Peter Kenneth Murray (born 14 October 1969) is an Australian musician who has had three albums reach number 1 on the Australian (ARIA) charts. Murray has received 17

ARIA In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

nominations throughout his career so far. He has sold over 1.2 million albums in Australia.

Biography

1969–2002: Early life and career beginnings

Peter Kenneth Murray was born in

Chinchilla Chinchillas are either of two species (''Chinchilla chinchilla'' and ''Chinchilla lanigera'') of crepuscular rodents of the parvorder Caviomorpha. They are slightly larger and more robust than ground squirrels, and are native to the Andes mount ...

, 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 , motto_translation = A Sign of Faith , location = Boondall, Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , other_name = St. Joseph's Nudgee College , former_name ...

, for his final two years of secondary schooling. At the college, Murray showed talent in

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

, and

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

. He briefly played for Brisbane club rugby for

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

and

Brothers A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...

. 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. Eventually, he worked up the courage to take his guitar to a barbecue singing songs by

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

and Crowded House. However, his main interest was traveling and pursuing a career in

sports medicine Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. Although most sports teams have employed team physicians for many years, it is only since the ...

. Murray played 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 Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

and moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

to pursue a musical career.

2003–2004: ''Feeler''

In early 2003, Murray signed a contract with

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

and he entered the studio with producer

Paul McKercher Paul McKercher is an Australian record producer, audio engineer, sound mixer and multi-instrumentalist. He has received five ARIA Artisan Awards and has produced over 50 albums. McKercher has worked with Australian artists Josh Pyke, Ber ...

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. '' Feeler'' was released on 21 July 2003 with the title track as the first single.

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

radio started playing the track with the Nova FM and

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back to th ...

networks picking it up. With this support, ''Feeler'' entered the

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. "

So Beautiful "So Beautiful" is a song written by Australian singer-songwriter Darren Hayes and Robert Conley. In 2005, the song was released as a single as a part of the promotion of the greatest hits album '' Truly Madly Completely: The Best of Savage Gar ...

" 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.

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 Opportunity may refer to: Places * Opportunity, Montana, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Nebraska, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Washington, a former census-designated place, United States * ...

" 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 Camacho is a surname of Spanish, Portuguese or French origin. Notable people with the surname include: * Camacho (wrestler), one of the stage names of Tevita Fifita (born 1983), Tongan-American professional wrestler * Alejandro Camacho (born 1954) ...

''. The album peaked at number 3 in Australia.

2020–present: ''The Night'' and ''Before I Go''

On 26 June 2020, Murray released "Found My Place", his first single since ''Camacho''. It was the lead single from his EP ''The Night'', which was released on 5 March 2021. The EP also featured the 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 four years Mira Eady.

Discography

* ''The Game'' (2001) * '' Feeler'' (2003) * '' See the Sun'' (2005) * '' Summer at Eureka'' (2008) * '' Blue Sky Blue'' (2011) * '' Blue Sky Blue "The Byron Sessions"'' (2013) * ''

'' (2017)

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

Murray has been nominated for 17

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

. , - , rowspan="4", 2003 , , rowspan="2", ''Feeler'' , , Breakthrough Artist – Album , , , - , Best Blues & Roots Album , , , - , rowspan="2", Paul McKercher for ''Feeler'' , ,

Producer of the Year The Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical is an honor presented to record producers for quality non- classical music at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors i ...

, , , - , , Engineer of the Year , , , - , rowspan="7", 2004 , , ''Feeler'' , , Highest Selling Album , , , - , rowspan="4", "So Beautiful" , , Best Male Artist , , , - , Single of the Year , , , - , Best Pop Release , , , - , Best Video , , , - , ''Passing Time'' , , Best Music DVD , , , - , Paul McKercher & Pete Murray for "So Beautiful" , , Producer of the Year , , , - , rowspan="2",

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, , rowspan="2", ''See the Sun'' , , Highest Selling Album , , , - , Best Male Artist , , , - , rowspan="2", 2008 , , ''Summer at Eureka'' , , Best Male Artist , , , - , Anthony Lycenko for ''Summer at Eureka'' , , Engineer of the Year , , , - , 2009 , , ''Chance to Say Goodbye'' , , Best Blues & Roots Album , , , - , 2017 , , ''Camacho'' , , Best Adult Contemporary Album , ,

APRA awards

The APRA Awards are several award ceremonies run in Australia by the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...

(APRA) to recognise composing and song writing skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually. The awards have been presented annually since 1982. , - ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, , "So Beautiful" (Peter Murray) , , Most Performed Australian Work , , , - ,

, , "Better Days" (Murray) , , Song of the Year , , , - , 2007 , , "Opportunity" (Murray) , , Most Performed Australian Work , , , - ,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, "Always a Winner" (Murray, Tom Rothrock) , Song of the Year , , -

Queensland Music Awards

The

Queensland Music Awards The Queensland Music Awards (commonly known as QMA and known as the Q Song Awards from 2006 to 2010) are annual awards celebrating Queensland's emerging artists. They commenced in 2006. Each year, the QMA Song of the Year is immortalised in a ...

(previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating

Queensland, Australia ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006. (wins only) , - ,

, himself , The Courier-Mail People's Choice Award Most Popular Male , , -

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Pete 1969 births APRA Award winners Australian male singers Australian multi-instrumentalists Australian songwriters Living people People from Brisbane Sony Music Australia artists