AUSSIE singer-songwriter Pete Murray explains why overseas success tickles him, plus exclusive video of him singing his hit You Pick Me Up at the PinkPop festival.
Pete Murray is in bad shape. He has had no sleep since arriving in Europe five days ago because of jetlag, and an intimate cafe performance for a leading Dutch radio station looms.
He's briefly distracted from dwelling on his anxiety when a young fan and his mother ask for an autograph, just as he finishes calling home to his wife, Amanda.
An hour later, the radio performance has passed without a hitch and the tour is heading south for Landgraaf and the annual PinkPop festival the next day.
By the time he is due on stage on Sunday afternoon, the singer-songwriter -- who is one of Australia's most consistently successful artists -- is ready to kick some live butt.
Six visits to the Netherlands in the past two years and solid airplay for his songs there -- including the latest, You Pick Me Up, from the Summer at Eureka album -- mean Murray (right) is greeted in the packed tent by several thousand fans, including three blokes in the front row wearing VB T-shirts and waving an Australian flag.
The capacity crowd doesn't wait for cues. They enthusiastically sing and clap along to the hits at such volume that you have to feel a little sorry for Alanis Morissette, who is awaiting her set on the main stage next door.
Who knew Pete Murray would be so big in the Netherlands? It may seem surreal that Murray's music is slowly but surely winning audiences so far afield, but the artist sees these inroads into such markets as the realisation of a dream he had when backpacking in Europe about 15 years ago.
��A long time before I started in music, I was backpacking and, like everyone else, wanted to find a job that would allow me to travel the world. It was a dream for years,'' Murray says.
Phenomenal success in Australia would make his dream of travel and work overseas become reality.
But as any antipodean musician knows, a No.1 multi-platinum album here rarely catapults you to the top of charts in the UK and Europe.
��You can play only so often in Australia before people get sick of you -- and you are sick of you -- so going overseas gives you a real challenge,'' he says.
��But it's been more than that because, in the past, I've been able to bring the family and they love it. It's fun.''
Murray also relishes the opportunity to escape the tall-poppy scythe. He began his career as an indie darling after releasing his debut album, The Game, independently.
It took several months for his big-label debut, Feeler, to kick in, but once the anthemic So Beautiful was released, Murray was no longer an underground secret.
��I have worked my a--- off to be successful. But the thing that is difficult in Australia is that as soon as you succeed, everyone that's too cool says you are too commercial,'' he says.
��So Beautiful was a 4 1/2-minute song, which isn't exactly a commercial pop song. Opportunity was a solo acoustic song. They weren't obvious choices for commercial success.
��You come over here and you get support from radio stations that are like Triple J. Over here, they think I'm an underground act. During the interviews, they all remark that my songs aren't commercial.''
Murray and his team are astute at using their limited resources to win fans in Europe. They have a very committed team at their Dutch label, but when it comes to alerting the faithful in the UK, they rely on cyber word-of-mouth.
��No one has put money into me at all over here,'' Murray says. ��There's no hype. Anyone can go to London and sell out a small show, because the Australian contingent will come out to see you.
��What we do now is email our British fans and people in Dublin to tell them they need to buy tickets before they're snapped up by the Aussies.
��But the fact is you want to play to new fans. I'm looking at Brazil now after something that happened at home when we were recording.
��These people kept walking past the house and I was worried someone had worked out where we lived, but they were from Brazil and staying at a friend's house down the road.
��It turned out they were fans. I was intrigued as to how they knew about me -- it was because of a friend who had taken my music to Brazil after a holiday here.
��It's amazing how music travels. You never know where it's going to end up. Mine seems to creep up on people.''�
Summer at Eureka (Sony BMG) is out now.�
Pete Murray, Peninsula Lounge, Tuesday (sold out); Inferno Traralgon, Wednesday, $50, ph: 5176 0464; Forum, Thursday Aug 14 (sold out), Friday Aug 15, $53.55, Ticketek; Costa Hall, Geelong, Saturday Aug 16, $43.25, ph: 5225 1200; Ballarat Woolshed, Sunday Aug 17, $43.25, Ticketmaster; Wodonga Civic Centre, Aug 19, $50, ph: (02) 6056 1044.
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