Josh Pyke

Over the past eight years, Josh Pyke has established himself as a permanent fixture on the Australian indie music scene. And while all his previous success indicates that he’s doing something right, you can be sure that he doesn’t let himself become too comfortable.
A perfect example of this is his upcoming record But For All These Shrinking Hearts, a project born out of a desire for creative exploration. After building a recording studio in his backyard,Josh says he felt completely re-energised knowing that he could create music whenever he wanted, completely stress free. As it turns out, such a simple idea became a catalyst for an entirely new chapter in his career.
“I just feel like I’m on a new path musically. I feel like I want to dig a bit deeper and I want to flesh ideas out a lot more,” he says.
“In the past on records I deliberately left things stripped back and I don’t regret that at all, but I really feel like I want to explore those things a lot more now.”
That urge to delve deeper into his music has seemingly uncovered what he thinks could be some of the best song writing he’s done to date. While he admits that it is difficult to be completely objective when it comes to analysing his own music, Josh attributes this artistic growth to becoming more carefree both as a musician and as a person.
“I feel like I’m still getting better at writing and still learning different techniques to write lyrics in different ways. I feel a bit braver in exposing more, which I guess is part of the process of getting older and not caring what people will think of me,” he says.
Certainly not one to stay inside the lines, Josh’s hunger to explore the creative realms of song writing lead him to some slightly unconventional methods. While he recalls reading many books and writing a lot of prose poetry during the making of this album, the biggest inspiration came from the process of speaking complete nonsense into the microphone.
“I was reading an interview with Jeff Tweedy where he said he sings gibberish on his recordings and then he goes away and listens to the gibberish and makes the lyrics out of what he’s interpreted,” Josh explains.
“I decided to give that a go and I just found it this really liberating, exciting, creative process where you’re not bound by any restrictions or your own natural tendency to censor yourself. So you’re just interpreting what’s bubbling up from your own sub-conscious.”
This creative pursuit inspired three songs on the new album and is completely indicative of the wonderful innovation of sound fans can not only expect from the recorded tracks, but also from the live versions. While Josh says there is no tour planned as of yet, the thought of adapting these new songs to a live format is just another task for him to accomplish.
“The album is one thing and then I’ll have to figure out a way to play them solo acoustic, then putting it together with the band is another challenge that I relish – so it’s definitely an excitement.”
For Josh Pyke, the challenge of breaking down the walls he’s created for himself and rebuilding them again is what keeps him driven. As luck would have it, it’s also what will keep him on the same path of success that he’s been on since 2007.
Release: But For All These Shrinking Hearts, available for pre-order, released July 31
Written by Kara Ready