Pete Murray Announces New Album ‘Longing’, Shares ‘Amy’ + Launch Shows

Pete Murray has officially announced his seventh studio album, Longing. The follow-up to 2017’s Camacho is set for release on Friday, October 3rd via Community Music – marking his first album released independently since his debut, 2001’s The Game. To coincide with the new album’s announcement, the veteran Australian singer-songwriter has shared a new single entitled ‘Amy’, as well as three full-band shows on the New South Wales coast on the weekend of the album’s release. Details for those, as well as Murray’s remaining solo acoustic tour dates, can be found below.

‘Amy’ is the fourth single to be lifted from Longing, following the release of ‘Wouldn’t It Be Good’ last year and both ‘I Am Fire’ and ‘Home To Me’ earlier this year. In a press statement, Murray said that the ‘Amy’ in question was “someone really special” to him. “I feel [it] has a different flavour to what I have recorded before,” he said.

“The backbeat rhythm on the acoustic guitar is what really makes it different. I don’t normally use a four-on-the-floor beat under any of my songs, but it works with ‘Amy’. It’s kind of hypnotic with the acoustic, snare and beat working together and when the keys solo hits in the breakdown, it’s the best.” The new single can be streamed below.

Pete Murray – ‘Amy’

Murray recorded Longing with Luke Palmer, an engineer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his tenure in the Brisbane alternative metal band Dead Letter Circus. Other contributors to the album include The Whitlams‘ Ian Peres, Canadian songwriter/producer Garrett Kato and veteran session drummer Aaron Sterling – whose credits include Taylor Swift, John Mayer and Keith Urban.

The album’s creation came from resurrecting demos from a folder Murray had kept on his computer simply labeled “Unfinished”. “As the years went by, I kept adding to this folder and I kept slowly working some of my favourites,” he explained. “I would get an old session up, work on it some more, then put it away again – sometimes for years. After a little while, I had a bunch of songs that really sounded like a great, cohesive body of work.

“I’m all about trying to write an album that people love from start to finish: An album that means something special to someone. You can only make an album like this with time. [Second album, 2003’s] Feeler was written over the same period of time, about ten years. I feel there are very similar qualities to Longing as there are on Feeler.”

The announcement of Longing comes fresh from Murray’s recent inclusion in triple j‘s Hottest 200 Of Australian Songs. Two of Murray’s songs featured in the supplementary list: 2003’s ‘So Beautiful’ at 193, and 2005’s ‘Better Days’ at 110. Murray is currently wrapping up his solo acoustic national tour, which has marked the biggest of his career. Since May, Murray has played 46 of the tour’s 56 shows. The remaining dates, as well as the newly-announced launch shows, are all listed below.

Longing, meanwhile, can be pre-ordered physically here and pre-saved digitally by clicking here.