| 2006
|| "Better Days" (Murray) || Song of the Year ||
|-
| 2007
|| "Opportunity" (Murray) || Most Performed Australian Work ||
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
whose first three full-length albums have all reached #1 on the Australian music charts. He has been nominated several times at the ARIAs and has had several songs reach the top forty in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
His first LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, Feeler, reached number 1 a few months after its mid-2003 release, and his follow-up record, See The Sun reached a similar level of success, with all of the singles receiving widespread airplay. His third studio album, Summer At Eureka
Summer at Eureka (album)
Summer at Eureka is the third studio album by Australian rock musician Pete Murray. Following his previous two #1 albums, Feeler in 2003 and See the Sun in 2005, Summer at Eureka became his third #1. After the album's release on 17 May 2008, it peaked on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart on 26 May...
, was released in May 2008. To date Pete Murray has sold over 1 million records. Some of the greatest influences on his career are Nick Drake
Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...
, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
.
Early career
Pete Murray was born on 14 October 1969 and attended St. Joseph's Nudgee CollegeSt. Joseph's Nudgee College
St Joseph's Nudgee College is a private, Roman Catholic, day and boarding school for boys, located in Boondall, a northern suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia....
. At Nudgee College, he showed a great deal of talent in sport especially rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, athletics
Athletics (track and field)
Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...
and swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
. He briefly played Brisbane club rugby for GPS and Brothers. When he was 18, his father died while he was contesting the Australian championships of the 400 meters.
While on the sidelines, Murray started to learn the guitar at age 22 and his ability soon improved with plenty of practice. Eventually, he worked up the courage to take his guitar to a barbecue singing songs by Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
and Crowded House
Crowded House
Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia and led by New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn. Finn is the primary songwriter and creative director of the band, having led it through several incarnations, drawing members from New Zealand , Australia and the United States...
. However, his main interest was in pursuing a career in sports medicine and traveling.
Eventually, enough people told him that he had the talent to be successful in music and he started a musical career, playing small gigs around the country with flautist Col McIntyre, eventually putting a band together (including keyboard player Ben McCarthy, who works with him to this day). In 2002, he released an independent album The Game in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
and moved to Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
to pursue a musical career. Murray signed a contract with Sony BMG Australia in early 2003.
The Game (Promotional/independent album)
- "My Time"
- "Fall Your Way"
- "So Beautiful"
- "Lines"
- "So Why"
- "Bail Me Out"
- "With Only You"
- "Shine"
- "Young Mr Attitude"
- "Fly with You"
- "D Day"
Feeler – mainstream success
In early 2003, Pete Murray and his band entered the studio with producer Paul McKercher and his band (consisting of Ben McCarthy on bass and keyboards, Christian Sargent on drums, and Paul Tyrell on guitar) to make the Feeler album. On his website, Pete Murray outlines the type of record he was hoping to make. "The records I love by people like Nick DrakeNick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...
, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, they are built to last. I wanted this to be an album like that, something you can pull out in 30 years and still hear the feeling in it, rather than something that’s dated by the musical fashions of the
day."
Feeler was released on 21 July 2003 with the title track as the first single. Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
radio started playing the track with the Nova FM and Triple M
Triple M
The Triple M Network is an active rock radio network in Australia owned by media company Austereo, who also own the Today Network.- History :...
networks picking up the track. With this support, Feeler entered the Aria top 50 album charts in 2003. His reputation was building fast and he started selling out shows in smaller venues.
The momentum of the album continued to build with the release of the second single "Lines" and two ARIA
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
award nominations reaching platinum record status. Radio programmers had been asking for the track "So Beautiful" to be released as a single and the track was widely played on Australian radio, reaching the top ten in 2004. This spurred sales of the album driving it to number one on the Australian album charts in late March 2004 and six times platinum status. , the album has sold half-a-million copies.
Pete Murray commenced an Australian tour of larger venues. Due to the level of demand, he had to announce nine extra dates. As well, he made one of his sellout performances at the Sydney Metro theatre on 27 March 2004 available for download at BigPond Music. Following the Boxing Day Tsunami, Murray appeared at the Wave Aid fundraising concert in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, to raise funds for aid organisations working in disaster affected areas.
See the Sun
His second album See the Sun had two standout hits in Opportunity and Better Days. Class A and George's Helper were also released as singles. Days after its release Murray performed at the 2005 NRL grand final2005 NRL Grand Final
The 2005 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2005 National Rugby League season. It was played on the night of Sunday, 2 October at Sydney's Telstra Stadium between 4th-placed Wests Tigers and 5th-placed North Queensland Cowboys, the only two clubs in the...
. See the Sun sold 350,000 copies.
Summer at Eureka
His third album, Summer at EurekaSummer at Eureka (album)
Summer at Eureka is the third studio album by Australian rock musician Pete Murray. Following his previous two #1 albums, Feeler in 2003 and See the Sun in 2005, Summer at Eureka became his third #1. After the album's release on 17 May 2008, it peaked on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart on 26 May...
, was released on 17 May 2008. On 26 May 2008 it achieved #1 status in Australia, becoming his third consecutive #1 album. The first single of the album was "You Pick Me Up", which reached #36 on the Australian Charts. The second single from the album will be "Saving Grace", which was scheduled for release on 2 August.
The Stonemasons
His supporting band is The Stonemasons, featuring Andy Sylvio on drums, Jonathan ZionJonathan Zion
Jonathan Zion is an Australian musician; his main instruments are bass guitar and double bass.Zion has been writing, performing, and recording professionally since he was eighteen years old, releasing his first single with the band Fibro House in 1989. In 1992 he completed a three-year Bachelor of...
on bass and Brent Wood
Brett Wood (musician)
Brett Wood is a musician based in Melbourne, Australia. Born 31 March 1980, Brett attended Montmorency Secondary College and grew up in the north/eastern suburb of Greensborough...
on guitar. Pete Williamson was the former lead guitarist with The Stonemasons, however, he now seems to be involved with the Australian band Mammal
Mammal (band)
Mammal were an Australian band that formed in March 2006. Mammal rose up the ranks of the Australian music scene very quickly. Their first self titled EP was recorded soon after the band came together. Their debut live album "Vol:1 The Aural Underground" was recorded just 4 months after the band...
. Ben McCarthy was the keyboardist but he is now working with Kate Miller-Heidke
Kate Miller-Heidke
Kate Miller-Heidke is a singer-songwriter from Brisbane, Australia. Although classically trained, she has followed a career in alternative pop music. She is signed to Sony Australia, Epic in the US and RCA in the UK.-Career:...
.
Blue Sky Blue
His fourth album, Blue Sky Blue, was released in Australia September 2nd 2011.Personal life
Murray married Amanda Coutts on 7 October 2006, in Eureka, New South WalesNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
. In July 2009, it was reported that Murray and his wife had separated and have been living separate lives while sharing custody of their two young sons.
APRA Awards
The APRA AwardsAPRA Awards
The APRA Music Awards are several award ceremonies run in Australia and New Zealand by Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually....
are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association
Australasian Performing Right Association
The Australasian Performing Right Association is a copyright collective representing New Zealand and Australian composers, lyricists and music publishers. The association's head offices located in Sydney Australia, and it has branch offices in Auckland, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth...
(APRA).
|-
| 2005
APRA Awards of 2005
The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2005 are a series of awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Classical Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards ceremony occurred on 30 May at the Sydney Four Seasons Hotel, they were presented by APRA and the...
|| "So Beautiful" (Peter Murray) || Most Performed Australian Work ||
|-
| 2006
APRA Awards of 2006
The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2006 are a series of awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Classical Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards ceremony occurred on 5 June at the Sydney Four Seasons Hotel, they were presented by APRA and the...
|| "Better Days" (Murray) || Song of the Year ||
|-
| 2007
APRA Awards of 2007
The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2007 are a series of awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Classical Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards ceremony occurred on 16 June at the Sydney Hilton, they were presented by APRA and the Australasian...
|| "Opportunity" (Murray) || Most Performed Australian Work ||
Studio albums
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Certification Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... s (thresholds) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
NZL Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
NLD MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
|||
| 2002 | The Game
|
— | — | — | — |
| 2003 | Feeler
|
1 | 15 | 53 | |
| 2005 | See the Sun
|
1 | 22 | 87 | 4x Platinum (ARIA) |
| 2008 | Summer at Eureka Summer at Eureka (album) Summer at Eureka is the third studio album by Australian rock musician Pete Murray. Following his previous two #1 albums, Feeler in 2003 and See the Sun in 2005, Summer at Eureka became his third #1. After the album's release on 17 May 2008, it peaked on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart on 26 May... |
1 | 19 | 17 | Platinum (ARIA) |
| 2011 | Blue Sky Blue
|
6 | — | — | Gold (ARIA) |
Singles
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Certification Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... s (thresholds) |
Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
NZL Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
NLD MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
||||
| 2004 | "Feeler" | — | — | — | — | Feeler |
| "So Beautiful" | 9 | 13 | 62 | Platinum (ARIA) | ||
| "Bail Me Out" | 56 | — | — | — | ||
| "Please" | 33 | — | — | — | ||
| "Lines" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2005 | "Better Days" | 13 | 32 | — | Gold (ARIA) | See the Sun |
| "Class A" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2006 | "Opportunity" | 29 | 32 | — | — | |
| "George's Helper" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2008 | "You Pick Me Up" | 36 | — | 83 | — | Summer at Eureka |
| "Saving Grace" | 44 | — | — | — | ||
| "Chance to Say Goodbye" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2011 | "Always a Winner" | 38 | — | — | — | Blue Sky Blue |
| "Free" | 42 | — | — | — | ||