BLUE SKY BLUE

Pete Murray is just out of the surf, looking the way he always does: fit, lean, up for whatever the day has in store. He exudes energy, all of it positive. Like his new music.

The statement of intent is there on a song called Always a Winner, the first single released from his new album. The song sports a sinewy rock groove behind Murray's warm, smoky tenor, and moves up a gear with the introduction of a punchy brass section.

It's a rock song all right, no acoustic guitars in sight. That's how he wants it. He always knew it should be the lead-off track on the new album, Blue Sky Blue, a collection of songs that's energised by all the possibilities of making a fresh start, of a high blue sky ahead.

The first thing he said when he opened communications with American producer Tom Rothrock was "I want a change."

"I wanted someone to push me to some places I hadn't been before and I sensed he was the right person to do that." Murray says.

"When I first signed my record deal I had a goal, I wanted to do three big albums. I knew if I could do that I would have established myself as someone who had a good fan base to play to. I achieved that but after I took a good break I knew I just wanted to make an album that was even better, an evolution from what I had done."

The result is Blue Sky Blue, an album that feels as fresh and alive as a spring morning. It's the first album Murray has recorded with a big-name producer (Rothrock has worked with Beck, Foo Fighters, Elliott Smith and Badly Drawn Boy), his first album recorded in the US, his first with a different band, and the first to tone down the use of acoustic instruments and take a groove-driven approach to many of the songs.

The album was recorded at Los Angeles studio Sunset Sound, which has been the scene for classic recordings for artists from The Doors and Led Zeppelin to Beck and Arctic Monkeys.

It was created after a time of personal change for Murray, who has had a marriage break-up since the release of 2008 album Summer at Eureka. That's reflected in song titles like Let You Go and Free. If it's a break-up album, it's one that constantly looks at the possibilities of a new beginning.

"I let myself be open to whatever came as a writer, and there is certainly personal experience in there." Murray says. "I wanted it to be emotional but not heavy, to let those emotions float rather than sink. My intent was always to be positive."

"That's there in soaring songs like H.O.L.L.A.N.D and LED, and the joyful pulse of Broken." When people meet Murray, they remark on his humility and the lack of rock star attitude. When they get to know him better, they find something else, the quiet but steely determination which saw him overcome numerous obstacles to pursue a music career.

After years of struggle, that career finally bloomed to make him the most commercially successful Australian singer-songwriter of the past 10 years and took his albums Feeler, See the Sun and Summer At Eureka into hundreds of thousands of Australian homes, as well as making inroads in markets from the Netherlands to Brazil.

Three years ago he took a complete break from music, refusing every work offer that came his way, devoting his time to fathering his two sons and, free from the rock'n'roll lifestyle of late nights and early flights, hitting the surf near his northern New South Wales home.

"I needed time to let the well fill up again. I had worked hard and wanted to sit and enjoy life for a while. I've loved having the time to do more surfing, waking up early, in the water by seven. It clears your mind when you are out among the waves and you feel so much better when you come in, ready for the day ahead."

Refreshed and with no pressures of deadlines or work commitments, he felt new songs starting to come to him that demanded a new approach. And while he might have achieved many of his goals, the determination that refused to give up on musical dreams when people made of lesser stuff would have crumbled was still there.

While Murray has had most of his radio play for his acoustic-guitar anthems, his albums and live shows have always had a rock'n'roll heart and he wanted to make sure that shone through on the new songs that would come to make up Blue Sky Blue.

"I sent some voice-and-guitar demos to Tom," Murray says. "He said there were some quality songs there that could work as acoustic guitar songs. I told him that wasn't the direction I wanted to go again."

Rothrock caught that spirit, suggesting beats and grooves for the music that meshed with Murray's own vision for them.

Murray says: "I had so many great experiences making this record, ones I will never forget, playing for the first time in Sunset, working with these incredible players who nailed their parts so perfectly. It was such a great experience for me get out of my comfort zone."

"The songs grew in the making. Some of them ended up being quite different to those original versions. That's exactly what I was after. I wanted to make a record where every song was great to play live and I think I've done that."

Blue Sky Blue is out now!