Pete Murray (Australian singer-songwriter)
Peter Kenneth Murray (born 14 October 1969) is an Australian musician and former rugby player who has had three albums reach number 1 on the Australian (ARIA) charts. Pete has received 17 ARIA nominations throughout his career so far. Pete has sold over 1.2 million albums in Australia alone. 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 (including the keyboard player Ben McCarthy, who works with him to this day). 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 (consisting of Ben McCarthy on bass guitar and keyboards, Christian Sargeant on drums, Paul Tyrell on guitar and Col McIntyre on reeds & flute) 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 ARIA top 50 album 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. 2017–2018:"Camacho". In June 2017, Murray released his seventh studio album "Camacho". The album peaked at number 3 in Australia. 2020–Current:"The Night" & "Before I Go". On 26 June 2020, Murray released "Found My Place", his first new single since "Camacho". It was the lead single from his forthcoming EP "The Night", which was released on 5 March 2021. The EP also featured singles, "If We Never Dance Again" and "Waiting For This Love". On 17 September 2021, Pete released "Hold Me Steady", the first single from  the follow up EP, "Before I Go", released on 1 April 2022. 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. Awards and nominations. ARIA Music Awards. 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 (APRA) to recognise composing and song writing skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually. The awards have been presented annually since 1982. Queensland Music Awards. The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.