“At this moment in time, I am feeling really great,” Murray says. “The knee is healing up well and although I probably won’t be jumping around as much as I usually do, it’s going to be great to get out once again and play some shows. Part of the reason I am doing this tour now is because the new album is coming out next year. I want to really be pushing and focusing on the new songs for that. This tour is all about playing the older tracks like Ten Ft Tall and Bail Me Out so that the fans that have followed me since the beginning can hear the songs they want to hear. When we release the new album, I want to be focusing on the new direction and try to put some of the older songs to bed for a while.”
Back in the early 2000s, Murray left a career in sports medicine to have a crack at music. In 2002, he independently recorded and released an album entitled The Game, which caught the attention of Sony BMG. After signing with the label, Murray relocated to Melbourne and got to work on Feeler. Boasting a string of successful singles, such as So Beautiful, Bail Me Out and the title track, the album reached platinum sales. However, when Murray was writing the songs, he couldn’t have imagined it’d lead to such widespread acclaim.
“I didn’t really think So Beautiful was going to be the track to initially take me places,” he says. “On the record it goes for four minutes and 50 seconds; it’s really quite a long song. It was never written for radio and I remember having the argument with the record label saying they were wasting their time trying to make it the single – and I remember they wanted to chop off the third verse of the song, which I was dead against. I wouldn’t budge. Then they released it and things took off. It was very different to what was around at the time. It’s still surprising though – that was the song to break me into the scene.
“I’m lucky to even have a career,” he says. “A lot of artists in Australia struggle to earn a living from it, and so I hope that with the new album coming out, I can continue to be able to do what I have been so fortunate to do for the best part of a decade.”
As for what we can expect from Murray’s forthcoming LP, it’s interesting to note that he’s been engaging with some unexpected influences. “I’ve been working a lot with different beats and loops since I’ve started this new album, and rather than having a bass player and a drummer, you work out the grooves yourself,” he explains.
“It simplifies it a lot and I can’t wait for people to hear it. I’ve been streaming a lot of The Rootsand Frank Oceanon Spotify, and although I’m not giving too much away just yet, I’m excited to share a new single and the full release in early 2016. So keep an eye on the social media pages for the first news.”
BY TEX MILLER
