SINGER-SONGWRITER

Rarely has the long and winding road to a debut solo album been paved with so much quantifiable achievement and top-level experience. Peter Murray is a fixture in Toronto’s lively music community—a well-liked sideman and colleague to dozens of musicians, a published author internationally recognized as an authority on bass guitar technique, and a multi-talented musician/producer who roams fearlessly along the vast continuum that stretches from pop/rock orthodoxy to improvisational jazz-funk mayhem. Over the last decade his credits have included studio and live work with Ron Sexsmith, Jian Ghomeshi (ex-Moxy Früvous), Damhnait Doyle, Sass Jordan, Simon Wilcox, Jeff Healey, Mia Sheard, The Cash Brothers and The Tea Party’s Jeff Martin, among many others.

With Ants and Angels,

a full-length CD that includes a few re-recorded tracks from his well-received 2002 EP Versus the Ants, Murray steps forward as a wry, intelligent, quietly ambitious singer-songwriter in his own right. Wearing his fondest musical influences on his sleeve, he faced up to his personal demons (a.k.a. “the ants”) and called down the angels (a core group of his most trusted musical friends). The result: an 11-song debut that seamlessly fuses melodic 80s pop (Squeeze, Tears for Fears), dazzling wordplay (think vintage XTC circa Skylarking), classic-rock core values (The Beatles, Neil Young) and the intelligent thrust of contemporary singer-songwriters like John Mayer and the late Elliot Smith. In the few short months since its “soft release” in May, 2006, the album has generated a slew of upbeat reviews along with significant Triple-A (Adult Album Alternative) airplay on more than 60 radio stations in the U.S.

After test driving the songs as an opening act,

In Japan for Teddy and Linda Thompson (two significant limbs of Richard Thompson’s family tree) and on tour in Ireland with acclaimed singer-songwriter Stewart Agnew, Murray recorded Ants and Angels with co-producing engineers Michael Jack (Rush, The Trews) and Matt DeMatteo (Big Wreck, Ashley MacIsaac). Eager for a collaborative process, Murray gave full license to the Toronto-based musicians hired for the sessions. Drummer Davide DiRenzo (Holly Cole, jacksoul), guitarists Justin Abedin and David Celia, keyboardist Michael Holt (ex of San Francisco band The Mommyheads) and cellist/arranger Kevin Fox (Sarah Harmer, Shaye, Sarah Slean) appear throughout the disc.

“Angels to me are true friends.

They deliver love and support but will also call you on your hypocrisies. And these guys, while not exactly ‘angels’ in a conventional sense, are like that for me,” says Murray with a laugh. “They’re all incredible friends and brilliant musicians who I’ve worked with a lot over the years. The chemistry we have together makes it almost like a band situation. It’s like casting a great movie—if you pick the right actors, they’ll take it from there.” (Murray, who studied film at university, likens himself more to Wim Wenders than Cecil B. DeMille.)

As for the “ants” in the album title, the artist describes them as “imagined enemies—internal and external. The metaphor speaks to the idea that we ourselves, not the people and circumstances we blame, are what hold us back.” Murray quickly adds that he doesn’t like analyzing his work too closely. “Let’s just say there are strong threads that run through the record—they all come from me and they’re all honest.”

“Beginning with the alphabet-soup wit and power-pop drive of “Gen X DJ on E,”

Ants and Angels progresses smartly through the melodious Triple-A favorites “Skydiver Friends” and “Lucky to Breathe” and onward to the multi-layered, almost prog-flavored closing trilogy of “Angels,” “The Ark” and “Heavy Sleeper.” Many of the songs are amusing, others far weightier, but typically Murray treads a fine line between those extremes. The bouncy, guitar-pop confection “Ears Make Wax,” for instance, sprang from his sudden realization that his body had been working overtime his entire life at an unconscious level; that thought, in turn, led to deeper musings about mortality.

With the album's favorable early reception,

Murray intends to gradually turn up the heat in the months ahead. “I subscribe to the same ‘slow’ philosophy that people like Carl Honoré (author of the bestselling In Praise of Slow) are talking about in relation to food, travel and a culture that keeps accelerating faster and faster,” explains Murray. Keeping perspective on his budding singer-songwriter career also means he can stay engaged with his professional life as a producer/engineer working out of his own Toronto studio, The Junction Soundbox. He’s currently helming upcoming CDs from the Juno Award-winning band The Wooden Stars and singer Pamela Brennan (ex of Hennessey). In Murray’s world, it seems, slow is rush-hour busy by most standards.

– Jeff Bateman, 2006

PETER MURRAY LIVE

"A sophisticated gem… totally inspiring… By the end of the album, all you can do is sit back slack-jawed and hope against all hope that the world is ready for this kind of pop music again. If there is room in this world for another Roland Orzabal, another Sting, another Peter Gabriel, another Simon and Garfunkel—in other words another artist entirely definitive of the Intelligent Pop genre, then world, meet Peter Murray.
Full Review
Everett's interview with Peter"

Everett Young

Founder and Editor

intelligentpop.com

"Peter first played his songs to my band over a campfire while on tour in the East Coast and we were simply blown away. Peter writes damn hooky songs that are also interesting and thoughtful, and which rival any of Canada’s top writers. He sings with the sweetness of a Beatle and plays any and all instruments like it was a gift from God. I absolutely cannot get his songs out of my head."

Damhnait Doyle

Singer-songwriter

"A set of songs that would likely find those with far more experience gushing with envy… Murray’s effusive power pop exudes hooks aplenty but this ear candy also has a solid underbelly… Ants and Angels is a heavenly find."

Lee Zimmerman

Entertainment News & Views (Miami, FL)

"From the first time I heard his songs I was captivated by his knack for meaningful lyric paired with great melodies. Now, not only were the songs great, but the recordings were supported with stellar production and great vocal performances."

Dayna Manning

Singer-songwriter

"Simply, seriously, one of the finest high-brow, sophisticated pop releases of 2006."

www.notlame.com

"The songwriting, production, playing and packaging are all top notch—it's amazing to think that it's a self-produced album. I guess the quality of the musicians on it is a testament to Peter's standing in the Toronto music scene—everything is impeccably played, the tunes are incredibly strong—if it gets in the right hands, he's guaranteed a couple of radio hits off this. Really, it's a must for fans of intelligent alt-guitar singer/songwriter stuff."

Steve Lawson

UK bassist

"Ants and Angels ist ein vielschichtiges Album voller Tiefe und Atmosphaere. Die Cleverness von Jason Falkner, Owsley unt XTC trifft auf die Emotionalitaet von Elliot Smith. Meisterwerk!!! 9 out of 10."

Robert Pally

SwissRecords.com (Baer, Switzerland)

"Ants and Angels is consistently entertaining, ultra-musical, and a worthy addition to the Canadian power-pop canon."

Don Breithaupt

Author, keyboardist, singer-songwriter

Monkey House

"Veteran Canadian sideman and bassist Peter Murray's new solo debut recording Ants and Angels is one of those great pop albums that absorbs influences ranging from the Beatles to Squeeze to XTC to more contemporary artists, but comes up with lots of clever and original ideas. So though it certainly hints at the Fab Four and their musical offspring, it rarely sounds derivative, and every one of the eleven songs has something new and interesting to offer, often in subtle layers.”
Full Review"

George Graham

Radio host, producer, journalist

www.georgegraham.com

"Engaging, grown-up singer-songwriter pop… Murray's golden pipes and patient guitar hooks suggest what Duncan Sheik might have been."

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