Many writers are told to keep a journal. Writing every day is a fine habit to encourage, and you get the added bonus of not having to remember every crucial detail that comes your way. But the problem with a diary is that your record of a day – that snatch of poetry, that regretful word, that stolen kiss – can come to replace the memory itself. It is a reality that Josh Pyke is keenly conscious of, and grappling between the desire to find fresh expression and staying true to his earlier self is an ongoing concern.
“You know, I’ve actually been thinking about that a lot lately,” he says. “Playing my earlier stuff now, it’s essentially reinventing the song each time. After touring with the band I had a year of just doing solo performances. Big crowds, small crowds, here and overseas. Playing solo gives you a chance to really engage the songs in an updated way. I don’t tend to change many lyrics, but dynamically they’ve changed a lot over the years. The vocal lines change naturally from your voice improving, your range is shifting with practice and not allowing yourself to get stuck on a consolidated structure. For instance, the song ‘The Beginning And The End Of Everything’, the structure is completely different to the version I play solo. Trying to play the studio version just wouldn’t make sense because I just can’t do it justice. You have to be adaptive.”
Pyke laughs, and it must be said that he seems like an easy-going guy. Serious and sincere about his craft, his more contemplative moments are often punctuated by self-conscious chuckling, as though he is afraid he might be found too earnest.
“But the biggest thing for me, having written these songs and performing them for people, is that it’s such a humbling and confronting chance to really engage in what was going on in my life at the time. I don’t keep a diary – these songs are my diary, and they really document my life. Some of it is shrouded in metaphor or imagery, but I know what I’m talking about. So it’s really confronting and awesome in a, dare I say it, self-aware kind of way. Some of these songs I wrote 12 years ago, but they can still highlight for me how much has changed, how far I have or haven’t come. The way I keep them new is by staying open to what I was feeling at the time, and recontextualising those things in relation to where I am in the world now.”
Every songwriter has, to some degree, the Sword of Damocles suspended over their performances. Thirsty for new material but unwavering in their unabridged love for older tracks, many listeners come to develop a sense of ownership and identification with certain songs – even if the meaning they find there is not what the writer intended.
“It’s funny,” says Pyke. “Over the years, when people tell me what those songs mean to them, all those things start to get mixed up in what the song was originally about. It’s like when you tell a story that isn’t quite true, but you tell it so many times you start to believe it. Songs like ‘Memories & Dust’ – I know that song is about two friends I had when I was 25 who died very young, and it really messed me up. It made me question existence in general, but also question belief in religion, in not believing in God, and that’s what that song is about for me. But I’ve had people tell me that it’s helped them reaffirm their belief in God, and so that adds to the song as well. I don’t believe in one meaning. I know what it means to me, but it’s natural for it to mean different things to other people. Whenever I play it, I remember what I meant, and I can vividly reconnect to where I was. Every time I perform, it’s my chance to go back.”
Pyke’s first 2015 performance will see him team up with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and so his sound is set to shift yet again. With his last album released back in 2013, it may prove a chance for fans to hear hints of new material, and following the popularity of his triple j Like A Version recordings (highlighted by ‘Endless Summer’ with Elana Stone), the expectation for a sneaky cover song has been truly piqued.
“To be honest, I’ve always been terrible with covers. I can’t read music, so I’ve never been able to check songbooks in order to learn. Plus I was really lazy as a kid. I took guitar lessons, but after a couple of weeks I just stopped trying to learn what they were teaching and wrote my own songs instead. But you never know what will happen onstage. I do like that flying by the seat of your pants experience. You have to be responding to what’s happening in the audience, so if somebody shouts something out I’ll try to engage them. It lets the performance be more of a shared experience rather than just me standing there in front of a crowd. I mean,” he laughs, “I’m happy to have a chat with pretty much anybody when I’m at the pub, and it’s really not much different onstage.”
Josh Pyke Live With Your SSOis atthe Sydney Opera HouseConcert Hall,Wednesday April 29.
