Personal Space: At home with singer and songwriter Pete Murray

Australian singer/songwriter Pete Murray lives on a 0.8-hectare property in the hills behind Byron Bay with his wife, Mira (who photographed him for this column), and their two-year-old daughter Saachi.

The father of three (he also has two sons, Charlie and Pedro, from a previous marriage) has lived in the area since 2005, and five years ago purchased this home because he craved a little more privacy.

“We’ve just built an old timber barn and have plans to add a pool because we have great ocean views from here,” says Murray, who has a single out called Found My Place – his first release since 2017.

Just don’t expect to find his music memorabilia within. “I feel too embarrassed to have that at home, it’s all [in] my recording studio. Sometimes you have to separate the two.”

Murray’s been hosting the Byron Sunday Sessions on his YouTube channel since the pandemic hit, and says an EP that’s due in 2021 was mostly recorded in his Kicks Iron Studio in Byron Bay.

A few of Pete’s favourite things …

1954 Gibson Acoustic J-200

I was in New York in 2007 mixing my third album Summer at Eureka when I spotted this in a vintage guitar shop. It’s only had two owners before me. The owner before me bought it in 1971 and I found the letter he received from Gibson telling him the year the guitar was made. I play this guitar in my recordings.

1977 Kombi

I bought this in 1996, off an old guy who couldn’t watch me drive it away because he said he didn’t want me to see him cry. I have raised my kids in it, and driven it on tours so many times. I drove this for many years. It is something I can never sell and I’m now teaching my eldest son how to drive it.

Bread and butter plates

We did a family trip to Thailand in 2016 and got picked up early to do an island tour. We had our photos taken as part of the tour. We weren’t prepared at all. The sun was shining in our faces. We all looked really bad, and had to buy the photos for that very reason.

Father’s watch

Dad died when he was 47 and I was 18. This Rolex was passed on to me after he died. I have just passed it on to my eldest son, Charlie. It’s nice that it’s going down the line. Dad was a watchmaker and jeweller. I wore it every day and stopped only five years ago.