A QUICK CHAT WITH RILEY PEARCE
Indie singer-songwriter Riley Pearce’s sophomore album, It’s Your Turn Now is a deep exploration into the journey of entering parenthood and the many realisations, growth opportunities, challenges, and little moments of magic that it encompasses, as Riley reflects on his relationship to the whole process.
Riley has always chronicled life's major moments through his music, and now he examines the most significant season of his life yet. Originally started back in 2022 when he welcomed his first child into the world, the album – and the strength of its message – continued to grow, as he completed it soon after the birth of his second daughter at the end of last year. As much as he absorbed inspiration from the likes of Toledo, Day Wave, Flights, Dijon, and Jeff Tweedy, marriage and fatherhood made the deepest imprint on his creative process.
What is the inspiration for your new album, It’s Your Turn Now?
It was inspired by my journey into fatherhood, all the changes it puts on the various relationships in your life, not just with others but with yourself and all the things you once loved and had time for and how they need to fit around this new bigger purpose.
Is there a theme or central point within this record? Where did it grow from, and how did it come about?
The central theme is the perspective shift and each song really tries to focus on one of the various slices to this pizza of changing chapters in my life (can you tell I’m hungry – maybe I shouldn’t answer these questions hungry).
What was the creation of this record like? Take us through the process!
The songwriting was amazing, I just wrote whenever I could and before I knew it, I had 30+ songs. A lot weren’t about fatherhood and might make future records but writing that many songs allowed me to find the ones that best told the story as opposed to building the story out of the songs I had. The production side was challenging, having decided I wanted to tackle this record and production myself I had to do a lot of learning, experimenting, and set a bunch of limits as to not overwhelm myself, and I think the rawness of the songs benefited from this approach.
What is your favourite memory from writing and creating the record?
I think my favourite memories were sharing the songs with my wife, if I’d look up and she was crying that was a pretty good indicator that the song was worthy of being on the record.
Who/what are your influences/inspirations?
As always Andy Lawson, who mixed the record, is a great inspiration and sounding board for me when I was producing the album. Musically, I was listening to a lot of Daywave at the time, it was my one-year-old daughter’s favourite album besides The Wiggles so I listened to it a lot. When you hear the drum sounds it’s definitely got an influence of his sound.
What do you love about making music?
For me, during the creation of it, it’s all free therapy, it allows me to navigate and understand all that I don’t and channel what I feel into these songs and stories that didn’t exist before. Then when recording it’s all about trying to enhance the main feelings these stories are trying to push so that when it’s shared with everyone they can feel closer to it.
If you had to summarise the record in one-sentence, what would you say?
It’s a collection of songs that to me make me feel more connected to what it means to be part of the human experience, whether you’re entering parenthood, changing your life chapters, finding your feet, or floating through the breeze.
You’re launching the record with an Australian tour this August and bringing a full band with you for most of the shows. What can fans expect from the shows?
Band shows are a whirl of fun, there’ll be a bunch of the new album songs of course, but also a bunch of the ones everyone wants to singalong with us! And some special guest appearances! Cannot wait!
Riley Pearce will take It’s Your Turn Now to stages across Australia this August, stopping in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Margaret River, and Bunbury.
RILEY PEARCE ALBUM TOUR DATES:
Thursday August 8 – Brisbane – Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall
Friday August 9 – Melbourne – Brunswick Ballroom
Saturday August 10 – Sydney – The Vanguard **NEW VENUE**
Sunday August 11 – Adelaide – The Grace Emily
Friday 23 August – Perth – The Rosemount
Saturday 24 August – Margaret River – The River
Sunday 25 August – Bunbury – Froth Craft Brewery
Tickets are on sale now via rileypearce.com.au