It’s been ten years since Josh Pyke’s sublime, debut album, ‘Memories & Dust’ was released.
Since then he’s released four more top ten breaching albums, won four ARIA Awards and nurtured a devoted fan base over countless sold-out tours.
With a ‘Best Of’ album due for release accompanied by a 12-date national tour, he’s more than earned the right to take some time to reflect. “It just felt right. It felt like a good time to consolidate all of the different periods of my career and have it as a bookend. To be able to clear out my creative consciousness and move on.”
“For the first time in a long, long time I don’t have any solid plans for what’s next.”
Accompanying this nostalgic moment in Josh’s career is the launch of a six-part web documentary where Josh reflects on memories and poignant moments in his life, both as a performer and as a human being.
He’s releasing each episode weekly in the run up to the release of the ‘Best Of’. “I’d always intended on making a documentary. When I was in the UK, a friend of mine James Lee who is a really successful film clip director and director in the States now, but he was just my mate back then. He’d just jump in the tour van and film everything. I had all these old boxes of tapes and wanted to do something with them.
“It’s been so full on and crazy for me, it’s nice to have these things to show my kids. They’re seven and four now, and if they have questions in the future and they don’t want to talk to their dad because teenage boys don’t want to talk to their dad, they can watch these and try and understand me a bit better.”
Josh has carved his career out the hard way, building grassroots support from the very beginning, reflected in the connection he has with his fans. In this spirit, he embarked on a 32-date tour of the less-well-travelled locations around Australia last year during which I caught him at the Redland Bay Hotel in Brisbane. “That’s a place I’d never been, but that was a great crowd,” enthuses Josh.
“The demographic was ranging from kids with their parents to adults with their parents. That’s the thing that surprised me, a new swathe of people coming to shows who are really young. People who were ten when they first heard my music and now they’re in their late teens and twenties and starting to come to shows. There’s no clear definition age-wise, which is a really great thing.”
Josh is also re-releasing ‘Memories & Dust’ on vinyl for the first time, the album where it all began. I enquire how his views on it had changed, ten years later. “There’s a song called ‘Covers Are Thrown’, which I like way more now than I did.
"I always liked it or I wouldn’t have put it on the record. It’s more confessional and direct than a lot of my other songs and I felt uncomfortable with that, but with ten years of distance I feel I can relate to it in a different way.”
What comes after this for Josh, time will tell. For now he’s enjoying the time to reflect and taking his time to decide his next steps with a well-earned victory lap. “For the first time in a long, long time I don’t have any solid plans for what’s next and it’s half terrifying but it’s also really liberating.”
'The Best Of, B-Sides & Rarities - Josh Pyke' is available now.
Josh Pyke Shows
Fri 28 Jul - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)Sat 29 Jul - Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)
Fri 4 Aug - The Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
Sat 5 Aug - The Wool Exchange (Geelong)
Thu 10 Aug - Miami Marketta (Gold Coast)
Fri 11 Aug - The Triffid (Brisbane)
Sat 12 Aug - The Spotted Cow (Toowoomba)
Thu 17 Aug - The Gov (Adelaide)
Fri 18 Aug - Prince Of Wales (Bunbury)
Sat 19 Aug - The Capitol (Perth)
Fri 25 Aug - Launceston Country Club
Sat 26 Aug - Wrest Point Casino (Hobart)
