Peter Richard McCracken is an Australian composer, guitarist and singer-songwriter, living and working in the Melbourne area. He has been a member of indie band The Plums (1992–1995), pop-rock band

Deadstar Deadstar (styled as deadstar) were an Australian pop rock band formed in August 1995 by Peter Jones (Crowded House) on drums and percussion; Caroline Kennedy on lead vocals and guitar; and Barry Palmer (Hunters & Collectors) on guitar and bas ...

(1997–2001) and country-tinged duo The Tulips (2002–2006). He married visual artist and bandmate

Caroline Kennedy-McCracken Caroline Frances Kennedy-McCracken (born Caroline Frances Kennedy in 1967) is an Australian musician and visual artist. Kennedy-McCracken has been a singer-songwriter and guitarist in several bands, including The Plums (1992–1995), Deadstar ( ...

. By 2005, the couple had two children.

Biography

Peter Richard McCracken completed post-graduate studies in composition at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

in 2008, having previously studied music at

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria an ...

. In 2006 he studied guitar and composition at

Mannes College Mannes School of Music is a music conservatory in The New School, a private research university in New York City. In the fall of 2015, Mannes moved from its previous location on Manhattan's Upper West Side to join the rest of the New School cam ...

in New York. He has composed works for solo piano, guitar ensemble, violin and piano, and chamber ensemble. His instrumental work is post-minimalist. In 1992 McCracken, on bass guitar, joined The Plums, an indie guitar pop four-piece group in Melbourne, with his future wife

on lead vocals and guitar, Steve Moffat on guitar and Shamus Goble on drums. The band were signed to Mushroom's Temptation label soon after they recorded their first extended play ''Au Revoir Sex Kitten'', which was issued by that label in November 1992. The Plums recorded another EP, ''Read All Over'' (May 1993), and followed with a studio album, ''Gun'' (April 1994) which was picked up and played by national radio broadcaster, JJJ. Their last recording was an EP, ''Heavenly'', which was released in June 1995 and the band broke up in August. Around this time McCracken had formed the punk-pop band Dangersharks, members of which included at various times Sam Maughan, Stan Dunsten, David Nelson, bassist Daniel Elhay, saxophonist Charlie Todd (

the Wreckery The Wreckery were an Australian rock and blues group which formed in January 1985 by Robin Casinader on drums, piano, Hammond organ, guitar and violin; Edward Clayton-Jones on guitar, organ and vocals; Tadeusz O'Biegly on bass guitar; Hugo Race ...

), James Todd, Moffat and Juz Siedle. The band gathered a loyal following of fans and gained a reputation as a somewhat lunatic underground "collective", releasing ''Bare Foot Head'', a seven-track EP. In 1997 McCracken joined Melbourne pop-rock band,

, replacing previous bass guitarist

Nick Seymour Nicholas More Seymour (born 9 December 1958) is an Australian musician and record producer. He is the founding bass guitarist and a mainstay of the rock group Crowded House, and is the younger brother of Mark Seymour, singer-songwriter-guitar ...

. McCracken appeared on the third Deadstar studio album, ''Somewhere Over the Radio'' (September 1999). In 1998 he toured with The Caroline Kennedy Conspiracy with Kennedy-McCracken, Tim "Teddy" Cleaver on guitar and Goble. In 2001, McCracken, now on lead guitar, and Kennedy-McCracken formed Kicksilvers, Goble soon joined and they recruited McCracken's sister Jane McCracken on bass guitar. That year the group issued a self-titled three-track EP on their own label, kicksilvers, which was produced by the band and Cleaver. In April 2002 the band performed in New South Wales with Graeme Cameron on drums. In 2002, The Tulips was formed as a country group with McKracken on lead guitar and Kennedy-McCracken, they issued an eponymous EP. Other early members of The Tulips were former Kicksilvers bandmates, Jane McCracken and Cameron. On 17 May 2003 they released a studio album, ''In the Honeycone'', as a duo on Belmore Records. In 2005 they recorded ''Free Like a Bird'' with

Tony Cohen Anthony Lawrence Cohen (4 June 19572 August 2017) was an Australian music record producer and sound engineer. He worked with Nick Cave's groups the Birthday Party, and then the Bad Seeds from 1979 to 2001. In mid-1986 he had followed Cave to ...

, which was never commercially released. By 2005, McCracken was married to Kennedy-McCracken and the couple had two children.

References

;General * Note: Archived n-linecopy has limited functionality. ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:McCracken, Pete Australian musicians Living people Year of birth missing (living people)