A musical journey inspired by the idea of sitting around campfires, singing songs with nothing but acoustic guitars, a few friends, some harmonies and the crackle of a fire is a recipe to warm the soul. Cheynne took this inspiration and debuted his first EP titled Firesongs for the Soul at Bluesfest 2009 in the company of giants such as Ben Harper, John Butler and Michael Franti. He also won a North Coast Music Industry award for the EP in the same year.
Taking the Firesongs concept further Cheynne then recorded part two in his beach shack in South Golden Beach with 30 musical friends, two microphones and a laptop and created a debut album Spaces In-between, described by Australia’s leading roots magazine Rhythms as ‘a big warm sprawling folk rock record… unpretentiously earnest’.
Cheynne combines sublime harmonies and a blend of 12-string and finger-picking guitar with eclectic instrumentation and arrangements to effortlessly traverse a worldly acoustic folk-rock terrain ending up somewhere in the hills of Byron Shire, the inspiration for much of his music. With growing critical acclaim, national radio airplay and television performances, and some big supports including Jeff Martin, Pete Murray, Richard Clapton and Tex Perkins, Cheynne is now presenting the Firesongs musical journey live with guitarist Toby Andrews as they road-test new material for an upcoming album.
‘I am studying a masters at Southern Cross University,’ says Cheynne. ‘Part of my thesis will involve documenting the creative journey of recording this new Firesongs folk project as well as two other projects in the rock and pop genre. I am particularly interested in how marketing interacts with creativity in this age of social and digital media and am exploring these issues from an independent musician perspective.’
You can catch Cheynne with Toby on Sunday at the Sphinx Rock Cafe.
For a sneak preview checkout www.cheynnemurphy.com.
