Solo Man   

Josh Pyke has won our hearts as a solo artist as well as part of the all-Aussie supergroup, Basement Birds. Upon the completion of his third album, ‘Only Sparrows’, just last week, the Sydney singer-songwriter is looking forward to getting back on the road.

“It’s been almost a year since I’ve done solo shows. I really, really love performing. I mean I feel a little nervous as it’s been a while, but I’m really excited to get back into it, and regain that side of myself,” Josh says.

Pyke will take his ‘Fans First’ tour to a number of intimate venues nationwide to launch the album. “This tour, we’re just doing four shows in really little venues for fan club people. It’s just to kind of get back into the swing of things and to play to people who’ve always been really supportive of my career, which I really appreciate. So I wanted to show my fans first and foremost. I’ll be playing some of the new songs from the new record and also the old favourites I guess.”

There was a ticket presale for members of Josh Pyke’s fan club – the musician’s way of thanking his loyal supporters. Unsurprisingly considering his following, the shows sold out before going to general sale.
“I feel so surprised and blessed everyday that this is my job now. No matter what any musician says, the reason you have the job is you completely depend on the people supporting you. Unless you have wonderful supporters who pay their good money to see the show and buy your records, you don’t have anything. “I really, really keep that at the front of my mind because I just feel so lucky. When I get a chance to give something back to the people that’ve allowed me to make this my job, I’m really happy to do that. And it just felt like the right thing to do after a bit of a break.”

The creation process of ‘Only Sparrows’ diverged from his usual technique to making music.  “Well, I wanted to approach it a bit differently from my previous records. Once I had all the songs, I got together a group of musicians, and we sort of performed as a band, which was different for me in terms of making a record.”

So far, his solo albums have been a one-man-show.  “In the past I’ve tried to do a lot of it myself, but kind of do it backwards. Do the singing and guitars first, and then get a drummer involved, and do it from there. And I always had a very clear set idea of what I wanted. This time we spent a couple of weeks in the rehearsal studio just jamming on the songs. We really allowed the songs to develop in a collaborative way.”

While the process took him out of his comfort zone, it inspired changes in his sound. “It sounds melodramatic but it is a big process of letting go. It’s almost like seeing your children go off into the world and not having control over them anymore. It was confronting but also really, really liberating because I trusted all the musicians and the producer.

“And it let me be more creative in a way, to take more of a bird’s eye view of the whole thing, and still try and retain the original vision I had of the songs. So it was something quite new for me. That’s how it all came together and I think it’s reflected in the sound, which is a lot more cohesive, and it sounds like a band. As opposed to me trying to sound like a band.”

You’d think making the record would be the hard part, but for Pyke, what follows is just as tiring. “It’s a big relief but it’s sort of daunting when you finish a record you’ve worked really hard on, and you kind of forget that the real work starts once you’ve finished it. You start doing promo, and hitting the road and touring and everything, which is really great fun but it’s definitely the hardest work as well.”

There were some unanticipated contributors in the creation of ‘Only Sparrows’, which opened up a whole new world of making music for Josh. “One of the most unexpected devices that we used was our iPhones, just with little noise-generating applications on our iPhones that we just plugged into amps. So they appeared in the record quite a few times. Also, we had a classical harp in one of the songs, which was really beautiful and lifted the song to a different level. It’s always an exciting creative process making a record, especially when you’ve got access to a whole bunch of stuff. It’s like being a kid in a candy store.”

JOSH PYKE IS PLAYING AT BEETLE BAR ON FRIDAY JUNE 24. ‘ONLY SPARROWS’ IS OUT ON AUGUST 19.