An Introduction To Josh Pyke

Wed 22nd Jun, 2005 in Features

Josh Pyke is at a very exciting stage of his musical career. Having only just arrived back from New York where he played a handful of showcases for his newly acquired label Ivy League Records, he has plunged head first into a huge solo tour of the country.

“But who is Josh Pyke?” I hear some of you asking. Well seeing as he has only just started playing under his own name it won’t be such an uncommon question but let’s start from the beginning shall we?

Josh is a Sydney based singer/songwriter who first came into the public eye when his then band An Empty Flight started receiving rave reviews for their EP Art Vs Commerce in 2002. The attention saw the band tour the country and even support the likes of the Foo Fighters and Blink 182. Around the time of recording their second EP though Josh was spending his spare time writing songs that were just too different to be put under the rock banner that was An Empty Flight and due to a number of different opportunities the band members faced at the time, they decided to put things ‘on hold’ leaving Josh free to take these new songs and see how far he could run with them. So with $800 in his wallet he headed into the studio and laid down 11 tracks playing all the instruments himself.

The demos produced were a mix of haunting folk, alt-country, and good ol’ love songs all tweaked in Josh’s unique style. When they were completed, Josh certainly wasn’t the only one impressed with the results. The tracks quickly received industry attention and gained for Josh a recording grant from the Australia council, high rotation on Triple J for the singles Kids Don’t Sell Their Hopes so Fast and Silver, the 2004 Jaxter Songwriting award for Kids… and also the opportunity to record his third single The Doldrums with Matt Lovell (Silverchair, Grinspoon) and Chris Joannou (Silverchair). “Yeah that was excellent, it was like exactly how I like to work. We were staying at Chris’s place where he’s got his studio and there were tones of instruments laying all round and I could just pick up stuff and play it whenever I wanted to. It was a nice leisurely experience and we weren’t on the clock so there wasn’t that usual studio time pressure. And it was also just a really lovely environment to do it in, he’s got a really beautiful place. His studio overlooks a nice garden and a pond and it was just very relaxing.”

Up until very recently this solo project was given the moniker Night Hour by which Josh could play his songs either with a full band, solo, as a percussive duo or indeed with any combination of musicians. It sounded like a good idea to me but the test of time showed otherwise. “Changing the name is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while because people didn’t seem to be able to latch on to the fact that Night Hour was just the name for this solo project just like Bright Eyes. But it just seemed really hard for people to get their heads around, so we just changed it to my name which is a lot simpler and helps people grasp that it’s actually a solo thing.”

In May of this year it was announced that Josh had signed recording and publishing contracts with the much sought after Ivy League Records. “I had my eye on a few different labels but they were definitely one of the more appealing ones because they’re an independent label but they’re through a major and being independent they have a lot more scope to be a bit more creative and inventive. They also have an amazing track record overseas which was very appealing.”

Practically the moment the contracts were signed, the label whisked Josh off to New York to show off their new signing. “The main focus of the trip was to form a relationship with Andy Cassel who signed me. Up until then I hadn’t really spent any time with him and I think it’s important for both management and the artist to get a feel for each other. And also just to play a couple of low key shows to get introduced that way to the market.”

During his time in New York Josh played a handful of well received showcases not only to the team at the Ivy League HQ but around the local pub/club scene as well which according to him is quite comparable to playing the scene in Sydney. “It was kind of the equivalent of playing the Hopetoun or the Sando or somewhere like that.” ”...and people over there seem to really enjoy going out to see music mid-week.”

And that brings us up to speed. Josh has now been back in Australia for just under a month and is already at the tail end of a national tour, this time round in solo acoustic mode. “I’ve been playing a lot of solo shows lately and have been really enjoying them. At this point, it [the tour] was just to get the new name into the market place and to really just enforce it as a solo project.”

At the completion of his current tour Josh will find himself in the very the fortunate and exciting position of having record label backing and loads of great tunes just itching to be recorded. “After the tour I’m going to be focusing on demo-ing a lot of new stuff and working on my studio at home that I’m building up. I’d like to get in to producing some other people in the future, but mainly the focus will be to hook up with the right producer and get ready to record the album.

After recording with Matt Lovell and Chris Joannou, I wondered what Josh’s standards in producers was like these days. “Well I’m pretty open to suggestion at this point but I love the work of the guy from Death Cab For Cutie and I really Like Rob Shnapf but obviously depends on their time and weather or not they want to do it. It’s all a bit up in the air at the moment but there is definitely a list of people I want to get in touch with.

It’s been a while now since the Night Hour demos were first recorded so I asked Josh if he thinks his sound has changed much since then. “I think it probably has actually, I think for the album I want it to be a bit more like what happened on the doldrums single, more like that kind of intimate and dark feel. The current works EP was all a total fluke, I hadn’t really thought that through at all, I just went into the studio and was basically just mucking around and that’s what came out, so Id like to approach the album with a lot more thought and focus in terms of the sound.”

Don’t miss Josh Pyke on tour:

Friday 24th June, Sandringham Hotel, Newtown with The West Winter & Simon Bruce 
Friday 1st July, Troubadour, Fortitude Valley with Halfway & Postcards Kaleido Saturday 2nd July, The Chophouse, Surfers Paradise with Jason Pickering & The Fibs