Exploring The Dark Unknown

“It's been a big two years, there's been lots of stuff going on that I choose to put into my songs rather than talk about properly but I think the biggest thing for me was the all the touring for the last album. It was so good and so strong, mostly solo touring, and it kind of changed the way I perceive my voice. It's not that I don't like my own voice, it's just this time I concentrated on recording my voice in a particular way where I'd always double my vocals and layer up on harmonies. Doing all the solo stuff, I just got more comfortable singing in that particular way and that readily affected how I wrote the songs and how I recorded them.”

Pyke gave us a taste of his new album with the single Hollering Hearts; it’s a musical and emotional crescendo, instruments building to gradually galvanize the lyrics and create a beautiful storytelling anthem.

“It’s kind of about challenging yourself to pursue the thing that gives you the most joy and exuberance in your life, and for me that's music, but it could be anything for anybody. So the image of hollering hearts was just something that popped into my imagination as someone who was excited and joyful about their life, whose heart is hollering and bursting at the seams. But it's not just being joyful, it's the challenge, taking that challenge on and yelling at that challenge and pushing through that challenge”

We spoke with Pyke about the song-writing process that he has taken on with But For All These Shrinking Hearts.

“Melody and lyrics used to happen at the same time, but now the music sort of happens before the lyrics. Particularly in this record I experimented with just singing gibberish, so I'd have the vocal line and literally just sing gibberish and I'd actually record that and then go away and listen to the songs and just translate what the gibberish sounded like. And then I would just build the lyrics out of the little things I picked up on, which was a really interesting way to do it because it felt like I was translating my own subconscious, which worked really well.” 

“I would love my music to be in more films, but something I've been told is that my lyrics aren't simple enough, which is kind of frustrating. When I'm writing my songs there’s these cinematic, imaginary scenarios rolling through my mind, and I love coming up with film ideas for the songs because I feel like they lend themselves to translating into visual narratives.”

If you’re a true fangirl/boy, you’d know about his dedication to his fan base. Pyke performs what he calls ‘fan first’ gigs to thank those who have connected with his music with an intimate and celebratory performance pre-album release.

“It's really just a way of me saying thank you to my core fans who would just jump straight on those tickets and pre order the album and come to shows multiple times a year, and those are the people who really spread the word, share my music with their friends and stuff. So that's my way of saying thank you and giving them a little bit of a different experience compared to what the other shows will be like. One day recently I sort of got a bit crafty and started posting little snippets on Facebook and Instagram while I was recording the album just to give the fans a little teaser of what the lyrical content in this new album was going to be like.” 

If there’s anything wholly definitive about Josh Pyke as an artist, it’s his ability to create something that actually means something to people. His music evokes things, whether its emotion or motivation, his capacity to write music from his own experiences that kindles and stimulates things in people is grand. We spoke with Pyke about what a song in his up and coming album Book Of Revelation means to him and how creating that kind of music affects the way that people look up to him as an Australian musical icon

“It's motivational to me, because lyrically it's quite a defiant song like, 'if you're going to cut me out then cut me but make sure that I die.' It sounds defeatist but to me it's not, it's saying if you're going to do something then do it to the fullest degree because doing it half-hearted doesn't get you anywhere.”

“There are people with tattoos of my lyrics and artworks on their body, and even people who have gone to that degree are just totally cool and chill and normal, and we’ll have a chat. It’s always been great, as much as I’ve been around a long time I’ve never been massively super popular, its been a slow build and I think if you have that kind of trajectory and career they’re not the people who have just jumped on the band wagon, they’ve connected with my music in a more intimate way, so everybody’s always been chill and normal which is good.”

This album differs slightly from his previous four releases. Though his last albums have been highly personal and intimate, But For All These Shrinking Hearts deals with his own emotions and personal experiences on a different level.

“Every album I’ve made is pretty intensely personal, I’m only ever writing from my own personal experience and my own perception of what’s happening in the world. But I do feel that with this one I wrote more about what I’ve perceived as my failings in the last few years. I don’t want to talk about it explicitly because I wrote it in the songs but I guess that was something that I found a little bit more confronting to dig into those lyrics and I was writing about stuff that was my weaknesses and failings as a person and no one really likes to put that stuff out there. I don’t think it really affected the dynamic flow of the album, and it’s funny because as much as I was talking about failings I feel like it’s my most confident album. But that’s my process, when there’s things that are bugging me in my life and I’m trying to get out of my system that kind of happens. So it’s kind of funny that the album I feel is my most confident one is the one that’s about my least confident period as an adult.”

Josh Pyke’s new album will be out on Friday, July 31 (but his fans will know by now that there’s been a few sneaky early releases here and there), but the artist is much more excited about the touring process than the 31^st of July.

“Putting your album out there is really confronting and not that exciting to me at all, but the playing shows is always awesome, I love touring so I’m super excited about that. Not just the fan first one, but all the festivals and everything, just getting back on the road. I’ve always got a good balance between touring and home, it’s like going on a holiday every couple of weeks, it’s awesome. It can be a challenge with my two boys, but you just make it work. The flipside is when I’m not touring I’m always at home. My studio’s in the back yard so when I’m not working I’m just there so I get to spend more time with my kids than most people I reckon which is great.”

Originally published in X-Press Magazine