Murray Cook and Lizzie Mack will launch their new single, If I'm With You, at Cherry Bar in December and every ticket sold includes a free CD or vinyl.
The only celebrity I’ve ever taken a selfie with is the OG red Wiggle, Murray Cook. Whenever I’m tasked with babysitting a friend’s child, my first idea is to show them The Wiggles. Invariably, they’re already a fan.
The high-powered rock’n’roll of Murray and the Movers – Cook’s band with commanding frontperson Lizzie Mack – is a world away from the easy-going children’s music of The Wiggles. But there is some crossover.
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For starters, Cook and Mack aim to write songs that will resonate with a broad spectrum of people. Their melodies are crafted for maximum sing-along potential, and the lyrics, says Mack, “have universal themes.”
“We make and write songs for everyone,” she says.
The band recently changed its name from the Soul Movers to Murray and Movers. Mack originally formed the Soul Movers with Radio Birdman’s Deniz Tek in 2007. Tek never officially left the band, but he handed over the guitar reins to Cook in 2012. The group has revolved around Cook and Mack’s songwriting partnership ever since.
In its earliest incarnation, the band’s repertoire was much more soul-oriented. But their new single If I’m With You – the first to be credited to Murray and the Movers – is a power pop song. Their latest album, 2023’s Dumb Luck, was indebted to the pop, rock and country music of the 1960s and 70s. The Soul Movers name had become an unwitting diversion.
“We’ve been a little bit hamstrung by the name, just because people assume it’s all soul music,” says Cook. “We’ve always been fairly diverse. We’ve never really felt restricted to just soul music.”
Mack and Cook had also grown tired of seeing the word soul used as a superficial marketing term.
“Just in the last ten years, there’s been so much, like, soul burger and soul coffee,” says Cook. “And there’s more bands with soul in the name,” says Mack. “I just went, I can’t do it anymore. It’s just too much soul, you know?”
The decision to place Cook’s name under the spotlight was a practical one. OG Wiggles fans, who are now in their 20s and 30s, make up a significant portion of the group’s audience.
“When we do play the bigger festivals, like Blues on Broadbeach earlier this year and when we played Splendour, we know that the kids are trying to find Murray,” says Mack. “They’ve grown up with very diverse music. Like, they love Fleetwood Mac. They love all that sort of stuff. So, they want to find Murray.”
Cook was initially reluctant to draw so much attention to himself. “I’m not big on ego,” he says. But despite the name change, nothing has changed about the group’s internal structure.
“I get women coming up to me after a show going, ‘It’s not fair. It should be about you,’” says Mack. “And I’m like, ‘It’s only about one thing. It’s about the music.’”
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Murray and the Movers will launch If I’m With You at Cherry Bar on Saturday 6 December, with support from The Brakes and The Pearlies. In the spirit of Christmas, they’re giving away a free Soul Movers vinyl or CD with every ticket sold.
Cook describes If I’m With You as a song that looks back and forwards at the same time, both musically and lyrically.
“It’s looking back to the days when we were going out and seeing bands – the excitement of that time and wanting to get back there again” he says. “But the song is also saying, when you’re with your person and you’re sharing a live music experience, you’re living that same world again. Not a world that was, a world that still is.”
Mack agrees. “If you love the sound of good music, if retro music gets you in the heart and the soul, then this is the best of that kind of music,” she says. “And if you’re out there living it or making it – if you realise the transformative power of being there and part of such a creative artform, then we’re all exactly where we should and really need to be.”
Get your ticket – and a free CD or vinyl – to see Murray and the Movers at Cherry Bar here.
This article was made in partnership with Murray and the Movers.
