Ahead of the release of his new album Only Sparrows (in stores now), Larry Heath caught up with Sydney's very own Josh Pyke, his upcoming tour (kicking off on Thursday), how thanks have changed between albums and more...

How are you going?

Good, how are you?
Doing well, whereabouts am i speaking to you from at the moment?

Just in Sydney, at home
Very nice, very nice, just having a day of press.

Yeah that's right, big week.
Well of course, we are all here to talk about your upcoming album, Only Sparrows. Can you tell us a little bit about that? It's been a few years between albums this time around

Yeah it has, it's been three years. But I honestly don't know what else I could have fit in between those three years. People are being like alright you've had some time off. But not really, because you tour, you know I toured for almost eighteen months. It's actually been really full on, and yeah it's just going to keep on rolling now that the albums about to come out next week.

Well I mean really, I don't think anyone can accuse you of being lazy, you haven't stopped since then.

No I mean it's really been great though, this is what I always dreamed to be doing with my career, and I'm really very happy.

Certainly no complaints from the world of Josh Pyke.

That's right.
And when did you start recording this record, how did you fit it in with all the basement birds material and things like that?

I started recording in late January/early feb. Thats when we started doing pre-production and rehearsals. And we did that till late May. So it was a fair while, and it took a fair chunk of time to finish it off, and that was largely because we really wanted to get it right. We really laboured over it this time and made sure we had plenty of time. Even though we were doing it, most of the band had recorded the bass/drums/guitar together live. So much layering and textures and stuff that took a long time before we could refine all that stuff. Strip stuff back, layer it over and strip it back again and yeah so the process took a long time.

So, the finished product, how do you feel about it? Are you really happy with the extra effort that was put into it.

Yeah definitely, when it was finished I felt this really big sigh of relief. For me I really wanted this record to sound like, for lack of a better word, more mature, developed and cohesive. I wanted to sound like I knew what I was doing.I feel like we've completed that so I'm very happy with it.
The bits I've heard are sounding great. I was lucky enough to see you perform at the Vanguard, a little bit of a while ago, when you previewed songs off the record. With regards to the live feeling, how do you feel it's converting to that context?

That was the only band show we've done for a while, everyone's been away recently. Matt's been in Nashville for a while, but the rehearsals and stuff have been sounding great. I sort of realised really early on that because of the instruments and textures that went onto this record, that in the live context we would never be able to pull it off exactly the same, unless we had 25 artists up there. And I realised it doesn't really matter, it doesn't need to be the same as the record, it just has to be great, you know, you have to kind of pick what you consider to be the integrity of the song. The motives and the really important parts or counter-melodies, and you don't need to play it exactly the same. It's enough to keep playing different versions of the song and really connecting with the audience, and it's not something that you can rehearse any way its got to come naturally.

When you look back to your earlier material, have those songs changed in the live setting? It's definitely true that the live material doesn't have to evoke the exact same material, I find that with many artists it evolves over time into something unique.

Yeah, that evolution of the song is what really inspired me to work as a band for this record anyway. Touring the last couple of years, the songs did take on it's own life. We added a violinist, and the guitarist developed this beautiful delayed swelling notes, sounding like a lap steel instrument. And we don't travel with an orchestral arrangement. Things like that happen all the time, theres that sense of evolution that organic nature, makes me want to push that side of the record. I find that by the end of the tour, I prefer the live version to the one on the record. I mean thats the one I hear all the time. I've noticed that with massive bands like Bob Dylan, the recorded version is not necessarily the definitive version of the song, it's just a version. A version in time that you recorded and released. It's pretty natural by the end of playing the song for five years, it's going to be quite different from the original version.
It's not long till your out on the road again, you've got a big tour coming up in September. Other artists would have not gone on massive tours in between albums, but as you've mentioned you certainly haven't stopped with the basement birds. So I can't ask the question are you looking forward to getting back onto the road?

Well, that being said, it has been a little while, almost a year ago now, so it has been a little while since then. I love touring, I love playing live. It can be a little difficult, but it's just so good you know? I'm really looking forward to it, I love playing live, and I particularly like playing new songs.
What can we expect from the new shows? Have you started putting the set-list or not in that mind set yet.

No I have been, I always try to think really hard about that process, I really want to cover a wide range of stuff. Having three albums down and a pretty well known media album. There is a lot of material to cover, and I really want to cover some really old ones as well. So I've got an idea of the main structure of the whole thing. I'll be covering a lot of the material from the different periods. Not even necessarily a focus on the new stuff. When I go to a gig, I want to hear the songs that I know and love, not necessarily just the singles, I want to hear the strange b-sides and some of the more obscure album tracks. I'm starting to go by that theory, to make sure that I play songs that people know, and not just a raw stretch of the new stuff.

Well, it sounds like they are going to be fun shows and we look forward to getting you back on the road. Another thing I'd like to mention is your collaboration with 360 earlierin the year. How did that come about?

I just approached it, and I was very good friends with the guy that had signed 360 to EMI. 360 as far as I was told, the producer and this friend of mine were talking about a vocalist coming onto a track and they thought of me, and were very keen. They sent me the track and I met 360 previously at the APRA awards, so yeah they sent me the track and I loved the track. I asked for some more tracks and they were all bloody good you know? He's really good, I feel like he's doing something different. I'm pretty picky about what stuff to collaborate on but I don't know, it was a bit of a no-brainer. The songs just got stuck in my head straight away and I said yes, and well yeah it's gone bloody gangbusters!

It's kind of good timing, because it kept you in everyones consciousness, and you've announced a new album and off we go!

Yeah the timing was great. I thought it was actually going to come out last year, but they kept on holding off and off and off. Then I got worried that it would be coming out at the same time as my single, which wouldn't have been great. But luckily it turned into a nice little re-introduction to people, put it into a different context. But yeah, I'm happy with the way it all turned out, one of those serendipitous things.

Fair enough, congratulations on the record. And we look forward to seeing you back out on the road soon!

Thanks, Catch ya mate.