PERTH fans will get another chance to see Josh Pyke when he returns to the west coast for the second time in four months.
In support of his fifth album But For All These Shrinking Hearts, Pyke was in town to play the Astor Theatre in February but now he is embarking on a string of intimate, solo gigs in regional and coastal venues.
Pyke said he enjoyed doing these album tours in two parts, first hitting the capital cities with a backing band then branching out to more remote areas.
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READ NOW“I’ve done a lot of different solo shows over the years but these days I really have come to realise the solo shows are just as powerful and just as important as the full band show,” he said.
“People seem to respond to it just as well, if not better, than the band shows so it’s become the big focus.
“It’s also an easier way to get out to lots of regional areas because you’re playing the venues that are available and in a lot of regional areas they’re smaller, so it’s just a nice intimate organic environment to be playing solo shows.”
For this tour, Pyke is playing 31 venues in less than three months, including shows in Bunbury, Albany, Dunsborough and The Northshore Tavern in Hillarys.
This time it will be just him on stage with his guitar, a loop pedal and a stomp box, and he can’t wait.
“It’s that instant gratification thing and the pay off for all the time you’ve spent writing these songs and being in your own head and working on them in the studio or literally in your mind and then you get to go out and experience it with other people,” he said.
“It’s like a conversation you’re having with people as opposed to this monologue going on in your head and it’s just a really true way to gauge how things are going and what people are responding to, which is the thing I love most.
“You get out and talk to people and you meet people and you see parts of the country that you wouldn’t otherwise see all under the steam of these things you’ve created in your head, so it’s a pretty special thing.”
On the opposite end of the scale, Pyke is also preparing to release the recording of sold out shows he did at the Sydney Opera House last year with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
“It was a really amazing experience for me and I’m really very happy to have it out as a record to commemorate that,” he said.
“It was really daunting and a bit of a baptism of fire because I don’t read music or write music, I don’t know how to do that, I’m just a self taught, play it by ear musician, so during these shows we gave the songs to 10 composers and arrangers from around different parts of Australia at different points in their careers and they did the arrangements.
“Then I had to figure out a way to rehearse that leading in to the performance because they were really quite different versions to the recorded versions.
“Sometimes in those situations it’s just like sink or swim and you just rise to the occasion and luckily it all went really well and that’s a part of why I’m excited to have it as a record.
“It was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
Though Pyke admits he likes to stay busy and has “about a million projects on the boil all the time”, he said he’s also ready to slow things down.
“For the first time in a long, long time, I feel like I don’t feel any rush to do anything in particular so I’m just going to try enjoy the tour as much as I can then come home and figure out the next step,” he said.
“I think the last 10 years have been so intense and busy, I’m trying very hard to adjust my mind a bit and start to take things a little slower so I‘ll see how that goes because my personality isn’t really that in to that but I’m trying to convince myself.
“You just spend so many years just go, go, go and trying to get to where you’re going and by the time you get there you’re like wow that’s just been a huge blur and a whirlwind so now I want to start to slow it down a bit and reflect on everything a bit more before I jump in to the next thing.
“I was talking to my brother-in-law the other day and he’s up for long service leave next year, that’s 10 years, so in theory, I’m also up for long service leave so I wouldn’t mind taking a couple of months off and just not doing a lot, go to the beach.”
THE ESSENTIALS
Who: Josh Pyke
What: But For All These Shrinking Hearts tour
Support act: Jack Carty
July 21 – Prince of Wales Hotel, Bunbury
July 22 – The White Star Hotel, Albany
July 23 – Dunsborough Tavern, Dunsborough
July 24 – The Northshore Tavern, Hillarys
Tickets: www.oztix.com.au