Friday, March 16   1:00 a.m.
18th Floor at Hilton Garden Inn   (500 N IH 35)

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  Josh Pyke - Middle of the Hill
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To set the scene, it’s not too long ago and Sydney based singer/songwriter, Josh Pyke, plays in local indie rock band. Whilst recording the bands second release he manages to find a spare 30 hours in the studio to knock out an 11 song demo of songs that don’t quite fit the rock band ethos. These demos find their way into the hands of influential Australian radio station Triple J and get added instantly to high rotation..

It didn’t take long before Josh’s unique voice and song writing style, influenced by the likes of Elliott Smith, Evan Dando, and Sparklehorse, began to find favour amongst music tastemakers, critics and Triple J listeners. The first taste, the assured ‘Kids Don’t Sell Their Hopes So Fast’, found high rotation on JJJ and soon ‘Silver’ and the gently sweeping ‘Doldrums’ followed to similar praise and airplay.

Early in 2005, Josh signed to Ivy League Records and shortly afterwards travelled to New York for some further writing, performing and demoing and upon return set about recording what will be his debut release under his own name, a mini album entitled “Feeding The Wolves”. With production by the much-lauded Wayne Connolly (You Am I, Underground Lovers, Youth Group, just about any Australian act of note...), ‘Feeding The Wolves’ has the artist now rightly known as Josh Pyke letting his talent flow without constraint.

The first single, ‘Middle Of The Hill’, is a near-stream of consciousness of a suburban childhood - family affection coloured by those sometimes darker, sometimes trivial details that for some reason stay with you. The track was amazingly well received at radio, being voted number 19 in Triple J’s Hottest 100, and was also added to high rotation on the Nova commercial radio network. His follow up effort ‘Private Education’ was also a favourite on Triple J, and continued his inroad into commercial radio.

“Feeding the Wolves” also garnered the attention of Island Records UK MD Dan Keeling, and Josh was subsequently snapped up by the legendary label. He has also been nominated for an ARIA award for Best Pop Release for Feeding the Wolves. Josh will release his debut album early in 2007, titled "Memories & Dust". Having sold 15,000 copies of his "Feeding the Wolves" mini album in Australia alone, 2007 is sure to be a great year for Josh Pyke.