| Pete Murray | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Peter Kenneth Murray |
| Born | 14 October 1969 |
| Origin | Brisbane, Australia[1] |
| Genres | Rock, acoustic |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Acoustic guitar |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Labels | Sony BMG |
| Website | PeteMurray.com |
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.[2][3]
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.[4] 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.[5]
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Pete Murray was born on 14 October 1969 and attended St. Joseph's Nudgee College. 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.[5] 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.
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 Drake, 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. As of 2008[update], the album has sold half-a-million copies.[6]
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.
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 final.[7] See the Sun sold 350,000 copies.[6]
His third album, Summer at Eureka, 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.
His supporting band is The Stonemasons, featuring Andy Sylvio on drums, Jonathan Zion 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.
His fourth album, Blue Sky Blue, was released in Australia September 2nd 2011.
Murray married Amanda Coutts on 7 October 2006, in Eureka, New South Wales.[8] 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.[9]
The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).[10]
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | "So Beautiful" (Peter Murray) | Most Performed Australian Work[11] | Won |
| 2006 | "Better Days" (Murray) | Song of the Year[12] | Nominated |
| 2007 | "Opportunity" (Murray) | Most Performed Australian Work[13] | Nominated |
| Releases | ||
|---|---|---|
| ↙Studio albums | 5 | |
| ↙Singles | 14 | |
| ↙Video albums | 2 | |
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Certifications (thresholds) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS | NZL | NLD | |||
| 2002 | The Game
|
— | — | — | — |
| 2003 | Feeler
|
1 | 15 | 53 | 6x Platinum (ARIA) |
| 2005 | See the Sun
|
1 | 22 | 87 | 4x Platinum (ARIA) |
| 2008 | Summer at Eureka
|
1 | 19 | 17 | Platinum (ARIA) |
| 2011 | Blue Sky Blue
|
6 | — | — | Gold (ARIA) |
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Certifications (thresholds) |
Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS |
NZL | NLD | ||||
| 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 | — | — | — | ||