Music industry years are akin to dog years. It can be an unforgiving landscape - lasting through it all, excelling in such a ruthless field for two decades, is a major feat.

So it is no wonder that Josh Pyke is keen to celebrate.

The multi-faceted ARIA Award-winner this year marks the twentieth anniversary of his debut release, Feeding the Wolves. To honour the momentous occasion, he is collaborating with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra - a marvellous spectacle slated for April 24th which will include reimagined orchestral renditions of the songs that paved the way for Josh Pyke’s prismatic career.

“These songs literally started out in my bedroom,” Pyke explains. “I was living back at home with my parents at the time because I’d run out of money.” The tracks on the original EP do have the kind of warm, pared back intimacy that can come from recording songs in one’s childhood bedroom - songs that are now being revisited with the breadth and scope of major orchestral arrangements.

This collaboration with the ASO is “quite monumental,” Pyke says. “A fantasy. It feels pretty amazing.”

It marks how much has changed for Pyke. The title track, for example, was the first love song that he wrote about the woman who became his wife, the woman he now shares children and a life with, originally recorded with limited resources, on a limited budget. Now, with an orchestra behind him, he can revisit these sentiments on a major scale. “It adds a whole new emotional sort of weight to it.”

He expects that this collaboration will be a “real baptism of fire. But, you know, that's the sort of pressure that I think as a performer you look to, to push you further in your artistry. So I'm looking forward to it.”

Does it make him feel vulnerable to collaborate with others on music that has historically been so personal to him?

“I mean, that's the beauty of it,” he says. “I know what these songs are to me, and I know why I wrote them. I know when I wrote them, I know what they mean to me, but I do kind of feel like, once the song is written, it doesn't really belong to you anymore, and so I really value other people's interpretations of my stuff. And, so far in my experience trying to let go a little bit of the creative process, the outcome has always been hugely positive. So I want to continue to trust in that process.”

He continues, “That’s what we do as musicians. We're trying to clear a path for the song to make its way through in whatever version it’s being presented in. And that's quite liberating, to let that happen to your own material.”

Though through the years his music has taken on different personas and iterations, there has been a certain spiritual consistency. 

“The thing that’s the same as it always has been is that there has to be an authenticity in the lyrics and the vocal melody. I just have to be in charge of that, and that has to be right for me. I'm happy to experiment with different sounds and stuff like that, but the authenticity of the lyrics is really the key thing. And I don't think that's changed that much since I first started out. Because, more than ever, I'm aware that these are songs that I could be playing for twenty years.”

It seems that, as a songwriter, Josh Pyke is potentially capable of drawing inspiration from anything and everything, from moments of mere mundanity, to the temperature of the current political climate, to processing severe personal difficulties. In the last four months, his mother passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease - that is definitely an experience he has been reckoning with. On top of that, he is musically grappling with “my kids growing up, the state of the world - the weird state that the world is in with Trump getting in, and the most wars we’ve had since World War II all happening at the same time. If your eyes are open, there’s no shortage of things to be inspired by or concerned about that can find their way to songs.” Songwriting, he says, “is always the way that I process all these things and try to make sense of it for myself. That’s always been the reason that I do it, and it just seems to be something that resonates with other people.”

He prizes universality in art. He wants the art he produces to “belong to everyone else.” He is generous with his creations. Pyke says, “That’s what I love about writing songs and art in general.”

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The industry that he is now a veteran of is in, suffice it to say, an interesting era. With the dangerous proliferation of artificial intelligence, the breadth of streaming platforms, the prioritization of fickle algorithms, and the emphasis on constant “content” over art, things have never been more precarious for emerging musicians

“I think traditionally the industry - you know, in inverted commas, including the emergence of AI technology and all that kind of stuff - has always essentially taken advantage of artists. The artist always gets the smallest cut. The artist always has their rights held in perpetuity from them and things like that,” he says. “There are also organizations in the industry that are working really, really hard to make things better for rights holders, like APRA and PPCA.” Pyke has been a member of the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia since 2016, and has been heavily involved with the Australasian Performing Rights Association. “There are fights that have been won, and there are fights that are continuing to be fought.”

Sighing, he continues, “I don't feel amazingly hopeful, but what I do feel is that artists are always going to create art, and if you're compelled to do it, you're going to do it. So I think there's always going to be new art.”

He sympathises with emerging artists - he wants young people who have the courage to create art to succeed. “The one thing that I would say to young emerging artists is, you have to do all the social media stuff, but don't make that your entire focus, because the thing that will actually help you form a sustainable career is cutting out all of that stuff and just having a direct connection to fans.” 

The way to effectively do that, he believes, is not online. “The way to do that is to get out and play live shows. And that's the only thing that's not replaceable by AI or by Instagram reels. It's that authentic connection of playing in front of people and collecting fans one at a time. And maybe it'll take you ten years, which is what it took me.”

Years on, Josh Pyke is still here, with much to show for it.

“To be able to celebrate a twenty-year anniversary of anything is amazing. I feel so grateful to still be out there. I'm looking forward to releasing new music towards the end of this year as well. I'm looking forward to touring. I'm just so grateful. It's not something I take for granted.”

Josh Pyke will be performing with the ASO on April 24th.