Josh Pyke is in the home stretch of his soul-baring six-part web-documentary, with the renowned troubadour releasing episode four, detailing his early touring days and the moment that everything started taking off for him more than a decade ago.

"When I started, it was really, really hard, you know?" he reflects in the video. "It was super-low-budget, so we were crashing on people's floors, we stayed in caravan parks instead of hotels, sometimes we'd drive home for four hours after a show to save money. And it was hard, and we were also playing with bands that weren't necessarily appropriate, but once I had a couple of things kick off on triple j, more people would come to the shows.

"And, when I signed to Ivy League, I did a thing called the Tri-State Residency, which was a real big success. I did three states in three nights every week. So I did Melbourne, Sydney and then either Adelaide or Brisbane, every week for a month. When I first started playing, there'd be 10 people there, and by the end of it, all the shows were sold out. And it was a huge thing, and from that point things started to kick off."

Pyke reminisces about playing the Big Day Out in 2006 — "There was way more people than I was expecting to be there" — and the fact that the same afternoon as that gig, he went to #19 in the triple j Hottest 100 with his fan-favourite cut Middle Of The Hill, which he explored in last week's episode.

From there, there was no stopping the momentum; he was picked up in the UK, which saw his international profile — and time away from home — grow exponentially, eventually taking him to a spot at Glastonbury.

"In that first year, of 2007, I think it was, I calculated that I was away… I slept in hotel beds, I slept in not my own bed, for 76% of the year, and this was at exactly the same point when I'd just moved in with my girlfriend, who is now my wife. So it was a tough time, you know?" he recalls. "I was away pursuing this exciting stuff but I was kind of torn the whole time. And that feeling of being torn, I guess, is what influenced most of the writing for [2008 second album] Chimney's Afire."

The series, which concludes in two weeks' time, is all part of the preparation for Pyke's impending compilation album, Best Of, B-Sides & Rarities, which lands on 30 June via Ivy League Records befor he sets off on a national tour to keep him busy through July and August.

See theGuide for all the details.