Actor Guy Pearce releases first album Broken Bones in November

EXCLUSIVE: Hear Australian movie superstar Guy Pearce’s first single Storm. And don’t be nervous — it’s actually really good.

GUY Pearce has taken the world’s slowest leap onto the actor-turned-singer bandwagon.

Pearce, 46, releases his first album Broken Bones in November, with the single Storm out later this month.

Cynics can save their 30 Odd Foot of Grunts insults; the funky Storm has hints of Tom Waits, Radiohead, David Bowie and Jeff Buckley. Pearce wrote and produced the album himself.

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The actor has been writing music since he joined the Neighbours cast in 1985.

Began making music in Ramsay Street in 1987 ... Guy Pearce with Annie Jones, Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue, Craig McLachlan and Sasha Close at the Scott and Charlene wedding.

However he admitted the stigma of cast mates Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Craig McLachlan being savaged for going from Ramsay Street to the charts haunted him for decades, forcing him to keep his music to himself.

“Every time I did an interview in the late `80s and early `90s and mentioned I made music the journalist would roll their eyes and go ‘Not another f@#!ing actor who’s going to release a single’,” Pearce said.

”I would extremely apologetically say ‘No, of course not! I’d never inflict that on the world’. I allowed that narrow minded belief to drive everything for years. Although maybe people were just sick of actors making music ...

“As we all know back in the `80s a couple of other actors I worked with all went out and released singles, then a few more did. I was very conscious of how that was received. It wasn’t always in a positive way. I was very conscious of not wanting to seem like I was jumping on the bandwagon or annoy people because I wanted to do music myself. So I’d make music but, in my loungeroom, or playing with friends, it wasn’t public.”

Masterful performance ... Guy Pearce starts alongside Russell Crowe in a scene from film LA Confidential.

Pearce’s film work includes Memento, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Iron Man 3, LA Confidential, The King’s Speech, Animal Kingdom, The Rover and TV roles in Mildred Pierce and Jack Irish.

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His role in the Melbourne Theatre Company performance of the Tim Finn musical Poor Boy in 2009 saw the actor work with Michael Barker, who has drummed for Split Enz and the John Butler Trio.

Pearce told Barker he had over twenty years of music gathering dust at home, a conversation he’d had many times before.

“Usually when I’ve said that to people they let it go and say ‘Well, you’ve got your film career’,” Pearce said.

Promoting new lavishly praised film The Rover ... Guy Pearce in London earlier this week.

“Michael said ‘What are you doing to yourself?’ and suddenly I was confronted by all that historical enthusiasm I’d felt about music in my teens and early `20s that I allowed to be stifled. He told me I was doing myself a damage by repressing my music. Michael told me ‘F@#! the critics’.

“Getting it out, either out of my head, or out publicly, was really important for me to move on. I don’t want to be an 80 year old man saying ‘I’ve been working on this song for 42 years now, what am I going to do with it?’ If people don’t like it, I don’t care. I’m at that point now. I want people to like it, obviously, but I don’t care about my reaction if they don’t like it.”

Pearce started serious work on the album in 2009 after renovating his Melbourne home and including a recording studio. When Barker moved back to New Zealand, work relocated to Neil Finn’s Roundhouse Studio in Auckland.

Split Enz member Eddie Raynor also plays on the album, a nice nod to Pearce’s New Zealand heritage, while Melbourne musical identities including Rebecca Barnard and Shannon Birchall also guest.

Taken 30 years to out himself ... Actor Guy Pearce’s first single is Storm taken from forthcoming album Broken Bones.

Pearce will release Broken Bones through Sydney independent label The Groove Merchants with a single CD and a double vinyl with three bonus tracks.

Pearce is planning small showcase gigs in Australia in November and is recording a series of videos for tracks from the album.

However Pearce isn’t planning a major tour.

“I think I’m too old for that. But I don’t want to kill this album just because I’m lazy. But I can’t envisage myself travelling around Australia trying to convince people to listen to my music. I’ll do it calmly and quietly as you would as a 46 year old as opposed to a 21 year old who’s all fired up about joining the music industry.”

Storm will be released on August 22

Originally published as Actor Guy Pearce releases first album Broken Bones in November