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Pete Murray.
 Just over two years ago I had coffee with a then-unknown singer/songwriter at the behest of his record label, Sony, who were clearly hoping for big things to come. The product in hand was an album for which was to go on to sell six times platinum, but for a long time I honestly couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. On first listen Pete Murray's 'Feeler' was a decent enough CD to my ears, but it wasn't until I really began to delve into deeper that I truly appreciated its qualities.
Since then Murray has upheld all obligations as a national music treasure and with a second album, 'See The Sun', to promote is just about to embark on his next big Australian tour. Not that he's spent too much time resting of late: "We've been fairly busy and it's a hard working band that we've got going," he reflects, "and we've done lots of shows and tours and we've been around Australia I don't know how many times now, so it's been a good two years."
"Busy" is an understatement: other than playing countless shows of his own, Murray has completed a showcase tour of the UK, headlined major festivals and had recently played to over 6,000 people at The Day On The Green here in the Barossa Valley. "I think that also goes back to the way we built this from the start," considers a grateful Murray. "You just have to build things up and then try and manage them the right way and make sure that you're not over-exposing yourself too much. People can soon get sick to death of you and you have to be careful how you do things because it's a pretty small market here. It would be really nice to go to another territory and have other places to tour, so it might be nicer to go overseas. I've done the UK on a very small scale and we'll do that again, but America would be great if we can do that."
They say that first impressions last the longest, and after my first meeting with Murray what struck me the most was how genuinely humble and much of a nice guy he was. "[Success] hasn't changed me, well I don't think greatly," he avows, "but I think a lot of people around me have in the way that they act towards me sometimes. But I haven't changed too much in that I'm still the same person that was brought up in a small country town, out there my parents taught me that, and they related things to sport, if you became successful at sport then don't brag about yourself because people don't want to hear about that. That was drilled in to me as a kid and I still feel the same, you know? I definitely don't have a big head or feel as though I'm better than anyone else; in fact, I feel quite lucky that things have gone my way because I know that it's very hard to have a career in music. So as far as change goes, I think I've changed for the best.
"I think with anyone who's had a certain amount of success fairly quickly like we did with 'Feeler' you have to adjust really quickly with what's happening," he muses, "and that can take time. It's like 'what the hell's happening here and when's it going to stop?' But then it keeps going so it's just a matter of trying to control the situation and keep yourself under control because it does get pretty wild with a lot of people pulling you in a lot of different directions."
Murray's latest single, Opportunity, has a secondary agenda in that for every copy sold fifty cents goes towards the Salvation Army. "I used to be involved with youth work down in Melbourne before music took off for me so I'm pretty passionate about looking after the kids and trying to help them out," he declares. "The Salvos are such a huge organisation and they look after a lot of people they have quite a few centres around Australia that look after street kids. They offer things like finishing off schooling and kids can learn carpentry and how to do DJing on radio and all those kinds of things, so it's such a good cause."
Steve Jones
 | Pete Murray & The Stonemasons play at Adelaide University on Fri 7 April with Donovan Frankenreiter and Ash Grunwald. |
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