PETE MURRAY’S NEW EP ‘THE NIGHT’ RELEASED TODAY + ADDED TO BLUESFEST 2021 LINEUP
The quiet achiever of Australian music, Pete Murray has today released his anticipated new EP, The Night, and this week announced he’ll be joining the Bluesfest 2021 lineup alongside Tash Sultana, The Teskey Brothers, Ocean Alley and more. After impressing with Found My Place, his driving song about offering wisdom to your kids, and backing it up with the tenderness and beauty of the introspective If We Never Dance Again, Pete is ready to share his masterful six track EP.
“It’s always exciting releasing new music, especially when you are super happy with the way the record sounds. I have really enjoyed the writing and the recording process of this record,” Pete says.
Taking sonic inspiration from artists such as JJ Cale and Frank Ocean, The Night is uplifting, affecting and loved up, showcasing this exceptionally gifted and seasoned songsmith at his very best. The Night sees Pete trialing new techniques seven albums deep in his career, revelling in co-writing abroad.
Pete explains, “I had only done co-writing once before, so this was still a new experience for me and one that I was quite nervous about. I went to LA, Nashville and England and I knew I would be writing with experienced writers, so I didn’t want to let anyone down. It all turned out to be an amazing experience and I was really happy with the songs that were written over there.”
Recorded in Pete’s own Kicks Iron Studio in Byron Bay with his good mate Garrett Kato (Kyle Lionhart, Ziggy Alberts, Pierce Brothers), The Night exudes contentment and warmth and is a hugely personal offering from the notoriously private family man. Inspired by his family and home life, Pete explains, “When I’m in writing mode, I tend to write about real life situations that people can relate to and also take motivation from.”
Additional to his newly announced Bluesfest performance, Pete will be playing the new tracks, as well as crowd favourites at the upcoming By The C Festival dates, Sunset Piazza and Crowd Surf through March. For more dates and details on where you can hear him live, visit: https://petemurray.com/#shows
The Night EP is out now via Sony Music Entertainment Australia
THE NIGHT EP TRACKLISTING
1. Found My Place
2. If We Never Dance Again
3. Because Of You
4. We’ll Be The Fire
5. The Fall Apart
6. Waiting For This Love
PETE MURRAY SHOW DATES
SAT 6 MAR | BY THE C | CRONULLA
SUN 7 MAR | SUNSET PIAZZA, SYD
SUN 14 MAR | BY THE C | ST KILDA, MELB
SAT 20 MAR | CROWD SURF | SANDSTONE POINT
SAT 27 MAR | BY THE C | CITY BEACH, PER
MON 5 APR | BLUESFEST, BYRON BAY
BOB EVANS ANNOUNCES NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO CONCRETE HEART + NEW ALBUM TOMORROWLAND SET FOR RELEASE APRIL 16 – PRE ORDER NOW
Renowned Australian singer songwriter, Bob Evans has today announced his new single Concrete Heart, a stunning, sunny track featuring harmonies from Stella Donnelly, out today, February 18. Concrete Heart is also accompanied by a wonderfully Aussie film clip, perfectly suited to the theme of the song. Concrete Heart and previous single Born Yesterday both precede Bob Evans’ sixth studio album Tomorrowland, a triumphant record scheduled for release on April 16, 2021 – available for pre-order now. Bob Evans is the ARIA-winning alter ego of Jebediah frontman Kevin Mitchell who has graced the Australian music scene for more than two decades and has written some of the country’s most beloved songs.
Produced by Steven Schram (Paul Kelly, Kate Miller-Heidke), Concrete Heart is Bob Evans at his very best; glistening guitar, Beatles-inspired harmony and melody, and a shining arrangement that pulls it all together. Featuring harmonies from WA’s Stella Donnelly, Concrete Heart evokes classic influences of Crowded House and The Go-Betweens, and yet remains perfectly unique to Bob Evans. Speaking on the inspiration behind the track, he says, “The lyrics are inspired a bit by online conversation on social media. I have been accused of being a ‘bleeding heart’ a few times when putting forward my opinion on a political or social issue, which I think is a hilarious put-down, because it’s basically criticising someone for caring too much! What is so wrong with that? So it got me thinking about owning that label, like, “yep, I am a bleeding heart” because what is the alternative? A cold heart made out of concrete? No thanks. That is not me and I don’t ever want it to be. The music to this one is kind of upbeat and fun sounding though, so I tried to come at this whole idea with a bit of tongue in cheek, like I’m poking fun at the whole thing in a way.”
Filmed, directed, produced and edited by long time Bob Evans and Jebediah collaborator, Arlo Cook (Gretta Zilla,The Tommyhawks), the film clip for Concrete Heart is set in a quintessential country Australian pub, and feels like a perfectly accurate visual representation of where you would most want to hear Concrete Heart played live. Speaking on the inspiration behind the clip, Kevin says, “I came up with the idea of my band playing in a front bar of a pub to a virtually empty room and a disinterested audience. I just thought it was a really simple and funny way to address the message of the song. Arlo made the clip for Born Yesterday with me and we wanted to try and carry over some of that same feeling and aesthetic to this clip, which wasn’t really a straightforward thing to do as they are quite different songs; Concrete Heart is quite upbeat. We decided to really lean in to the Australiana vibe and make it look like it could have been filmed any time between now and 30 years ago.”
Fans will be thrilled to know that Bob Evans’ sixth studio album Tomorrowland is due for release on April 16, 2021 and Tomorrowland is set to be a shining addition to his discography. Over five albums, Bob Evans has always been the acoustic melody king, the folk/rock alternative whose songs became favourites, then beloved and finally classics. Now, Kevin says, “I think this is the most electric guitar I’ve played on a Bob record. I pretty much had an electric guitar in my hand for every song.” Tomorrowland was spawned during one of the worst times for anyone, anywhere: the covid-cursed 2020, a period when initial recording was completed one day after all his gigs were cancelled, and two weeks before Kevin and everyone else in Victoria went into an agonisingly long lockdown. But the result is euphoric, sparkling – a luminescent rock record from an unstoppable songsmith.
Stay tuned for an exciting tour announce to come very soon!
Concrete Heart is out now via Dew Process.
Tomorrowland is out April 16, 2021 and is available for pre-order now.
Bob Evans is Kevin Mitchell.
PARKER ANNOUNCES NEW SINGLE & VIDEO LIE LOW FOR RELEASE ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, MARCH 8
Stunning visual artist, songwriter and musician PARKER has today announced her new single Lie Low, a deeply moving song about reclaiming power, out today, March 8. Lie Low is intentionally released on International Women’s Day 2021, and this song is set to be an inspiration for any woman who has ever diminished their own hopes, dreams and talents to allow someone else to take the spotlight. Accompanying the intensely introspective track is a masterful film clip offering an eerie yet beautiful visual reflection of the song, created with long time visual collaborator Hans van Vliet.
Lie Low will mean many things to many people, but it is safe to say that women will be particularly moved by this work. It takes a lot of strength to release a song that is so lyrically raw, so vulnerable, and so willing to pick at the most difficult and stigmatised moments of being a woman in a creative field. The sparse, delicate, yet mighty production on this track, paired with Parker’s close, intimate vocal performance, makes for a supremely luscious and evocative track.
Speaking on the inspiration for this affecting song, Parker offers some extraordinarily honest insight, saying, “I’ve always held myself with a belief that I should exist in the world with quiet grace. Not be too loud or stand out too much…Even though my friends, parents and partners have encouraged me to follow my dreams I always felt this responsibility to not be too loud or abrasive, to look pretty, to sound pretty, to not challenge people too much, make music and art that is beautiful and easy to listen to and look at. Hans and I were working remotely on the track and we had the ‘be less, be less’ section looping at the end. I felt this rage inside me in response to that idea. This feeling of frustration at all the times I’ve controlled my emotions so that I didn’t make others feel uncomfortable. I set up my mic in my bedroom and just started screaming and yelling until finally it felt like my heart cracked open. The floodgates opened up and I wept loudly for about 10 mins.”
The video for Lie Low is also an appropriately emotional experience. Surreal, bizarre, unsettling – the colours shift and move within an entirely new world as Parker performs alone, and wanders through the ever-changing landscape. Reflecting on the meaning behind the artistic choices in the clip, Parker explains, “We talked about the courage it takes as a woman to put yourself first in a world where there are still so many expectations for women to play support roles in both career and domestic spaces. Thinking about the concept of sacrificing time and energy for another we found a way to represent this with the metaphor of colour being drained from one character to another. I like that it is not explicit that the colour is being taken or given. When the character drops to her knees she could be crying or she could be praying. When we worship our loved ones we can fall into our own pattern of giving too much of ourselves to them.”
Parker is no stranger to collaboration and artistic challenge and it’s truly exhilarating to watch an artist genre-hop with such skill and ease. Not only has she got lots of music and visual content in store for 2021 for this project, she is also working with charming indie pop band Runaway Belles and also with Adam Ouston (COSTUME) on a new project, FM2030, inspired by the late futurist and father of Transhumanism of the same name. Fans will be thrilled with the diversity of the art and passion behind the work that this ultra talent has to share in 2021.
Lie Low is released today, March 8 – International Women’s Day 2021.