Bio - Mickey Pye

The Mickey Pye Story

Mickey Pye is a 24 year old Country-Rock artist from Oberon in NSW. With a true mix of country and rock'n'roll in his upbringing, Mickey was raised on the sounds of Slim Dusty and Elvis Presley. Now, an accomplished guitarist, singer and songwriter, Mickey is sharing his own style of country that is proving popular with audiences all over Australia, branded 'high energy, country rock' (Rick Grossman, Hoodoo Gurus/Divinyls).

Mickey grew up on a property outside Oberon NSW in a lifestyle surrounded by horses, trucks, rodeo, and Slim Dusty cassette tapes thumping in the background. The Pye household was full of music and everyone could play something. 'We never had computers or video games, we played songs. My grandfather, Ralph Pye, died right before I was born but he left behind all his instruments; piano, drums, guitars, bass, piano accordion, sax, harmonica and boxes of sheet music. This was our playground and we learnt to play everything.

At the age of seven, Mickey took guitar and piano lessons and by the age of ten he was joining old time bands on stage, playing bass, guitar or singing. By 1999, the Pye family had formed their own family band and became known as the 'party band' of Oberon, playing pubs and parties all over town. 'We started out playing for the local council Christmas party and the word spread. I think our first real pub gig was at the Bridge Hotel Perthville when I was about twelve years old...' Local school teacher Chris Gangemi nicknamed the family 'the party pyes' and the name stuck.

Throughout high school, Mickey joined covers bands on the central west pub circuit and by age sixteen, joined Bathurst band 'Pareidolia' as the bass player. At age 18, Mickey formed a new group 'Stoked' and played the pub circuit for the next four years, drawing a new influence from Australian pub rock bands like Cold Chisel, Australian Crawl and AC/DC. 'I really think every artist needs to do their time on the pub circuit, it toughens you up and teaches you to work hard for your audience.'

After finishing school, Mickey landed a job in radio where he worked as a commercial producer and announcer on Bathurst's B-Rock 99.3fm, before moving to Sydney in 2007 to peruse a professional career in music. Graduating from the CMAA College of Country Music in 2009, Mickey was offered a full scholarship to study popular music and performance at the JMC Academy in Sydney where he teamed up with lecturer, producer and drummer Clinton Harn (Steve Edmonds Band, the Noll Brothers, Candice Alley). Mickey spent the four three years developing himself as an artist and playing festivals all over the country.

In 2009 Mickey won the Gympie Muster's 2009 Maton Talent Search, Tamworth's Aristocrat Entertainer of the Year in 2009, and was a 2010 Toyota Star Maker finalist. He has released a debut single and video clip 'Got the Feeling,' which is now on CMC and country radio. 'It is the first time I've ever heard a song online and put it to air the same day' -program director, Cool Country 2KA.

Mickey is currently working on his debut album to be released later this year.