Perth Music

Josh Pyke has had one hell of a year. He released his debut album ‘Memories and Dust‘, which entered the ARIA chart at number 4, and has now gone Gold and was nominated for Triple J’s 2007 J Award for album of the year and was the third most played artist on Triple J for all of 2007. He completed two national tours, one with the John Butler Trio, toured the UK three times and played several national music festivals. And what better way to start of 2008 than to be added to the national Big Day Out tour. Josh Pyke talked to Justin Middleton for this exclusive interview.

Click here to download the podcast of the entire interview. (9:00 - 4.2Mb)

I asked Josh how happy he was that his debut album was received so eagerly by the Australian public. “Yeah, for a first record I was kind of expecting that maybe it would sell, you know, 15,000 max and that would be a really great start to a career. I could try and sell more on the next one but it has well and truly exceeded my expectations. Which also then adds a bit more pressure for the next record which is kinda bad….but I’m not going to complain about the success.”

With the sophomore album pressure in Josh’s mind I asked if he had already started writing the follow up to ‘Memories and Dust‘. “Yeah I have and I’d really, really like to get a new record out by next August, which is actually quite soon if you think about how long it takes to set up a record and actually record the record so we’ll see how it goes. But I have started writing and I’ve done a fair few songs already so it’s looking good so far….With Memories and Dust I really had nothing to lose, I didn’t really have any fans, I just put it out and hoped for the best. Where as this time there’s a bunch of people in Australia that have bought the record so it’s sort of nerve racking in a way because if you have a fan base then you have a fan base to lose or hopefully you have a fan base to build upon. It’s a bit nerve racking but I guess that’s just the way it is.”

Even with the success that Josh has had in the last year, he is still not classified as a mainstream musical artist. I asked Josh if, in this day and age, it is getting easier for non-mainstream artists to make a living through their music. “I think in some ways it is because there is a lot more access to music and it is easier to get music these days, in terms of you can jump on Myspace or whatever or Youtube and track down music. But at the same time that accessibility to music, you don’t actually get paid any of that as an artist. It’s great that people can download your album for free if you don’t have a release there but at the same time that means the artist isn’t getting paid. So I think it’s easier for artists to get their music to people, easier than ever, but I think it’s just as hard, if not harder to actually make a living as a musician if you’re not writing really commercial songs that are gonna get played on commercial radio. The only real way you can do it is by hitting the road.”

And yes Josh does actually have direct involvement in his Myspace page. “Yeah, absolutely I spend probably half an hour to an hour every couple of days on it. I generally answer a fair few of them (comments and questions), I don’t answer all the stuff but I think it’s important to try and have that direct contact with people that are supporting you so I think it’s a nice thing to be able to do.”

Josh also explained which other artists on the Big Day Out tour he is really looking forward to seeing. “Augie March. I’ve seen them so many times, they probably my favourite Australian band, I just think they are amazing. It’s going to be awesome to be able to check them out every night. And Arcade Fire. I’m really looking forward to seeing them. They would be in my top three favourite bands at the moment. And I saw them at Glastonbury when I was playing over there and it was just incredible. I’m well and truly up for seeing them again and again and again.”

You can catch Josh Pyke playing live at the Big Day Out:
Fri Jan 18 - Auckland
Sun Jan 20 - Gold Coast
Fri Jan 25 - Sydney
Mon Jan 28 - Melbourne
Fri Feb 1 - Adelaide
Sun Feb 3 - Perth

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 7:31 pm and is filed under Big Day Out, Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.