Peter Kenneth Murray is an Australian singer-songwriter who has had three albums reach number 1 on the Australian charts. He has been nominated several times at the ARIAs and has had several songs reach the top forty in Australia. In November 2013, Murray toured Canada with Paul Langlois and Rob Baker of The Tragically Hip.
Biography
1969–2002: Early life and career beginnings
Peter Kenneth Murray was born in Chinchilla, on 14 October 1969. His mother is Jan and he has a sister. When Murray was 16 the family moved to Brisbane. He attended St Joseph's College, Nudgee for his final two years of secondary schooling. At the college Murray showed talent in rugby union, athletics and swimming. He briefly played Brisbane club rugby for GPS and Brothers. When he was 18, his father died of a heart attack, Murray was contesting the Australian championships of the 400 meters. While on the sidelines, Murray started to learn the guitar at age 22 and his ability soon improved with plenty of practice. Eventually, he worked up the courage to take his guitar to a barbecue singing songs by Neil Young and Crowded House. However, his main interest was traveling and pursuing a career in sports medicine. Eventually, enough people told him that he had the talent to be successful in music and he started a musical career, playing small gigs around the country with flautist Col McIntyre, eventually putting a band together. In 2002, he released an independent album, The Game, in Brisbane and moved to Melbourne to pursue a musical career. Murray signed a contract with Sony BMG Australia in early 2003.
2003–2004: ''Feeler''
In early 2003, Murray signed a contract with Sony BMG and he entered the studio with producer Paul McKercher and his band to make the Feeler album. On his website, Murray outlines the type of record he was hoping to make. "The records I love by people like Nick Drake, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, they are built to last. I wanted this to be an album like that, something you can pull out in 30 years and still hear the feeling in it, rather than something that's dated by the musical fashions of the day." Feeler was released on 21 July 2003 with the title track as the first single. Triple J radio started playing the track with the Nova FM and Triple M networks picking it up. With this support, Feeler entered the ARIAtop 50album charts in 2003. His reputation was building fast and he started selling out shows in smaller venues. The momentum of the album continued to build with the release of the second single, "Lines", and two ARIA award nominations reaching platinum record status. Radio programmers had been asking for "So Beautiful" to be released as a single and the track was widely played on Australian radio, reaching the top ten in 2004. This spurred sales of the album driving it to number one on the Australian album charts in late March 2004 and six times platinum status. By 2008, the album had sold half-a-million copies. Murray began a tour of larger Australian venues. Due to the level of demand, he announced nine extra dates. One of his sell-out performances at the Sydney Metro Theatre on 27 March 2004 was made available for download at BigPond Music. Following the Boxing Day Tsunami, Murray appeared at the Wave Aid fundraising concert in Sydney, to raise funds for aid organisations working in disaster-affected areas.
2005–2007: ''See the Sun''
Murray's third studio album, See the Sun was released in September 2005. The album spawned three official singles, "Better Days", "Opportunity" and "George's Helper", while a video was made for radio single "Class A". Days after its release, Murray performed at the 2005 NRL grand final. See the Sun sold 350,000 copies.
2008–2010:''Summer at Eureka''
His fourth studio album, Summer at Eureka, was released on 17 May 2008. On 26 May 2008, it entered the charts at number 1 in Australia, his third consecutive chart-topping album. The first single from the album was "You Pick Me Up", which reached number 36 on the Australian charts. The second single from the album, "Saving Grace", was released on 2 August 2008.
2011–2015:''Blue Sky Blue''
His fifth studio album, Blue Sky Blue, was released in Australia on 2 September 2011 and peaked at number 6 in Australia and was certified gold. In 2012, many of the songs were re-recorded with a number of the songs recorded as duets. This album was titled Blue Sky Blue "The Byron Sessions" and peaked at number 17 in Australia in 2013.
2016–present:''Camacho''
In June 2017, Murray released his seventh studio album Camacho. The album peaked at number 3 in Australia. On 26 June 2020, Murray released "Found My Place", his first new single since Camacho.
Personal life
Murray married Amanda Coutts on 7 October 2006 in Eureka, New South Wales. In July 2009, Murray and Coutts had separated and shared custody of their two children. Coutts worked as a designer and renovated a set of stables into a home. In 2016 he married his partner of 4 years Mira Eady.
The ARIA Music Awards are annual awards, which recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Murray has been nominated for 17 awards.
APRA awards
The APRA Awards are several award ceremonies run in Australia by the Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise composing and song writing skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually. The awards have been presented annually since 1982.
