Josh Pyke - Rome

Rome is the sixth studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Josh Pyke, released in August 2020 via Wonderlick.

Rome is Pyke’s long-awaited follow-up to his 2015 album But For All These Shrinking Hearts, which debuted at Number 2 in Australia.

Since the release of that studio album, there has been an intense three-year period in which Pyke performed with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (immortalized on the ARIA Award-winning Live At The Sydney Opera House album in 2016); released a Greatest Hits album in 2017; toured with an all-star line-up performing The Beatles White Album; and played some of the biggest local and international solo shows of his career.

In 2019 he ventured into the world of children’s books, releasing the award-nominated Lights Out, Leonard as well as co-authoring A Banana Is A Banana with renowned entertainer Justine Clarke. (He has three more childrens books due for release in 2020 and 2021 through Scholastic.) He also snuck a self-produced punk album onto streaming services under the name Sword Owl (a name conceived by one of his sons while still in kindergarten).

Rome was written, recorded and produced by Pyke in his own home studio, Timshel Industries and was mastered by Grammy-nominated producer/engineer Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, My Morning Jacket).

Rome is a deeply personal album, and Pyke touches on themes of love, loss, acceptance, doubt, anxiety, growth and what ‘home’ is, an aspect sure to resonate with fans and their perception of home given the current COVID-19 pandemic.

"Rome started as an album for me. As a way to process things I don't know how else to deal with. It's entered the world during a tough time for us all, but I don't want that to define this record. To say that it's been challenging releasing music during COVID is a big understatement, not just because of the difficulties we're all facing just being a day to day human being during this, not just because of the very real difficulties the music industry faces during this time, but also because as an artist, I'm in love with the art that I create, I think Rome is my best work, and I want it to flourish, to have a life of its own, and to reach as many people as possible."

This album is a limited edition on orange coloured vinyl, pressed in Australia via Wonderlink and Sony Music.